Disney's Elemental

Not sure I under why this one got such bad reviews. In a lot of ways I think this is actually a masterful piece of story telling, it is very down to Earth and real in a lot of senses and it is a perfect chaser to something like Nimona if you want a completely different approach to making a topic more approachable and understandable. 

My rough review is here:

• Quality: 7/10
• Story: 8/10
• Message: 10/10
• Overall: 8/10

Quality:

Obviously with a big budget studio behind it, the quality is pretty high. Also, it is animated which really helps I think. It is visually impressive and cohesive. I don't really have a lot to say here which does seem at odds with the high rating. But, for animated films I feel like quality is more of a gut-check thing for the most part.

Story:

The story is a lot of things. It is clearly about discrimination, most notably cultural. It is also about the bonds between parents and their children. And it dives a bit into loss as well. But, those are also more about the message. On the surface, the story is about a daughter who has always seen herself inheriting her father's shop, his life's work. But, in the process of trying to keep that dream alive, discovers that what she wants for herself isn't that, and also not what she thinks her parents want from her.

As you can probably gather from that, it is a pretty emotional story at times. It is also a very REAL story at times. It does something I don't see done often in children's movies; it subverts expectations at every turn. There is no bad guy. And everyone that you start out believing to be a bad guy ends up just being "normal people". Most people are just trying to live their lives or do their jobs. In a lot of cases they aren't actively trying to discriminate or hurt. And that is a very real lesson. In almost all cases, simply changes in circumstances or how you treat people result in drastically different outcomes. 

Message:

Where I felt Nimona kept the messages very real by changing the context entirely, Elemental takes it's messages and presents them much more literally. Just filtered through a different lens which makes it easier to see and express the concepts. In short, the characters in Elemental are facing rather overt racism and other forms of discrimination. What makes it relatable, or at least understandable, is the context. 

I found it even did a good job of highlighting systemic racism. For instance, they couldn't use the pre-existing public transit which made it difficult for them to appeal their case in a timely fashion, and existing housing and jobs weren't suitable. The lens through which this was shown didn't require me to be a visible minority to understand that systemic racism is nuanced. And it wasn't so in your face that you felt like you were being given a lesson on the topic.

But, it also covered more overt forms of racism. And once again, by not focusing on a real world example it allowed them to explore this without needing to worry about being insensitive or offending anyone which is real risk when broaching these sorts of topics. It also shows members of both "sides" as being either open or closed minded which is, again, another one of those real world things. 

Then it juggles this with other concepts, like the sacrifices we might make to please others, like our family.

Honestly, there is a LOT going on in this movie. And I liked it quite a lot. Like Nimona it is a vehicle to deliver a message and is an excellent example of a movie getting this right.

Overall:

At the end of the day, it does feel a bit gimmicky at times. While I think that is largely in service of helping to deliver the message, it does bring things down a bit. I also think it plays things a bit safe at times. There is not much in the way of overt racism toward the fire people in the main city. There is a LOT of systemic racism, but there just doesn't seem to be enough reason at times to explain why Ember's father is so... shall we say... defensively racist. While you expect the more positive feels to win out, you also kind of expect some justification for some of the fear mongering.

But, that is honestly about the biggest beef I have. It is a great movie. Might leave you with some hard questions from younger kids. But I see that as a good thing. I suspect teens would have little to no interest in the movie. Beyond that, I would go out of my way to watch the movie. Though, it will probably come to Disney+ shortly as well given the hoards of (unjustifiably) bad reviews.