Elemental (Pixar) (2023) (2 Viewers)

[Jake Lipson]

Per the credits at the bottom of the poster, Thomas Newman is providing the score. I think this is the first time he has scored a Pixar film since Finding Dory back in 2016. I love his work on Nemo, Dory and WALL-E, so this is exciting news.

 

[Jason_V]

Tickets are officially on sale at AMC. Snagged two for the 7 pm RealD 3D show on June 15.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Elemental will be opening against The Flash. The downside of that is Elemental isn't going to have access to the really good screens, and the showtimes now available in my area reflect that. The premium format screens are off the table, as is the biggest non-upcharged screen. So Elemental is being tucked in some of the smaller auditoriums. I'll still see it, of course. But that's too bad. I sought out Lightyear on a premium screen twice last summer and would also have gone for that this time if offered.

Also, Disney put up another poster.

 

[Edwin-S]

The Flash or Elemental? That's an easy choice.....Elemental. Not really interested in supporting another DC dud with a felon as the lead hero.

 

[Jake Lipson]

That's an easy choice.....Elemental.

I am more interested in Elemental too, personally. But I'm sure that what gets the premium screens is all contractual. Plus, WB is marketing The Flash largely as if it is a Batman movie because of the return of Michael Keaton. So from the theater owners' perspectives, they'd rather have a Batman movie on the premium screens. Especially given Lightyear's disappointing performance last year, I think that is an understandable business decision, even though it's not what I personally want.

Also, here's a new article from Deadline about Elemental:

‘Elemental’ Craftspeople On “Exploiting The Elemental Nature” Of Characters & Creating A Collaborative Workflow

For Elemental, Pixar’s creative team quickly realized that they needed a new approach to streamline their animation process. While each department generally worked alone, an early collaboration was…

deadline.com

 

[TravisR]

The Flash or Elemental? That's an easy choice.....Elemental. Not really interested in supporting another DC dud with a felon as the lead hero.

Can't say I blame you but I'll see both (with Elemental being the easy first choice).

 

[jayembee]

For me, it depends on whether my wife wants to see The Flash. If not (I haven't asked her yet), and it means I'm seeing it alone, I'll probably go in the afternoon of opening day, and we'll see Elemental together on a later day.

 

[Malcolm R]

Some of the trailers seem like there are scenes in Roger Rabbit-style with cartoon characters in real world settings. Is that just a handful of scenes, or is that the "style" of this film? Seemed odd.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Some of the trailers seem like there are scenes in Roger Rabbit-style with cartoon characters in real world settings.

This is the first I've heard of that. As far as I know, this is a fully animated film. But obviously I won't be seeing it for another two weeks so can't confirm that yet.

 

[Jason_V]

Some of the trailers seem like there are scenes in Roger Rabbit-style with cartoon characters in real world settings. Is that just a handful of scenes, or is that the "style" of this film? Seemed odd.

Do you have an example of the trailer? Like Jake, I don't recall anything like this...the Thanksgiving movie Wish seems to blend styles, at least from what I've seen.

 

[Malcolm R]

I think it's just a realistic style of animation where some of the backgrounds look like real objects rather than animated. Here's a couple examples

These chairs look like real, rubber, inflated objects:

This floating thing on the right looks like a real object, rather than drawn:

Items in the background and on the cup at the right look realistic, rather than drawn, and the blue guy (Wade?) almost looks like he's pasted into the foreground of a real picture background. It's almost like 3D in 2D. Just more of a realistic style than I'm used to seeing, I guess. I did read somewhere that this film required about 150x the computing capacity of something like Finding Nemo, so that's likely how it comes to be so realistic.

 

[Jason_V]

I get what you’re saying now, but it looks “animation real” to me, not “real real,” if that makes sense.

 

[jayembee]

 

[Jake Lipson]

‘Elemental’ Director Peter Sohn Drew Parallels in His Own Life With the Animated Tale

Peter Sohn’s latest film, “Elemental,” from Disney/Pixar, tells the story of characters made of opposite elements who fall in love. The story is a metaphor for the director/writer’s life where he s…

variety.com

 

[Malcolm R]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/elemental-review-pixar-1235502286/

‘Elemental’ Review: Pixar’s Timely High-Concept Bonanza Underwhelms​

 

[benbess]

I liked Elemental quite a bit. The animation is often amazing and beautiful, and for me there were some laughs and emotional moments. It looked like a very expensive movie to me. The score by one of my favorites, Thomas Newman, was also a highlight. My rating: A-

 

[Malcolm R]

It looked like a very expensive movie to me.

Reportedly $200 million, which seems like the average/usual Pixar production cost for the last several years.

Below are estimated budgets for Pixar productions over the past 15 years or so. A bit odd that they seem to spend about the same today as they've been spending for 15 years. No inflation in their budgets.

 

[Edwin-S]

This film is going to bomb hard if the attendance at the early release showing I was at is any indication. I was the only person in the theatre for a 2130 showing.

It will be too bad if it fails, because I thought it was quite good. It was certainly much improved over his first effort and, frankly, I liked it better than "Turning Red" and "Lightyear". It's too bad that Disney crippled Pixar as a theatrical brand by putting so many of it's during the pandemic directly on to Disney+. They have basically trained viewers to just wait for it to arrive on D+.

It did have the typical animation trope that annoys me; however, I know they never want to end these films on any downer notes.

I also find it funny how these films are always stigmatized as "children's films" when the themes and characterizations are anything but childish. Some of the characters in this film seemed more like real people than a lot of the characters in half the films playing rignt now in theatres.

It's a B+ in my book, but maybe I'm just easily satisfied. Good score too.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I was the only person in the theatre

I had one other person in mine. But I thought the movie was delightful and would highly recommend it.

 

[TravisR]

This film is going to bomb hard if the attendance at the early release showing I was at is any indication. I was the only person in the theatre for a 2130 showing.

I would not take the 9:30 on a Thursday night show as an indicator. The afternoon shows on the weekend will be a much better look at how it will do.