 I'm going to be frank with you, and you can be Emily if you want or Todd or I don't really care what name you call yourself. Elemental looked really bad when I saw the trailers. Looked terrible, atrocious, and Pixar lately hasn't been impressing me that much. I remember Buzz Lightyear, that movie was atrocious, could have been so, should have been so much better. This is Pixar for crying out loud. Anyway, that out of the way, I really liked Elemental. Let's talk about it. Here's the deal. The reason I didn't think Elemental looked good based on the trailer was because it presented itself as a very paint-by-numbers approach. A Romeo and Juliet love affair that we've heard a thousand times before. The girl and the boy can't be together. They come from different walks of life. She's fire. He's water. Those elements don't mix! But this movie mixes these elements so seamlessly. And the story is so cleverly done that it pulls you into the somewhat generic plot. Now, there is another plot going on here that isn't really prevalent in the trailer, and that's the storyline between the daughter and the father. And it's also one that we don't get a lot of in movies anymore, so it was kind of a breath of fresh air. Ember's the main protagonist here. She's voiced by Leah Lewis. Fantastic voice performance. Really dug this character. She works for her dad at his shop. Her dad an immigrant in this elemental world where fire, and water, and plant, and all the different clouds. That might be all of them. They all come together and live in perfect harmony. Kind of. They're also kind of segregated. You don't want fire messing around with the plant creatures, you know? It's all gonna go up in flames. We can't have that. Ember doesn't want to take over her dad's job, but that's exactly what's gonna happen. That's the roadmap that's been laid out in front of her. Her dad is her best buddy. They get along perfectly. How does she disappoint her old man? Well, she'll learn, of course, as this film progresses, how to communicate better. Because she has a hot temper, because she's made of fire. It makes sense. It just makes sense. And a real way to keep down the flame is to introduce a little water, and that little water is Wade Ripple. He's the doofus, fumbly, whiny baby man that she's gonna fall in love with. Now, I will say, upon first meeting Wade, I wasn't impressed. I'm like, this guy's crying a lot. Like, he's cried more in this first five minutes of his introduction than I've cried in my life. Because I'm a man, and men don't cry! As the movie progresses with him, though, you just realize that water people are that way. They express themselves in a much more vivid, open matter, as opposed to fire, who lets things bottle up. Before they explode, you're understanding the puns, you're understanding all the metaphors and the symbolism. It's all there. It's all right in your face. Like I said, the story works very well. Ember has to balance her home life with this new love life that she's got going on. And of course, there's gonna be conflict. Things are gonna come to a crashing head. But it looks amazing. Trailers, again, didn't really do much for me from a visual standpoint, either. It wasn't until I got into the theater and really took in all the magic going on that I thought, oh my god, there's so much detail in this film. And the way the elements are presented in different art styles, yet it all kind of seamlessly blends together, it's honestly wonderful. Now, I don't think this is top tier Pixar because we do have a pretty formulaic plot. I do think it is Pixar, though. This is one of the gems. This is one of those stories that you get from them where they take characters and individually they grow and they help you understand a thing or two as well. The movie has terrific pacing too. It's a rom-com. Lot of comedy, some good action. Of course, there's heart. You gotta have heart. It's Pixar. That's what they do, baby. There was one negative, a big negative for me at least, which was the opening 10 to 15 minutes short. Remember those? We haven't seen one in a while because a lot of the Pixar movies lately have been going straight to Disney+, which is a huge mistake, I think. Especially in the case of Luca, that movie was fantastic. Anyway, Up is the little short ahead of time. We follow the old dude and the dog-dog. I forgot the old man's name. Doesn't matter. This thing sucked. I couldn't wait for it to be over and it was a really bad introduction to Elemental. I hope that Elemental isn't sharing the same quality that this thing is because it's got fart jokes, it's got slapstick humor. It just doesn't work. And fun fact, it's been a while, I think, since parents have taken their kids to a film that has a little teaser short thing ahead of time. They didn't know what was going on. I had a mom a row in front of me turn to another Karen and say, is this the right movie? Is this Elemental? They had no idea because Disney just throws it up there. They don't say, you know, the movie will show after this little short presentation. No, it just goes right into this thing. You get the castle logo and then boom, you're in Upworld. And the mom turns to her and says, I think it's just a commercial. After 10 minutes, the son turns to his mom and says, this is a long commercial. And I just sat there like, these people don't know anything about movies. Mmm, my own farts. Mmm. Disney has two animated films right now in the theaters. The Little Mermaid Elemental. If you're on the fence about which one to go to, which one to bring your bratty kids to, Elemental is the easy pick. Support new creative films. Even if that new creative film is kind of old hat as far as the story arcs go, it's still doing something different. Little Mermaid's a pathetic, crappy carbon copy of something much better that came before. Shove that junk out. Go to Elemental. It's worth your time for sure. It's an easy watch for kids, too. The kids in the theater were hooked. They were all over it, even the one that was running up and down the aisle dancing. I see you, Betsy. Sit down. No one cares. You're not that impressive. I can get up and run around like a jackass, too. If you don't have children, is it worth going out and seeing? No, probably not. Unless you go to animated movies all the time that are aimed more at families with kids, then yeah, it is. I myself, I'm a big animation dude. I like going to this stuff. I'm a big Disney fan when it comes to their original content, especially Pixar. I would have saw it if I didn't have kids. If you're like that, you'll like that. And there you have it. That's Elemental, a movie that surprised me. It was better, way better than I thought. Again, not the greatest Pixar movie, not even in their top 10, but even a number 11 or a number 15 on the Pixar list is really damn good. Let me know in the comments if you saw Elemental or if you're planning on seeing it. Like this video if you kind of enjoyed yourself. You don't have to like the video even, but please hit the like because that helps me. Subscribe to the channel if you like what I'm doing here. I post tons of movie content each and every week. Would love to have you stick around. And after all that, I'll simply say, see you later because of the water. It's an element. Looking up. Thanks for watching.