#27: ELEMENTAL

 

Written by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh, from a story by Peter Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh. Directed by Peter Sohn. Running time 109 minutes. Budget $200 million.

The film follows the lives of fire elements Bernie and Cinder Lumen as they immigrate from their own country to set up home in Element City, where they find themselves the victims of some very mild forms of ethnic intolerance, mainly due to the fact they're made of fire and tend to burn things, or when angry explode violently. Anyway they have a daughter Amber, whom Bernie grooms to take over the family business, but the trouble is her temper keeps getting the better of her. Anyway, one day a water elemental, Wade splashes down into her life and so begins a gentle sweet romance with mild elements of jeopardy lightly thrown in their way, until everything is kindly resolved with some heart-to-heart dialogue.

Gone are the days where we waited with enthusiasm and baited breathe for the new Pixar movie, those wonderful pioneers of digital animated films whose mantra used to be Story is King. We'd get one every two or so years, and the wait was always worth it. Now they turn up with the regularity of buses and since they're no longer the only player in two we get two or three other animated films almost at the same time all vying for our attention.

Since my kids have become young adults I no longer need to go and see the latest animated film and I'm much relieved, if this is anything to go by. 

Back in the good old days before the all-consuming entertainment behemoth DISNEY swallowed them whole, Pixar films delivered nine truly extraordinary films in a 15 year period, films like The Incredibles, Wall-E, Up, Ratatouille, Monsters Inc and of course Toy Story. Each had brilliantly simple concepts and the story pushed the narrative. Nowadays it seems animated films are only concerned is conveying a message, of teaching our children a valuable life lesson, and no matter how good, or wholesome these messages of understanding, peace and harmony are, they don't half suck the fun out of animated movies.

In the good ole days, the conceit of an animated film could be summed up with a single sentence, not so today's fantastically complicated fare, each arrive with  elaborate background stories that need to be established and explained to make these CGI worlds work. This is ever so true in Elemental, which despite trying to explain its rules, never really fills in all the blanks and you find yourself wondering why things work they way they do in this strange world, especially since most of the rules appear to be in place just to propel the plot along. It doesn't feel organic.

Elemental is a beautiful looking film, indeed so beautiful that at times it's hard to actually work out what you're looking at. The animation is lovely the lighting, textures and all the technical gubbins are perfection. It's just that it's so concerned with being all things to all people and being all inclusive that it's just lost its spark, there is no protagonist in this film, unless you count Amber, who has to control her destructive nature and the film is so generic in terms of it's structure and moralising that the outcome is never in doubt nor the route the film will take to get there. 

It's sweet, charming, sometimes fun, sometimes exciting but ultimately just oh so very samey, safe, and utterly unthreatening. No Pinocchio or Snow White here thank you! 

Nothing to scare the kids, nothing for the grownups to laugh at. Just a safe sensible message about being nice to each other and considering everyone's point of view. 

So nothing to hate about it, and sadly nothing to really love about it either.

The Up short that accompanied this was a delight, and gains this film an extra 2 points. 

7/10