It's actually really funny and ironic that they can't let Toy Story go. You know, the film franchise about coming to terms with getting older, growing out of things, and ultimately let them go while still being able to treasure the memories
Based. I remember getting arguments back in the day about how “Oh well actually this is the perfect ending to the series because it ends the Woody storyline!”. I wish I could find them now and ask them how it feels knowing it was all for nothing 😂
Making a racism allegory using things that will LITERALLY DESTROY EACHOTHER IF THEY MEET, is a bad idea. I honestly like the characters and the animation is great but the plot is lackluster.
@@clippit317 ? Was it tho? all I'm saying is that, they should've just made an animated movie souly based on that flash game, same character designs n everything. Would've been sick!
i work in a theatre and elemental was meant to do insane number on opening week, we had some completely empty sessions this week, not good at all. and it’s the cinema that loses a lot of money from that. while the money made by tickets mainly goes to the studio (pixar), we mainly get money from food/merchandise. if we have empty cinemas, we don’t have people buying food. and we still do get a small fraction of the ticket sales, it just feels like it all collapses on the cinema.
I feel for you guys. Anything Disney puts out these days is bound to fail. They’ve invest so much capital into pushing out some message and failing hard on making movies original and entertaining. People have moved on and would rather spend that money on something like Mario or Spiderverse, or even something completely original (man I miss the era of 1999 - 2000, when every week was an amazing film).
@@jamesb3557what “agenda” do you think Disney is like….pushing? Most Disney movies seem to have a “you are valued as a person despite what many people will try to tell yell you” type message
Disney's been sniffing their own paint for too long. They think they can keep releasing the same formulaic movies over and over and people will keep seeing them because it's Disney. Their brand power is wearing off. Not to mention every movie is designed to sell an album of music and a suite of toys. It's time for them to start making some original movie concepts. Spiderverse did so well because there is no other animated movie like it, whereas it feels like Disney has forgotten what animation is about.
Disney really needs to fire whoever is in charge of their marketing team. First Strange World now Elemental. I didnt even know the movie came out till this video.
I knew Elemental was coming out because I just to happen to see a trailer of it but I wasn't really interested because I already had a feeling in my gut that it was going to be another CTRL C + CTRL V just different visuals and crap. Strange World was actually good except it did sprinkle in some generic trash of "be yourself" and crap every so often.
I didn’t even know it came out either. Ive gone to 3 different theatres and I don’t think any of them even had a poster up. I saw marketing at the beginning, but then at some point all that marketing went when it actually mattered.
@@Spookyweasel99 I think it's nearly impossible to have an "original" movie because practically everything's been done. Even subversions have been done.
I’m afraid we’re hitting another Disney dark age similar to the one in the 1970s-80s. Growing up in Disney’s earlier years of box office success and seeing a studio consistently make masterpiece after masterpiece really gives you a false sense of invincibility. It should also be taken in mind that Disney’s money hungry nature has been seeping through the quality of their movies as of late
I've been iffy about Disney for a while now, it was the large number of live-action remakes that started it followed by what seems to be downtrending animation. It just seems like there's been a loss of creative vision and creative storytelling. It doesn't help that they've been doing a lot of design by committee recently. Frozen 2 had some decent themes, but my wife and I both came out of the theater feeling that they didn't really build up to any of them too well; the director and writing team were trying to tell too many stories at once. With the Star Wars films there were pictures going around of the creative room where they had a couple of whiteboarded lists of what folks wanted to be in the new films. It's not bad to incorporate different themes, but they've focused too much on them at the expense of cohesion and character.
Just for context, the different "eras" of Disney output tend to refer specifically to Disney Animation Studios, not Disney as a whole. Pixar, being a different studio, wouldn't fall into that definition. In terms of Disney Animation Studios output, arguably it's still pretty solid: of their last dozen movies only two, Frozen 2 and Strange World, were not critically acclaimed.
Most of Disney and Pixar's best films can be attributed to just a few directors and producers - Clyde Geromini, Ron Clements, John Lasseter, etc. Clyde Geromini was attached to almost every Disney classic, but they only averaged one movie every two years. Now Disney/Pixar is flooding the market with three movies a year, they still have good directors and producers like Byron Howard, but they are spreading their top talent thin. In my opinion, if Disney/Pixar released fewer movies, and concentrated all their budget and talent onto those movies, they could return to their former glory.
Yeah, that it seems more and more projects are taking agency away from male characters and transplanting it into the female characters, and it’s starting to irk me. What happened to having competent characters of both genders? From the trailers Wade comes off as a total dork and it makes me not want to watch.
@@hithereeee1 And intersex are only the visible part of the gender iceberg, wait until they discover social construct, social gender and grammatical gender :o
I just dropped in to say, I had no idea this movie was already out. The fact that this has been a thing multiple times with Disney is something I take as a problem with their advertising.
Dude for real! I've been seeing ads for this movie for months, and when I went to the movies the other week another one came up in the previews. I literally turned to my brother and was like "Oh hey that looks kinda cool I wonder when that's out." Didn't know it was already out until watching this video
@@gbadspcps2 It might make matters worse though, if the visuals contradict the story or fail to match it. This isn't a book, so the visuals are an absolute requirement to give it meaning. A picture is worth 1,000 words.
If there really is a story about generational divides in there, then this video is right about them doing a terrible job marketing it. In fact, I would've focused on that, and left the very NOTION that the water-boy and fire-girl might get together be only implied by both existing in the trailers. But I suspect, too, that it just...isn't an inspired plot, and they didn't put enough of a new twist on it. Which is unfortunate. It's like Avatar: THe Last SAmurai Dances With Space Smurfs - the movie was visualy stunning, but the plot was so hackneyed and derivative that it made the movie suffer greatly. I honestly think its sequel is a better story because it has foci on what it means to grow up, the relationship between father and son, and a neat twist on Captain Ahab and the White Whale that makes for a much more compelling narrative (even if it might've been better as a mini series). Even though I am pretty sure the technical execution of the SFX was less artful than in the first one.
I'd say it's good, this also happened to them with the good dinosaur (and dinosaur 2000 too) where they just made a tech demo where they go "Look at how realistic/impressive our animation is" and then forget to actually make an interesting plot for the movie.
Just a hunch but I'm guessing that every new pixar movie becomes the most difficult, computationally. You can always expect more details/bytes in newer animated films
The race allegory doesn’t work when they are on the molecular level, incompatible. Stories about racism work because fundamentally, all the races are the same and coexist every day with no problems. It worked with zootopia because it was a world where they already exist together despite their differences they face and it was outside forces from hateful people and unaddressed biases that made the tensions work. When the fire person could be completely extinguished by a water person just hugging them or an earth person just fell on them, that doesn’t work. Eilo looks pretty cool though and it’s plot is so neat, I really hope it can be a great standalone movie like soul or Luca was.
Yea I absolutely hate racism metaphor stories where the racist point of view actually makes sense in-universe. Like, don't get me wrong, I love the X-Men, but "I don't trust black people because dumb stereotypes convinced me they're all criminals" and "I don't trust mutants because they could, factually, kill us all, even unintentionally" are not equivalent concepts.
This is why you shouldn't tell a story of racism (be it systematic or individual) with non-human things Even if you're talented it's not a good idea Just use people
Actually, you're wrong! Elemental now has grossed $480 million. It just didn't earn a lot of money in the earlier weeks, but as time passed on it got more money.
It’s crazy to me how Pixar used to be considered the pinnacle of film making because they put out consistently good works and their competitors were making movies like Minions and Boss Baby. Now both of them put out better films raking in billions of dollars whilst Disney as a whole shoves out generic schlock every 2-3 years
imo, schafrillas predicted this perfectly a few years ago in his ralph breaks the internet review. He said (paraphrasing) "unless people get sick of nostalgia pandering and unoriginality really quickly, disney is too big to fail"
This concept is done to death If disney wants to make a movie bout racist just make a movie bout racism and lets not pretend like this allegorys hold up Ah yes the specific race allegory of people who can burn things very compelling
The second I hear the line “elements can’t mix” I already knew that the film was going to be a boring cliche story of forbidden love. I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Disney and Pixar just need to have better story ideas rather than checking the cliche folder.
I found the film ok. Yes it’s not great, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Great animation and visuals are shown hard. Everyone has a unique walk and has small little details and visuals on their bodies that make them feel alive.
I remember seeing an image somewhere claiming that every Pixar movie is just, "What if this thing that doesn't normally have feelings had feelings?" Obviously that isn't entirely true, but it was pretty hard to get that statement out of my head every time I saw the advertising for this movie.
If I wanted to watch an "ok" movie I would go watch an illumination movie. When it comes to Pixar I want to be blown away not just by viduals but also the story and characters, something Pixar has been failing at.
I think that one of Pixar's biggest problems is that, while they still create 3D animation that looks great on a technical level, most other studios are now all in on 3D animation, so it's not enough of a selling point by itself anymore. When the original Toy Story came out, audiences had never seen anything like it, but now it's easy to forget which new animated Disney movies are done by Pixar as opposed to Disney themselves.
That’s why it would’ve been even more important for Pixar to have doubled down on story quality to keep up with the competition which elemental failed HORRIBLY to do
And that’s exactly why the Spiderverse movies and Puss in Boots 2 was such a huge deal. They knew that using the same Pixar style animation was overdone to death, so they decided to try something new with their CGI. I bet if Puss in Boots 2 still used Shrek’s realistic CGI (much like the 1st movie), less people would be interested in the film.
What bothers me the most is that everyone now adopted this "generic" 3d style, characters all look the same, with the same proportions and shapes. I understand conveying shapes and character is easier with a 2d style, but it's almost like they're not even trying getting out of this comfort zone. My biggest wish would be a movie made entirely with videogame engine tbh
I just watched the movie as well, and you hit the nail on the head in the first 60 seconds. They advertised this movie as "Zootopia but with Elements" but it was so much more than that. It's a romance movie between a girl who's a 2nd generation immigrant and a guy who's from "the city." They explored more advanced topics like (spoiler) generational disconnect and choosing what's right for you vs what you believe is right for everyone.
As for my personal thoughts about the film itself, I thought it was fine all things considered. The relationship between the two lead characters (Wade and Ember) felt really forced at first, but I'm glad they show them going on dates and getting to know each other more so that their big fight near the climax felt earned. That these two are aware how dangerous they are for each other, but they go for it anyways. Although, I'd still say Ellie and Carl were Pixar's best written love story.
Pixar doesn’t normally make good trailers, and usually add fake dialogue or even scenes so it doesn’t reveal the plot of the movie. Like the up trailer that has Carl blowing raspberry’s. That definitely didn’t scream GO SEE IT, and was why my parents thought it was a dumb kids movie for YEARS. The fact that people take Pixar’s trailers at face value will always be hilarious (and now depressing) to me.
Pixar doesn’t normally make good trailers, and usually add fake dialogue or even scenes so it doesn’t reveal the plot of the movie. Like the up trailer that has Carl blowing raspberry’s. That definitely didn’t scream GO SEE IT, and was why my parents thought it was a dumb kids movie for YEARS. The fact that people take Pixar’s trailers at face value will always be hilarious (and now depressing) to me.
So, black city boy, immigrant family Asian girl, and daddy issues/rebelling against your parents. Gotcha. Honestly sounds like watching paint dry would be more interesting than this 2000s tween cliche gaggle.
I will only want a Wall E sequel if it takes the piss out of the original's ending. "Hey, maybe discarding all technology and restarting civilization from the stone age with a group of completely incompetent humans that just regained the skill of walking on their own feet has not gone as smoothly as we hoped it would. Also, probably should have considered that our loveable robot buddies need maintenance that cannot be provided by stone age technology."
When I first watched the trailer of Elemental, I thought that the elements represented the person's personality. For example, if they are fire they are passionate, determined or emotionally volatile, or if they are wind they are easy going, relaxed or adventurous. And I thought that the movie was about how, in relationships, our different personalities clash with and can even hurt each other. Back then I was hyped for the movie. Later I found out about the movie's actual plot and lost all interest in it. I am with everybody when they say that we have seen that plot a million times.
I think the first trailer was also a 1000 times better than all of the 29 trailers, clips and tv spots we got afterwards. Back then the movie was also not being promoted so much to the point where its obnoxious. Which is sadly the direction that the marketing team went from the second trailer and onwards.
this actually looks like a cool idea, zootopia, but with elements and the elements are personalities, so like, fire ppl would be more angry and stuff. they could even do some avatar shit with that
That idea would also have some interesting historical ties. Back when Westerners believed in the Four Elements, personality traits (like pretty much everything else) were tied to the elements: Air=Sanguine (inspirational) Earth=Melancholic (careful) Fire=Choleric (forceful) Water=Phlegmatic (reliable)
On the subject of sequels. I never understood why they can't just make sequels with the same setting but different characters. I would have loved a toy story 4 that was all about a new set of toys that can explore new concepts without having to connect directly to a character's existing story.
Very agreed. Zootopia+ was exactly what I was hoping for in a Zootopia sequel; they made an amazing big world, so let's look at other characters' stories! If they make more, hopefully it'll be with completely new characters just having their own lives there.
Literally this! They've crafted these lovely worlds, let's go explore them! If we need a cameo from Woody or Buzz, sure, but they're losing money and trust by copying and diluting their own messages!
They’re wary of doing that because most of their new writers just aren’t inspired or passionate enough to work off of existing properties without ruining what made them beloved in the first place. Key Examples: Star Wars and the Avengers. New characters came in to take up the old mantels, but the writing for these new characters was either increasingly pandering, flat, or just straight up copying off of the original.
This was also a problem (to a lesser extent) in Zootopia... but doing a racism allegory with elements muddles the allegory by creating internal justification for it. OFC a fire person would be afraid of a water person... they would literally kill them with a hug.
racism is illogical because human beings are still the same and share similarities. sure, a black person and a white person may have individual differences in beliefs, cultures, lifestyles, etc, but they still have human brains and think human things. therefore, you treat them both like people. the best way you could use a racism allegory without it getting eugenics-y is just have them be the same animal. blue rabbits and green rabbits, or maybe different breeds of dog. otherwise, it does not work. predators eat prey because otherwise the entire earth's ecosystems would collapse. fire and water neutralise each other because that's how the laws of physics work.
@@manboy4720 I've seen it argued that Zootopia wasn't specifically about race, but about prejudice generally. It could be seen just as much as an allegory for class divisions, rich vs. poor, educated vs. uneducated, the Indian caste system, blood type prejudice in Japan, religious divisions etc. etc. The idea was by picking a division that doesn't have any direct correlation to human society (prey vs. predator) it could stand for any and all divisions that do exist.
@@bauul. I only hated one thing about Zootopia (Spoilers), Judy is framed as being in the wrong for thinking Nick would turn on her, because of an infection, something he'd have zero control over, and Nick gets angry over it
right! like especially with all of these cities in movies, like in the secret life of pets and other movies it's not very visually impressive, it's a generic city with streetlights, white or brown apartments, and clean sidewalks with freshly-mowed parks. spiderverse is in brooklyn, but a version of brooklyn that looks more real bc it's LIVED IN. ahhhh yk!! like the stickers on posts and litter and graffiti, the different city lights and the flyers and tattered signs. it's js so ahhhh
Spiderverse and Arcane are visually impressive and push the standards of animation further, but more importantly they also had compelling characters and great storytelling. This movie's trailer just felt like a copy and paste of Zootopia but with elements.
@@joezilla29 Nah Mario movie does not have compelling characters nor great storytelling and destroyed even spider-verse in the box office. Lets be consistent here and be honest about this. Compelling characters and great storytelling is not the reason Spider-verse is successful, despite wanting to believe that. No way home making extreme bank also is evidence of that as well, having extremely basic storytelling......BUT it was made for the "fans". Spider-verse was made for the "fans". Mario had nonstop generic references to mario to appeal to the "fans". It is not about quality storytelling. It is about releasing things that people want to see because they already recognize it. So Toy Story 5 and 6 here we go.
The thing is with every new Disney Pixar movie the main gimmick is how realistic or how good are the visuals, over story, Pixar are more focused on making their movies animation realistic than making something memorable
I remember going to see a movie with a friend of mine about 3-4 months ago and an ad for Elements played and I kid you not, I genuinely thought it was a theater advertisement that was going to tell everyone to silence their phones. It looked way too cookie cutter and boring to believe it was an actual movie ad.
I don't know if I'm alone on this so this may be an unpopular take but, as technically proficient as this movie seems, the character designs really fell flat for me and undersold how cool the elemental effects could have looked. It makes sense that if they have to invest so much computational power into generating bodies made of an effect that the designs need to be simple to compensate but the direction they went in just felt too Illumination-esque for me-- I didn't even know this was a Pixar movie initially. Character design and stylization is the first thing your audience sees in a teaser and while it may have played better in the film, it doesn't possess the charm or novelty something like Spiderverse, Puss in Boots, or films like Klaus have. There are plenty of indie shorts on RU-vid that are able to effectively use simplistic/minimalistic choices that look look more cohesive. Not everything has to have character realism like Frozen II, but a lot of 3D animation lately looks kind of generic in terms of colour, tone, and over-use of rounded shapes.
Yeah I feel the same. A lot of 3D animated movies make the mistake of looking like every other 3D movie. Happened to 2D animation before that too where all animated shows started looking like gravity falls. Nothing wrong with that style, but gets insanely boring once you've seen 4+ shows looking the exact same. Elemental immediately looked boring to me, the character designs didn't stand out and the faces kinda looked like paper that was glued on. It didn't have any depth to it. They didn't have to be the next Spiderverse or Puss in Boots, but something, ANYTHING to make it stand out was needed.
@@soulangela7154It feels like Dreamworks and Sony are pushing fresh new animation styles while Pixar looks the same, but with better tech, as 15 years ago
One of these comments has me thinking about Pixar as a company, and how they've really declined over the years. For example, "Up" was one of the few, if not the only, Pixar movies framed around that idea of letting go of the past and moving on with life. It was one of my favorites when I was young, and looking at it today, I'd say it's well-deserving of the praise it gets. It was humorous and whimsical, it was suspenseful and exciting, it was wholesome and endeering, it was even mournful and sobering. But most importantly, it was touching and even somewhat personal in a way that didn't feel arbitrarily imposed on the audience. The subtlety that was omnipresent through the entire film made it seem like that message simply naturally occurred, just so happening to be there when the story was put together, as opposed to feeling like it was made specifically to fit that message. It was intelligent, offering that crumb of wisdom to the philosophers of the audience to gnaw on while also allowing those just looking for an entertaining film to enjoy a well-made story with real emotional depth to it. And if you look at the other releases, they also did this to great success! This means that the problem with Disney and their subsidiaries today is that they consistently fail on all these fronts. The stories are shockingly tone deaf, emotionally disconnected and practically revolving around the story's message, beating you over the head with it in the least subtly way possible at every opportunity it gets. It does it so much so that it forgets that it's even trying to tell a story and as such lacks any significant quality, leaving the viewing experience to be a lukewarm 6/10 at the very best and a downright unwatchable 2/10 at worst. These films aren't made assuming the audience is intelligent and capable of independent thought, instead believing that they're incapable of comprehending anything unless it's verbally spouted into their face.
'Up' had such a touching message. And, not to beat a dead horse, but so did Puss in Boots 2. And what made both stories so great in my opinion was that the message wasn't just shoved in there as a moral to be drawn by the audience, the respective lessons of the movies were ones that NEEDED to be learned by their main characters. Carl needed to learn to let go. Puss needed to learn to accept the inevitability of death. It makes the characters feel so much more real and the story so much more satisfying.
What is "touching" and "personal" is unique to each person, dependent on their lives and experiences. For example, The Lion King speaks to my heart because my father died when I was young, but someone with a living father will not have that connection. The change is in the creators - who used to be mostly white male Boomers, but now include Millennials and immigrants. They are still writing stories that are deeply personal and touching, but are personal and touching to their own experiences. Generational conflict with their Boomer parents has been a part of many Millennials' personal experience, so we are seeing that conflict in movies written by Millennials. Racism has been a part of many immigrants' personal experience, so we are seeing that conflict in movies written by immigrants. The problem is that nobody is writing movies on behave of Gen-Alpha kids, with the issues and struggles that generation faces (or is predicted to face). Nobody is writing movies that attempt to be inclusive of Gen-X and Gen-Z experiences (smaller cohorts skipped over by Hollywood).
The movie did "bad" in the box office because they forced every theater to make tickets $0.01. This was so that everyone had the opportunity to watch the cinematic masterpiece that is Wade.
They're being too safe. All their movies are "market research indicates-" based plots to be as safe and broadly appealing as possible, and people are board of it. But, they're not going to learn, they're just gonna be even safer with bland sequals.
Trying to appeal to everyone means attracting no one. Disney seems to not realize the one thing that every student majors in marketing learn in their first class.
The thing about "being too safe" is that it's actually working for them. In the last few years their sequels have done way better financially than their original scripts. Unfortunately the response to Elemental bombing won't be "we need to make better movies", or even "we need to run better advertising campaigns", it will be "let's dip back into the old nostalgia well."
Ya, first was about woody feeling replaced by the new shiny toy, buzz lightyears, only to realize andy will always love them both for what they are Second was about dealing with the fact andy will eventually grow up and move on, and facing the option to become a museum toy and be inmortalized, but never being able to make a kid happy again. Third is about andy actually growing up, and accepting their paths will eventually separate, so the toys start anew with a new kid and wave their last goodbyes to andy, for all the good moments they spent together. That trilogy told the story needed to be told, and sealed the package with a beautiful ending. Toy story 4 never needed to exist
Pixar doesn’t normally make good trailers, and usually add fake dialogue or even scenes so it doesn’t reveal the plot of the movie. Like the up trailer that has Carl blowing raspberry’s. That definitely didn’t scream GO SEE IT, and was why my parents thought it was a dumb kids movie for YEARS. The fact that people take Pixar’s trailers at face value will always be hilarious (and now depressing) to me.
@@NoriMori1992. Yea but it’s sad how these days ppl watch a trailer for a movie and automatically say that movie will be bad like every move that came out since 2020 ppl have said are bad except for across the spiderverse and avatar the way of water but even with the trailer of those movies ppl said it looked bad/woke . Like I miss the years when ppl wouldn’t rely on reviews/reviewers or ratings on a movie, show or anything hell yesterday i already heard that secret invasions is the worst MCU show like bruh but ppl are gonna listen to the media regardless which is sad
@@edwardjones1482 People have come to rely on reviews because they got tired of spending money and time on movies that ended up being terrible. If new movies weren't so terrible, people would have gone to watch them.
@@-FFFridge ^ this in the past, i needed to be convinced of how terrible a movie was in order to avoid watching it- nowadays, i need to be convinced to dedicate my time to watching a movie over watching something i know i'll actually enjoy (like a youtube video or and old classic movie)
@@edwardjones1482 If you don't want people to judge a product by its trailer you want it by what? Paying to go to the theaters to watch something you don't know anything about it
I thought it'd be pretty cool if Pixar subverted the expectations for this "people of different cultures fell in love and decide to live their lives together" trope. Elemental would've been the perfect setting to show kids that sometimes our differencies are the very thing that define us, to the point that we simply have to accept each other the way they are and realize it's not worth forcing a relationship when it'd mean giving up a good 80% of your personality in favor of the other. The water dude could literally destroy firegirl... A rare and surprisingly thoughtful message couldve been the pair realizing they simply can't work out, no matter how much fun and adventures they had together, they'd just make each others lives miserable and force their happiness in boundaries. Letting go and moving on is a message not often seen in kids/family entertainment, even though it would be important and Pixar just fumbled a chance to make it.
That’s a nice message, but it just wouldn’t mesh well with a kids movie, I don’t think. If you’re going to spend a movie showing the characters trying to overcome such boundaries and differences, it would just feel cheap and wasted to have them decide it was all for naught. A better idea would’ve been them starting off on a bad note, only to be forced together into situations and eventually respect each other and their differences, to the point where they either become very dedicated friends or a beginning romantic couple. They could begin looking less at their differences and more at their similarities, while also thinking of their differences as uniqueness and adventurous. Would’ve been much better than the stupid and unrealistic “love at first sight” message that this movie forced. Characters with innate differences and cultures typically shouldn’t be making goo-goo eyes at each other upon their first meeting. It just feels like they bulldozed over all of the emphasis on their differences that could’ve been. When the two characters decide they don’t care about their differences right away before even knowing each other, it just makes all of the parental disapproval and hurdles they go through seem meaningless, because I already know they’re determined to see their romance through. There’s no suspense or doubt there.
I would have loved that! That's exactly what I thought Sometimes being with someone isn't worth it, nor everything has to be about true love Teach kids that! If two people are so different to the point that they can hurt themselves by being together, pushing the "True love" thing can only hurt such an impressionable audience
"Up" was one of the few, if not the only, Pixar movies framed around that idea of letting go and moving on with life. It was one of my favorites when I was young, and looking at it today, I'd say it's well-deserving of the praise it gets. It was humorous and whimsical, it was suspenseful and exciting, it was wholesome and even mournful. But most importantly, it was touching and even somewhat personal in a way that didn't feel arbitrarily imposed on the audience. The subtlety that simultaneously spanned the entire film made it seem like that message simply naturally occurred, just so happening to be there when the story was put together, as opposed to feeling like it was made specifically tailored to that message. It was intelligent, offering that crumb of wisdom to the philosophers of the audience to gnaw on while also allowing those just looking for an entertaining film to enjoy a well-made story with real emotional depth to it. The problem with Disney today is that it fails on all these fronts. The stories are shockingly tone deaf, emotionally disconnected and practically revolving around the story's message, beating you over the head with it in the least subtly way possible at every opportunity it gets. It does it so much so that it forgets that it's even trying to tell a story and as such lacks any significant quality, leaving the viewing experience to be lukewarm at the very best and downright unwatchable at worst. The film isn't made assuming the audience is smart, instead believing that they're incapable of comprehending something unless it's verbally spouted into their face.
I hope the writer's strike reinvigorates the creativity in Hollywood and puts pressure on studios to stop trying to cut costs, play super safe, and end up disappointing everyone equally rather than taking creative risks.
The writers striking right now already have a track record of terrible writing, them getting more leeway with the executives will just make their writing worse.
@@aceambling7685 The track record of terrible writing is partly caused by many writers needing to do the work of 2 or 3 writers. So to make their deadlines the quality had to suffer.
@louise, Disney/Pixar have no one to blame themselves for Elemental's failure, considering how Elemental was finalized long before the Writer's Strike.
I believe, with the disappointing box office numbers Disney and a few others has been doing lately, that the underdogs (like Dreamworks alongside more independent studios and animators) are going to be the ones who rise from this whole "movie exhaustion" phase we're going through. I'm talking about not just original ideas, but also movies made solely out of passion for the art form. I'll go as far as predict that 2D animation will make a comeback in cinemas in some shape or form.
ruby gillman is expected to only make 8 million during its opening weekend. it's probably true as the expected box office for elemental turned out true. I haven't even seen a single ad for the DreamWorks movie
I’ve just hated how they always stick with the same basic storyline, and that they always have bright, his city futuristic themes (not all of them, but most of them) now zootopia actually has good jokes and good storylines, that’s why it’s so much better
All these movies have the same plot and setting because that's all the writers know about life. Back in the day writers wouldn't start professionally producing content until middle age, having already lived rich lives. Many were in their nation's militaries or travelled widely (and not just to tourist traps). Nowadays writers go from high school to college and then straight to the writers room. They have no life experience or genuine knowledge outside of this sheltered bubble of aspiring coastal elites.
The marketing also ruined the movie for me, but not in the same way. I really feel like the movie got marketed WAY TOO MUCH. Instead of just having 2 or 3 tv spots for the movie, there were around 15 TO 20 DIFFERENT TV SPOTS for the movie.
The marketing ruined the movie for me as well just because of the expectations I was given. I remember elements exists and just grow tired. Like it saps the life from me. Even if it is good, there's really no erasing that innate reaction to it to give it a chance, yknow?
@@wrightcember It must just be what I watch or the rarity of TV, but from what I saw in RU-vidrs covering it, it seemed like it would be something covering the tensions between groups that don't normally mesh but those two become (friends or more) despite this and I'm sure they had a goal somewhere in a huge element city with some mediocre-ish humor throughout And from what I've heard now, it was exactly that.
For real, it was EVEYWHERE when I went to see spiderverse. Massive posters, pins on every employee, the works. Idk if I've seen something pushed as hard as this in a while
I think my biggest issue with the marketing is that it told you what the movie was about, but I felt like I never *actually* knew what it was about Like yeah, it's an opposites attract story, but what are they doing together? He fell into her world from the pipes and now they're in a city together I guess? Why should I care? It just felt like they were pushing the smiling characters and colorful world more than an actual story worth following.
Because lowkey (and its probably because of how the film was marketed) I think the main point of the story was more on the struggles of growing up in an immigrant family with the relationship with another element being a close but side point. Which I think was also a catalyst for her character development. And because of that I think its easy for a lot of people to miss and not relate.
You nailed it at the end. Disney is just a little too high on themselves. They think they are so dominant in movies and they always will be and because of that they can push whatever agenda they want, even if it makes a bad movie. I’m honestly happy to see Disney getting what they deserve with this one. And I’m really happy to see other studios taking advantage of disneys stupidity by actually making high quality, interesting, and unique movies. I’m honestly praying for Disney’s downfall. They have made my childhood but it’s time for them to go now.
Omg how can Peter Sohn handle this? I mean imagine finally got to work as director of the top animation studio with a historical chain of works that reset the whole animation industry, yet managed to lead the 2 biggest flops. I know the failure results from many factors but dang... Poor guy hope he can make a real redemption after these. I also feel really sorry for Pixar tbh.
The amount of remakes and live actions we're getting is exhausting. The market is just so saturated right now. None of those movies are interesting and everyone know its just a cashgrab, it feels almost insulting to the public honestly...And it's so sad knowing there are such amazing artists and talented writers out there with tons of original ideas that are not getting a shot. Since Disney bought every thing it all feels the same...
Honestly I'm actually excited for Toy story 5, not because I think it'll be all that special or anything, but because I just want Woody to see his friends again and stay with them after the ending of Toy story 4 where he just abandons them for Bo Peep's cheeks.
I think Toy Story five would just drag out the story even more and would be a even more unsatisfying ending. If we didn’t need a Toy Story 4, we would definitely not need a Toy Story 5
Maybe they're putting more effort into couch viewers for their streaming platforms? Idk if revenew from that is more profitable than all the logistics that goes into putting those movies in a movie theater.
@@alanbal888Streaming platforms are a massive loss for these companies no matter if they prey on the trickle of people who are just casually watching them.
I remember seeing the first commercial for Elemental and looking at my brother and saying "this is going to bomb, and some writers are going to lose their jobs when Disney finds the scripts for all the other movies they ripped off" and now hearing what the director intended it to be I feel really bad that his message got drowned in mediocrity.
@@cgwworldministries83That's not woke lmao it's the forbidden love trope. Ever heard of Romeo and Juliet? From the XVI century? It's an example of that. People these days call everything they don't like woke 😂
Elemental grossed $423.5M-$469.4M=-$45.9M. $200M was it budget, $100M for marketing, and $169.4M as 40% cinema deductibles. Making it $54.1M less of negative $100M. Making it less of a flop than in June and July 2023.
The problem with Elemental is that I just don't care about it, I can't ask my parents to take me to watch Elemental if I already asked them to watch Spiderverse recently. They think people can just watch a movie at theatres every week but in reality movie tickets are something special and their main audience (kids) can usually only watch a movie in theatres very rarely. They should've released it earlier or later so that it would be safe from the likes of Spider Verse (as it absolutely crushed elemental in boxoffice)
i was dreading to see this film with my family yesterday, i had seen ads all over my social media that made me cringe, hell even on the highways in my city you literally couldn't go a mile without seeing a bill board for it. i watched it, more excited for the trailers before the movie than the actual movie, i actually ended up liking it, i even cried a little, i feel like the marketing really just got everyone to ingore it
Even though this bombed hard, y’all should at least commend it on its visuals and animations. The backgrounds are amazing and the way the characters moves is simply incredible. Small touches like how the fire elements flames are constantly moving, the way water elements jiggle around as they walk. All of it is amazing. So even if the plot is dumb at least it kinda makes up for it with great animation.
Animation technicalities, sort of. But visually, it looks very generic, nothing stands out, and it looks like Zootopia with different skin. When the first tralier came out, i thought it was from Illumination studio, i was suprise it from Pixar.
the characters themselves look interesting, shame that the backdrop they're placed in is the complete opposite, it's as if they asked chatgpt to model a futuristic city and it proceeded to make wakanda with overtuned saturation and none of the character.
I'm of the mind that this movie needed an actual villain. Spoilers but when Wade and Ember found the busted flood gates, I was convinced that someone had intentionally broke them so that the water would damage Fire Town. The fact that the gates breaking was just an accident and that Ember was actually entirely at fault for why the store flooded because of her temper and, by extension, the flooding of Fire Town was technically her fault because her glass couldn't hold, that all seems so muddled. I feel like someone with prejudice against Fire Town and the fire people should have had a hand in breaking the flood gates. If nothing else, it could have made it seem like Ember was less at fault for everything that went wrong in the movie.
Movies are a product of the time. During the Cold War, villains personified the USSR (e.g. StarWar's "Empire"). After 9/11, villains became chaotic-evil rogues who personified terrorists. Now the biggest issues are a deeply politically divided nation and the populization of extremist ideologies. The opposition is our neighbors and families - they are not "evil", they are good people misguided by misinformation or propaganda. These issues don't personify into villains, and are instead represented by generational or racial conflict where nobody is a villain.
I disagree. You could totally make a great story without having to always rely on a villain existing. It's just a matter of finding the right issues the main characters need to conquer, having them conquering it and then learn something from it. It doesn't have to always be some dude who's causing trouble. It could be a problem that needs fixing, a journey in search of something or someone, a mission that needs to be done, etc. As long as the message of the movie is passed on clear enough, you have a great film.
@@Brunoki22 Additionally, teach kids how to resolve problems without resorting to violence. When a villain is involved, it usually comes down to a fight scene. And sure, they may have the villain fall to their death to avoid having the hero win by punching or murdering, but it still teaches kids that violence resolves conflict.
@@evanrhildrethStar Wars’ Empire is representative of America. George Lucas has came out and said that he was heavily inspired by the Vietnam War, with the Empire being America and the Rebels being Vietnam.
3:53 What makes Elemental‘s box office disaster more sad is that the director of Elemental (Peter Sohn) also directed the Good Dinosaur. So, now he‘s been involved in 2 of Pixar‘s box-office bombs.
I think people are being a bit quick to write the movie off as a flop, it could have legs at the box office like Puss in Boots, which opened to less than $10 million Edit: I watched it last weekend and enjoyed it a lot, the marketing and overall support from Disney were just trash
Puss in Boots The Last Wish released during Christmas. Even though they do release movies around that time, I don't know anybody who goes to the theaters during the holidays.
Ik people will say "Oh, youre just trying to be different or unique, you dont actually like that movie." But, I loved The Good Dinosaur, it was my first ever disney film. Its kinda like how i love all the three newest paper mario games. Nobody else seems to really enjoy them but im not like them, I love The Good Dinosaur just as much as I love Paper Mario: Color Splash. And nobody will change that.
I’m happy to see you’re able to enjoy this movie. I kinda feel bad for not liking it that much considering it came out when I was becoming massively into dinosaurs.
I remember watching that movie in theaters when it came out. I actually rlly like it and it's extremely nostalgic to me, but it's probably because I'm biased.
You're not alone! I actually loved the Good Dinosaur and it made me cry at the end, and I was genuinely surprised everyone else hated it :( I also ADORE Lightyear and it's so sad that it tanked so much. I even got this neat glow in the dark Lightyear bucket hat and talking Sox plush
People keep saying that this movie’s premise is unoriginal, which yeah is partly true, but when was the last time Disney/Pixar produced a flat out romantic comedy? Cause the last one I can think of is Tangled way back in 2010. Everything since then has been about friendships, family relationships, and at most relationships with romantic coding but not flat out romantic (like Zootopia and Luca). So while it’s a premise we’ve seen before I kinda like we got a classic Disney romance movie like we used to.
Tangled is disney, Pixar hasn't made romance since WALL-E. And we'll probably get another romance with Zootopia 2 if they decide to make it fanservice for the fandom lol.
@@thekrakenexperiment280 I think it actually harms the point, Romance isn't their focus. So when they make a Romance focused film they don't do well with it. Romance is found naturally not forced. You've spoken for every reason why they shouldn't. Romance is a sub-plot not a main-plot.
Sad because the movie was actually pretty good. Haven’t had a straight forward romance from either Pixar or Disney in a really long time (Wall-E and Tangled respectively).
Tbh, this movie reminds me of when you have a really good idea either if you're an artist or writer, but in execution it doesn't come out right or feel right because it's a small idea, sometimes it doesn't always work. I feel like this film would've been less generic if they tried doing a little more expanding on the universe and just told a different story instead of the same Romeo and Juliet thing.
This happens all of the time with me writing my music. Whenever I get an idea for a song, I go on my computer to attempt to write it, but after just a few seconds of listening to it, it just sounds wrong and I don't like it anymore.
Yep they were wrong, the sales have only gone up since after the first week, all the comments saying the movie sucked/happy seeing Disney fail/garbage plot aged like milk bcs the movie is making bank
Pixar is being kind of awful in a number of ways. My gf was the voice of Riley from Inside Out, but has STILL not gotten a single message about the second one. She learned it was a thing from my dad of all people.
i think now is the worst time for bad films as people dont have as much dispossable income and therefore save to watch the films they know will be good, as cinema tickets sky rocket in price like everything else. So that's why spider man did so well and the films that look even a little weird havent done well at all.
As some one learning 3d animation this movie is definitely increadible visually and animated wise, the amount the animators must of had to do is insane.
Elemental and the Avatar movies are kind of similar in the sense that the only groundbreaking thing about them is the animation or technologies or amount of money or power needed in order to achieve said visual effects. However because so much went into that, we could argue the whole purpose of these movies is just to be stunning and lay a new standard for other animations to uphold, but then someone really forgot to think twice about the general originality of a plot. And again both Avatar and Elemental have such an amazing world-building to them... I just feel like we could have seen a much more creative story be told through this world, rather than "just basically being the real world but hey, they're elements".
Also, why are most of these movies recently all taking place in some uber-aglomerations? Like shit I'd want to see protagonists harvest potatoes instead of riding in a metro or sum for once
I actually, adored this movie. Please watch it. The animation is gorgeous and the story is much much better than the trailers get at. It’s actually rather witty and sweet. I think if you see it, and come in with an open mind, you will leave pleasantly surprised. Pixar needs a w and elem gal has lots of worthwhile moments.
Dude, they literally created an Elemental themed challenge on a TV episode of the Spanish version of MasterChef just to market this movie. It’s crazy how much trouble they went through to market this movie to still have it flop. 😅
Something tells me that Disney needs to do a completely new slate on the stuff they make. Like they need to take a creative 180 soon or they'll crash and burn as a company.
Not really though. They are an empire - I've seen them described elsewhere as a "legal firm with a creative wing". Just the royalties from nearly 100 years of legacy content is enough to keep them afloat at this point, regardless of their current output.
This didnt age well, elementals is now making a huge coneback in sales bcs of everyone talking abt it/hating on it and after the first week the sales have only been going up
Pixar has taken a toll for the worst. Their last fantastic movie was turning red and was a little sloppy even then. I really hope Pixar changes its act because I want to see future projects from this once fantastic company.
The bravest move Pixar should have made an adaption of ‘Psychonauts’ or ‘Grim Fandango’. Maybe adapting the most Pixar things outside of Pixar will remind them of what Pixar is. Americana X ideas from when we were kids + a general life lesson not tied to gender, race, culture, religon etc. -no more tech demos -no more sequels -no more ‘Cars’ -no more CalArts graduates obsessed with their own identities -focus on ideas
