Elemental (Pixar)

pixelburp

First trailer for Pixar's latest and I'll be honest, got a big meh from me. To the point I wonder if the studio really has just lost the spark, bar a few exceptions. This looks a bit autopilot'y and you can already kinda guess the potential story here.

The director's last work was The Good Dinosaur, so not especially auspicious.

https://youtu.be/-cT495xKvvs

Slydice

Was there something unguessable about the other films?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119897827#Comment_119897827

Not unguessable, just looooks like a slightly underwhelming premise? City of elementals, fire and water can't possibly get on, cannon they??? MessageMessageMessage.

Guess with this trailer coming out around the release of Wendell & Would, or My Father's Dragon, it just looks so uninspired. Mind you, little to go on just this minute ...

Slydice

Maybe disney trying to get Pixar becoming established for a certain type of film.. getting some kind of dependable amount of people in to watch their films because they have an idea of the type of film they'll be getting.

pixelburp

Full trailer dropped a couple of days ago, and yeah; really not feeling this whatsoever. Could be the trailer, but it's really lampshading the messaging and themes (not to mention that the world doesn't seem to make sense?).

You gotta discover your own path, don't be constrained by yada yada. Turning Red wasn't any less overt with that kind of story but it didn't seem so ...lazy?

https://youtu.be/de6_GooXxXs

Fysh

Wow, that really does feel like auto-pilot Pixar :/

I really liked Turning Red, because while it did have a fairly unsubtle "you must be true to yourself" narrative thread, the setting was clearly quite personal and specific (Toronto in the early 2000s, IIRC) to the writers. Plus I think it deserves credit for being a story that is, in part, about the experience of girls reaching puberty.

I won't judge the film itself on its trailer, but if it does have something more interesting than "can't we all just get along?" going on narratively, it's certainly not showing any sign of it.

Thinking about it, Elemental has more than a bit of a whiff of "Zootropolis, but with personified elements instead of anthropomorphic animals". Which I mention because Zootropolis was put out as a Disney film, not a Pixar one...

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425783#Comment_120425783

Exactly. Turning Red was about something quite specific both in location and thematically. Bordering on autobiographical. It ct was quite interesting how in 2022 we had two genre Hollywood productions whose central premise was the generational gap between Chinese immigrants and their daughters. But the Pixar movie was quite brave and open in hitting teenage puberty head on and not have some stupid melodramatic, angsty version. It was quite grounded, giant magic pandas notwithstanding.

This looks almost shockingly rote. If it wasn't for the studio badges and relatively vibrant art style, it could be any number of those random multinational CGI films that float about the morning schedules in cinemas.

Slydice

Wierd. Haven't seen Turning Red.

This looks like a take on Zootopia to me.

So then it sounds to me that it's just in-general more wierd that people are expecting an animation film not to be in the area where animation films have been making cash for years.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120426388#Comment_120426388

If this was Dreamworks, or even Disney's own animation studio, I'd not have blinked. But this is Pixar after-all: they set a distinct standard for themselves in the kind of stories they can, and do, tell. Even Zootopia had a fairly sophisticated idea behind the animals - being as it was a transparent story of racism. Here it's like ... be yourself?

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120426388#Comment_120426388

Yep, it's definitely weird for people to point out that some of a company's post-acquisition-by-Disney output looks distinctly watered down (even when compared to Disney Animation's own output!) relative to the same company's output pre-acquisition-by-Disney. 🙄

The trailer for this looks like a more simplistic, dull version of Zootopia/Zootropolis, like I said up-thread. Maybe the end result will be stronger, but it's not convincing me to spend any money on seeing it at the cinema, put it that way.

Slydice

So then, is this film gonna make no bank or what?

Fysh

I'm not involved in the production, so that's not something I care about nor have any interest in speculating on. It also has no bearing on whether the film is any good, which I'm more interested in as a topic of conversation (obviously speculative for now, but still).

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429316#Comment_120429316

Plenty of food films flop. Plenty of bad films make bank; in the discussion it's kinda irrelevant because it's about where Pixar are and what they produce.

Few animation studios exist where their name alone infers a certain reputation. Ghibli, Laika or Cartoon Saloon at a pinch - and of course, Pixar as the biggest in the West. When their latest trailer looks that rote, it's disappointing.

Slydice

I'm lost. So Disney isn't out there trying to make bank or people don't know it or don't like to think pixar is disney or what?

Tom Mann Centuria

I'm lost that people use terms like make bank (insert picture of Grandpa Simpson here).

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120430809#Comment_120430809

I don't know where your fixation with the financial aspect of things comes from, but it's irrelevant.

Disney Animation in recent decades has a very clear and fairly safe take on narrative structure; part of what Pixar's name has been built on is expertly balancing a good character story with fantastical elements that have more depth than is generally present in all-ages or "family" animation.

Go and watch Turning Red, probably the strongest Pixar outing since Inside Out IMO (although I must admit I did quite Soul), and then see whether you think the trailer for Elemental promises the same calibre of story.

CastorTroy

The characters look like they just took the models for Soul and Inside Out and modified them.

I'll probably watch it at some point.

As for doing well at the box office, I guess it depends on what else is out around the same time for kids. Disney's recent theatrical releases included Strange World and Lightyear. Neither did well at the box office and think reviews were mixed to positive. Though since then, I think more people are going to the cinema.

Slydice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120431155#Comment_120431155

I think it's the clear and fairly safe take that is on my mind about the finances. Feels like movies and studios, at the moment, are under a bit of pressure because their takings aren't what they used to be. Given Disney owns most of these animation houses nowadays and they've started letting people go, then I'm thinking money is on their mind. I feel like they are wanting to stay close to those old safe routes to try reduce their losses. Not necessarily a safe bet.

silverharp

Pixar not doing well, and Elemental is getting a meh form critics

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1665045488423321601

silverharp

another Disney 200m film, projections are 35m opening, Pixar seems kind of done

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1668751349557739521

gmisk

Finally got around to watching this....it was absolutely lovely. What a nice surprise, the design was really wonderful.

I know initially it was being billed as bit of a flop, but has had good legs seemingly.

https://screenrant.com/elemental-movie-box-office-profit-pixar-boss-response/

Fysh

It's very hard to take that article seriously when the summary has "The movie's early low box-office numbers raised concerns about Pixar's future, but the success of Elemental demonstrates that audiences still enjoy watching animated features in theaters." as the second line, because if I were to ask anyone which 2023 film release proves that audiences "like watching animated features in theatres", Elemental is at best #3 on the list.

It's impressive that it's made it to ~$440M box office - that's past the "2x budget" threshold if the $200M listed on Wikipedia is accurate. One thing that's not clear is what the relative long-tail in its turnaround means in terms of box-office split. I'd be lying if I didn't say I hope that cinemas are getting a greater share of the profit from this than Disney...

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121002231#Comment_121002231

I did read something that Disney in general take a high share in the first couple of weeks but then drops off , below the average I assume so in this case disney would have lost out. One can only hope its true lol