RATING- 5/10
Pixar, who was once the dominating animation studio, has been on a downward spiral ever since the cinemas reopened with their film losing out to competitors such as Sony Pictures Animation, Illumination, and Dreamworks having huge critical and commercial successes but Pixar has been struggling to churn out a really memorable film lately. The studio is known for exploring mature themes and complex yet relatable storytelling that appeals to everyone, most of which involves stuff that can't talk behave anthropomorphically but am sorry to say, this formula has seen an expiry date now with their latest outing Elemental unable to inspire audiences and be a highly forgettable affair due to many factors.
The film tries to explore many themes such as the negative effects of a bad temper, living up to your parent's expectations, xenophobia towards immigrants, and fire-water metaphors among many others but it cannot live up to any of them in its brief runtime, leading to a highly overstuffed screenplay which confuses viewers about which path it is taking. The film is basically a rom-com at heart where two different elements i.e. fire and water fall in love and try to be together, something which is done countless times. The romance feels very cliché and one-note and the chemistry between the leads Wade and Ember, despite being cute, fails to leave a mark due to the many other themes it tries to explore. The infusion of background score that resembles Indian music and many tropes taken straight out from a typical Bollywood romantic family drama shows how much the director Peter Sohn was inspired by Indian cinema but these attempts at being overdramatic especially in the pre-climax when the male protagonist confesses his love for Ember in public feel rather rudimentary than something to bawl your eyes out for. The humor, mostly involving puns around elements, works only in parts and comes across as rather childish. The story is very predictable and offers nothing original despite being an all-new story with no franchise background which is a bummer for a studio that introduced so many innovative and unconventional ideas in Hollywood animation with the same formula.
About the technical front, the film boasts stunning visuals but that is a given with such a high budget of over $200 million. Element City, which is the film's primary setting, looks ravishing on the big screen along with the characters, who are only anthropomorphic elements, looking realistic too with apt facial detailing. The music works in parts with one original song recorded by Lauv standing out but not being the earworm you will loop after the movie finishes. The background score composed by Thomas Newman also doesn't mesh well with the movie's themes and situations. The cinematography and art direction are top-notch too, giving the movie a unique look that distinguishes it from the pack. Voice acting is also excellent with all the actors essaying their roles well, most of them lesser-known faces rather than A-listers. The editing is crisp with the movie getting a very short runtime of just 1 hour 41 minutes with not a single scene feeling boring or unnecessary despite the film's weak writing.
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Overall, Elemental is easily one of the weakest films the studio has produced due to the derivative and run-of-the-mill nature of the script despite the film being technically brilliant. It is easily the weakest big-budget animated film released this year so far, failing to provide an experience one will remember for years. Commercially also, things look very bleak for the film in India just like its dismal performance overseas as the film might fail to even cross the 2 crore mark in India Recommended for an easy-breezy family watch due to its short runtime and the social messages it tries to provide but only if the viewer manages their expectations. Strictly mediocre! 5/10