I am sure the folks at Pixar could probably care less what a former super-fan  and fledgling film critic thinks of their recent films but on the off chance that someone reading is interested I have something to say. For years what made Pixar special was not only the incredible animation but the tightly crafted emotional stories they told. They took a concept of toys coming to life or monsters being real and crafted a story around this idea with emotion and some of the most memorable characters in the history of film.

Unfortunately in the last 10 years the studio has abandoned their storytelling finesse in favor of artistic visions and overall concepts. While in theory I love the idea of individual artistic visions and cultures being showcased this only makes a lasting impression if the stories and characters around these concepts are memorable and well told. Sadly this has not been the case. I don’t know if they are too scared of disrupting a creator’s vision or don’t want to appear culturally insensitive but clearly the tough cuts and storybuilding process has been abandoned in favor of messy scripts that pitch cultures and values without the narrative to back them up.

For example, last year’s Turning Red had a compelling concept of a girl turning into a panda while experiencing puberty but it was executed with a muddled metaphor that was more about catch-phrases than an effective earned character journey for our protagonist. The same thing goes for Soul where a compelling world of the after-life and a man facing a mid-life crisis is left to flail about as our protagonist baffling becomes a cat for a long section. The recent Lightyear was all concept and a bizarre concept at that, which practically nobody wanted or frankly understood (if you have to make up whole videos explaining the idea behind your franchise film maybe it’s not a great idea to begin with?) Regardless, the story they gave for whatever Buzz that was is weak at best.

Honestly the only recent Pixar film that has a clean well-executed story is Luca. They have the artistic vision of director Enrico Casarosa but it is married with a simple and sweet story of friendship  that largely works.

Now we have their latest film Elemental and is perhaps their greatest example of concept over story. As a result, I left underwhelmed and frankly bored. There are things to enjoy, particularly the stunning animation, but the story is just not compelling nor are the characters.

The concept for this film is a city of elements where earth, water, fire and air all exist as sentient beings that interact with each other. It’s never really explained what makes something a walking creature verses the land used to build the city (in this world are there talking trees and actual trees as separate entities? Are there normal clouds and talking clouds?) None of that matters. We are presented with a fire person named Ember and a water person named Wade and asked the question can they fall in love?

Again this is a concept that could be compelling. Anything can be good with good writing. Unfortunately what we are presented with is long sections where they try to change permits and fiddle with the zoning of Ember’s parents store.

I also didn’t think either Wade or Ember were very well written characters. Ember has a temper but it’s kind of portrayed in a positive way as if she is a passionate person who needs to express her soul. It’s similar to Mei needing to unleash her panda in Turning Red but ambition and enthusiasm is different than anger and rage.

Wade on the other hand seems completely influenced by other people in terms of what he wants and desires out of life. I was never really sure why he is attracted to Ember. She’s not particularly nice to him and we are never given any reasons but a vague notion of he see’s the real her. What?

The immigrant story in Elemental is also a good concept with Ember’s parents being rejected by the city so they start their own store that becomes a landmark in the town. It’s weird because Ember seems perfectly happy to be running her parents store at the beginning of the film, yet she has this random rage dealing with customers, and then in the middle of the movie she decides she hates the idea of running the store and hates her parents for making her do it. No wonder they are confused! I was confused.

This is what I’m saying- the concept is there, the narrative around that concept is muddled and weak. These problems make it harder to connect with the characters and us as viewers filling in the blanks in the story in order for it to make sense and flow smoothly. We shouldn’t have to do such heavy lifting in our films. We shouldn’t leave the theater saying “I see what they were trying to do…”

In the end, despite loving the 2D inspired animation and world-building I left Elemental thinking “why was so much of that about permits and why do the fire people have so many pipes to begin with? Why do they need water in their store at all?” I shouldn’t be thinking such questions but when the narrative isn’t compelling that’s where the mind goes. It’s not just enough to make a romance- you have to give reasons why the characters are attracted to each other and what makes them a compelling couple I’m rooting for. I keep using that word compelling but that’s the element that was missing in Elemental- a compelling story!

Unfortunately with Elemental I was left cold (Element City cold but still cold). A concept without a story does not a memorable film make…

5 out of 10

Frown Worthy

If you like what I do please consider supporting me on patreon. There’s some great perks and I sure appreciate it https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies

I learned something going to the latest Pixar movie Lightyear. (As a critic you need to keep learning, growing and expanding your idea of what makes a great film). I realized a film can have a very questionable concept and premise but if it is executed with enough panache and good spirits I don’t care. A talented filmmaker can take a convoluted and jumbled premise and make a compelling film. Likewise a poor filmmaker can take a simple premise and execute it into a big mess (Superman 4 comes to mind).

I have had many a Pixar devotee explain to me the concept of this movie. Evidently in the world of Toy Story there was a movie about a space ranger man named Buzz Lightyear (at first they said this was a true story in that world but that has clearly been abandoned given there are aliens and evil Emperor Zurg appears). This film was evidently the Star Wars of the Toy Story world and young Andy was a big fan (he was 6 at the start of the first film which is pretty young but we’ll go with it).

The Lightyear movie (which we get a title card to at the beginning saying this is the movie Andy watched) was so popular that like Ghostbusters and Robocop it spawned an animated series in 1995 (ala Saturday morning cartoons). Then the animated series inspired the doll which Andy got for his birthday and it proceeded to ruin Woody’s life. That’s why in this movie there aren’t many of the catchphrases or Tim Allen’s voice (Chris Evan’s plays Buzz here, which I still think it is weird because most animated series still use at least soundalikes for the live action characters).

Anyway, all that explanation helps us get started with the new movie Lightyear. I definitely think it is a risk to present a new version of a beloved character like Buzz (think Runaway Brain with its horror version of Mickey Mouse which upset many people), but my friends tell me it won’t be a problem for the average moviegoer so who knows? I guess we will see.

So after explaining all that nonsense how is the actual movie? To my somewhat skeptical surprise it was an enjoyable space adventure. As distracting as all the Toy Story connections are, the core story and characters are fun and the animation is terrific.

The story takes Buzz Lightyear space ranger- human person, onto a distant planet where a group of explorers are trying to get back to their home planet. Buzz has a group of ranger friends including his best friend Alisha (Uzo Aduba) and a robotic cat named Sox (director Peter Sohn). We also get to know a pen-obsessed ranger Mo (Taika Waititi) and an older ranger named Darby Steel (Efren Ramirez).

I won’t give any more spoilers but Buzz goes on his adventures and the passage of time takes its toll on all of the characters. Similar to Up we get an emotional montage at the beginning involving one of the characters that is moving and lovely. We also have tons of fun with Sox who is destined to go down as one of the great Disney cats (I wrote a whole history of Disney cats a few years ago so I know!). Even if kids don’t get the convoluted concept they may like Sox enough to enjoy Lightyear regardless.

There are parts of the story in Lightyear I didn’t love. The villain felt strange and heavy-handed, which I didn’t care for. Also it’s only 105 minutes but it felt long in spots. I wasn’t with kids when I saw it but I can imagine especially young kids getting fidgety in sections.

Like I said, I went into this film skeptical. The trailers hadn’t impressed me, and I still think the concept is a reach. But the wizards at Pixar worked their magic and managed to win me over. I kind of wish it was an entirely new franchise without all the distractions but we’ll see how audiences respond. I recommend seeing it on the IMAX if possible. The animation is gorgeous and deserves as big a screen as it can be seen on (especially since the last 3 Pixar movies haven’t gotten that consideration it feels extra special).

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

If you enjoy what I do please consider supporting at patreon where you can get tons of fun perks. https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies

For years whenever a superhero movie sequel came out I wondered to myself ‘will they ever make The Incredibles 2?” The 2004 film is not only one of my favorite animated films but is my favorite superhero movie along with Wonder Woman. It so brilliantly weaves together traditional superhero themes with a message of the mundane nature of modern work and the toxicity of pretending to be something you are not. Now in this sequel Brad Bird and his team have managed to combine classic superhero fun with a reminder that when “done properly, parenting is a heroic act.”

Incredibles 2 starts off where the first movie leaves us. Unfortunately, the people have not immediately welcomed back Supers like you might expect. They see carnage and suffering left by Syndrome and look for someone to blame in the Supers. This leaves the Parr family in a tricky dynamic of having a newfound confidence in their powers but living out of a hotel without a way to support each other.

One day a businessman named Winston Deavor approaches them with a seemingly perfect solution. He wants to use Elastigirl as a spokesperson for a movement to bring the supers back out of hiding. This requires Helen to go away from the family but it provides housing, employment and a way to help their family and others be their super selves.

This is where we get to the real cream of Incredibles 2. Bob must figure out how to solo parent for not only his 3 children but 3 special children including baby Jack Jack who has over 17 powers he can’t control. The scenes with Bob and his kids brilliantly show the exhaustion of parenting especially with an infant. It oddly made me think of the movie Tully and how exhausted Charlize Theron’s character is when carrying for her new baby.

What separates Bob, however, from a lot of movie Dads is he both struggles and succeeds. For example, Dash has the new math (which is totally a thing), and Bob is overwhelmed but eventually they figure it out. Violet is angry with her Dad and he messes up but then they have a really sweet moment where she tells him he’s doing a super job and let’s him sleep for 17 hours. This made Bob’s story feel human and relatable instead of just mindless slapstick.

The highlight of the film is when Bob takes Jack Jack to meet Edna Mode and she turns out to be a better parent than we might expect. After all it takes a village to raise a child and that is certainly true with Jack Jack!

I also appreciated how Incredibles 2 allowed the kids to be empowered without turning them into mini-adults like other franchises do. Violet and Dash use their powers to help save their parents but only when they have to. They still need their parents for love, guidance and protection. It was very well done.

Some of the elements in Incredibles 2 are pedestrian like the predictable villain but it is surrounded by such engaging fast-paced action, quippy dialogue and striking animation that I didn’t care. Not every part of every movie needs to reinvent the wheel for things to work. Plus, the standard superhero segments still gives us a ton of new characters with fun super powers like Voyd and Brick. Frozone (Lucius) also gets much more screen time and dialogue, which was a delight.

There are other messages hidden inside of Incredibles 2 like our dependence on technology and the way we are pitched glossy showcases of progress without real change being made but my main takeaway was a reminder at how difficult parenting is. How it takes the best out of even superheroes but in the end it is worth it. Loving families and children growing up to be the best version of themselves is worth it. I’m not even a parent but I think that is a fantastic message and something we need to see more in film. So many parents are either shown to be demanding jerks or idiots that this is not as common in film as you might think.  Most parents are trying as hard as they can and if they get frustrated by new math or a baby that won’t sleep let’s all try and help them out as much as we can. They are the true superheroes!

Overall Grade- A-