Hey Everyone! I hope you are all having an amazing week. Today I’m going to be talking about a film I watched recently that I feel like was a sleeper hit of 2023: Elemental. Elemental is a Disney Pixar movie that came out June 2023. It made a little under $500 million at the box office with a $200 million dollar which are pretty good margins, but for a Disney movie, I’m not going to lie, this is a little low which is sad because it was actually a pretty good movie.
What Stopped me from watching Elemental Initially
Back in late May/early June when this movie was about to come out, I had every intention of watching it. What immediately hooked me was the animation style. I found it very aesthetically pleasing which is a nod to the animators that worked on this film. Elemental was one of the most laborious movies Pixar has ever made because they had to create new technology for the animation. A lot of time and energy went into creating this film which I appreciate.
What stopped me from watching the movie was a combination of many reasons. 1, The Little Mermaid came out around this time and I was more focused on that. 2, Barbenheimer was taking up a lot of space in the film world and my mind. 3, The trailer was eh.
Elemental’s Premise
The trailer for Elemental was so lackluster. It paints the movie as this Romeo and Juliet remake, but there’s much more to the storyline. Picture this. An immigrant couple moves from their homeland to this big city where they don’t know the language, have no support system, and are faced with racial prejudices. They have to work from the ground up to make something for themselves. Over the course of many years, they start a business, become a part of an immigrant community, and have a daughter.
Once their daughter comes of age, the couple plans to pass down the family business to her. The big issue is that deep down the daughter doesn’t want to run the family business. She wants to have a life and career of her own, but she feels obligated to take over her family’s business because her parents have sacrificed so much for her. They left everything they’ve ever known to give her this amazing life. The daughter feels ashamed for having such grand dreams when her parents’ only dream was for her to have a good life. She feels like what every child of immigrants has felt at one point: guilty.
Weaved into the film is a romeo-juliet esque love plot, but that wasn’t the main focus for me.
Everyone should watch this movie not for the romance, but for the beautiful animation, beautiful characters, and beautiful story it tells. The movie may have had a not very good trailer, but if there’s one lesson you can take away from this is that you shouldn’t let a first impression be your only impression. This applies to movies, books, and even people.
Elemental is available here on Disney Plus. If you have time, please watch it in the near future.
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