#TNC analyzes animated movies

[t-n-c]

A Comprehensive List of my Thoughts on Elemental (STILL WITH SPOILERS!)

So here's the rundown I promised of my feelings toward Elemental

SPOILERS BELOW PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

The Good

The music--I found it memorable and unique; the main theme had soft vocalizations that felt almost ethereal, like it was an ancient hymn. I also found the song that played during the montage of Ember and Wade's dates catchy and fun. It was pretty great soundtrack imho.

The design of the world--I really loved how they creators took into account how all these different elements would move and interact in the city. It made the setting feel, for lack of a better term, more "real" to me. It also set up some of Ember's conflict as a Fire element living in a city that wasn't made with her people in mind.

The designs of (most of*) the characters--for the most part, the characters looked unique and, even better, they looked like average people (for lack of a better term) to me; call me a sap or whatever, but I've always preferred characters that have all the "flaws" of average folks than the ones that look like some iteration of "perfect," they just feel more relatable to me I guess. I also found it fun to see how design features such as "hair" were incorporated in the characters and how those same features varied between the elements. If there's one thing I can consistantly praise Pixar for it's for not being afraid to play around with design.

The animation---I loved how the characters moved and interacted in the world. The felt like living things and I appreciated that.

Wade and Ember are adults implied to be in their mid-to-late 20s--This is probably just a me thing, but I find it nice when I see shows where the protagonists aren't adolescents or barely-18 young adults going through some sort of coming-of-age scenario; there's nothing wrong with those kinds of stories of course, I just find them a bit boring and over-done myself. That and whenever I see films like that it always feels like they're insinuating that people over XYZ age can't be protagonists, so I tend to avoid them these days. On a related note, here are some other reasons why I like that Ember and Wade are adults: a) They both still live with their parents but neither of them is shamed or mocked for it--I've seen waaaay too many "comedies" that pick fun at the "25-year-old-living-in-their-mom's-basement" so I found it nice to not have to sit through that kind of "joke" again, b) Neither of them have got their lives "figured out" yet--Wade's gone through multiple jobs, and Ember's just begun to understand what she actually wants for her life--as someone who's gone through multiple jobs, earned 2 bachelor's degrees and is in the process of getting a master’s, and is still trying to make sense of their life, I found their struggles extremely relatable; it's nice to see adult protagonists be allowed to struggle with figuring out who they are and what they want to be, c) They're allowed to have fun and goof off--in a lot of films I've seen, the adult characters are always depicted as being so serious and "boring" it's nice to see adult characters actually have fun and enjoy life.

Ember' relationship with her parents, specifically her father--I found the interactions they had very sweet and moving; it made Ember's conflict between choosing to take over her father's shop or pursue her romance with Wade all the more relatable, imo.

How Ember and Wade's romance developed--it wasn't a love-at-first-sight kind of thing; they actually had to spend time interacting and getting to know each other before they fell in love--and most importantly, they showed us on the actual screen how/when they started to fall for each other. They went on dates, opened up to each other, fought with each other, etc--all the things that normal relationships have; while sure, there's still an aspect of "forbidden romance" to their relationship, it's more subtle and in the background than the trailers implied it would be. It also doesn't end with marriage and kids--they leave together for Ember’s internship and it’s implied that they’ve moved in together but that’s all; idk I thought it was nice that they could just be a couple.

The Bad

1. The blink-and-miss representation LGBTQ+ representation--I've gotten reeeeeeaaaally tired of how LGBTQ+ characters are treated in films; to clarify, there's a scene where Wade introduces Ember to his family and he introduces her to his youngest sibling, Lake (who is described as being nonbinary in supplemental materials) and her/them girlfriend, Ghibli. Lake's identity as nonbinary is a bit ambiguous in the film (Wade does refer to them as his youngest sibling, but that's all we get--without the tie-in material it's to mistake them for being WLW). Further, between them Lake and Ghibli have at most 2-3 lines in the entire movie--like I appreciate that us LGBTQ+ are being recognized and put in films, but I'm tired of all our rep always being the side characters that hold no weight in the story; I think they can start making shows with LGBTQ+ leads now, thank you.

2. Wade's fake death--I'm not a fan of having characters (and the audience) go through huge, life-changing events only to have the events "fixed" and everything be all hunky-dory again--imo, it's a cheap trick to manipulate the audiences' emotions at best, and at worst, it's a disrespectful act that not-to subtly implies that the audience "can't handle" seeing the characters go through heavy stuff. I'm a firm believer that if you're going to have your characters go through something as serious as having one die on screen you need to commit to it--you need to take it seriously, pulling a 180 and undoing all that development is cliche to the point of annoyance. Now, I'm not saying I wanted Wade to die, I'm not even saying that I think he should have stayed dead--what I'm saying is that I don't think there should have ever been a "death" scene in the film at all--there are plenty of other ways they could have had Ember realize her feelings for Wade/be honest with her father.

Mixed Feelings Section

1. Ember and Wade's designs*--it's not that they're terrible or anything, but they are a bit generic imo. In comparison to their family members and the background characters, they both have that "typical protagonist" look that I find a bit cliche

2. Wade's family being 'good' rich people who don't mind that Wade's in love with Ember vs Ember's father who spends most of the film being aggressively anti-water--I'm kind on the fence with this tbh; on the one hand, if both sides had been against Ember and Wade's relationship, I feel it would have put too much emphasis on the romance and taken away Ember's story as the child of immigrants, and it's not like Wade's family weren't bigoted at all--they threw plenty of micro-aggressions at Ember when she first met them; that being said I do have to side-eye how they made the ones more accepting of fire people Wade's rich, probably-descendents-of-the-founders-of-Element-City family and made the one most aggressively against water people Ember's immigrant-built-his-family-a-home-and-business-from-scratch father. Idk, it feels iffy to me.

3. Most of the Wade and Ember's interactions takes place within a week--As much as I felt that their romance was pretty well-paced, I can't deny that they still fell for each other very quickly--I get that the main plot point had set it up that they only had a week to fix the broken water-spill doors, but I don't know why it had to be a week; why couldn't it have been a couple of weeks or a month? It would have made a lot more sense both for the romance and the main plot, but I digress, I still found their relationship adorable.

4. The experiences of immigrants is homogenized--The culture of the fire people draws on a lot of different types of immigrants, the Irish, different Asiatic groups, maybe some Middle Eastern groups, etc--and while I appreciate that the story was about immigrants and experiences they share in common I also felt a bit iffy about taking all these different cultures and merging them together. I feel it would have been better they made the fire people's culture more of a unique entity than a combination of cultures.

Like I said before, I highly recommend this movie; it's cute and tugs at your heart-strings.

#Elemental #Pixar Elemental #Wade Ripple #Ember Lumen #TNC analyzes animated movies #Elemental 2023 spoilers #Elemental spoilers #I don't know if there'll be a sequel or anything #but I think there's enough there that a potential sequel could work #if nothing else I can see these characters having a successful cartoon series or some shorts #I realize these aren't the first adult characters that Pixar has had as protagonists #Mr. Incredible #Mrs. Incredible/elastigirl #Mr. Fredrickson #Joe Gardner #etc #but it's still rare enough that I appreciate it when I see it

[t-n-c]

My thoughts on Elemental... (CAUTION: CONTAINS SPOILERS)

So, I went and saw Elemental with my twin over the weekend and I really liked it; granted, I wouldn't say it's ground-breaking or anything, but it was way better than I thought it would be--the trailers/marketing really didn't do the movie justice.

To clarify that last part a bit, the trailer (or at least the impression I got from it) kind of implied it would be an analogy for a (straight) interracial couple in a kind of "Romeo-&-Juliet-Their-Love-Is-Forbidden" romance. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that kind of story or anything, the "experiences of fantastical creatures used as stand-ins for real-life issues" and "guy-meets-girl=love" schticks are over-done (imo at least).

With that being said, the inter-elemental relationship between the two leads wasn't actually the main point of film. Sure, the romantic element (excuse the pun) does play a big role, but the crux of the story is about Ember Lumen (the fire elemental) and her experiences as... (SPOILERS AHEAD)

...the daughter of immigrants who came to the city build a better life for her and themselves.

It's this aspect of Ember's identity that moves the story forward not her developing relationship with Wade Ripple (the water elemental).

We see this throughout the film. It's Ember's beginnings that we're originally introduced to and it's Ember who we follow as she experiences being othered by a city that wasn't made with fire people like her in mind, respecting/retaining traditions important in her culture, and feeling that she has no choice but to take over her father's shop as a means to repay him and her mother for the tremendous sacrifice they made in leaving their homeland to build a life for the three of them in Element City. It's Ember's desire to do right by her parents, specifically her father, even if it means giving up her own wants/dreams that makes up the drama of the film.

This desire is also what creates conflict in her romance with Wade. The closer she gets to him the more conflicted she feels; she becomes torn between continuing to see him and honoring the obligations she feels she has to her father and their way of life. At first, she chooses her father and culture over Wade and (in a rather emotional scene) tries to end the relationship. They do end up together at the end however—I don’t want to spoil everything that happens between the scenes but I’m comfortable revealing that much.

All-in-all, I felt it was a pretty good show with a moving story and cute little romance. When I have a bit more time I'll make a more detailed post going over what I liked/disliked/had mixed feelings about, but for now I’ll just say that I thought it was good and leave it at that.

#elemental 2023 spoilers #elemental spoilers #wade ripple #ember lumen #pixar #animated film #TNC analyzes animated movies #Elemental Pixar #Elemental 2023 #Elemental film #Elemental