Elemental is a movie about a Water Boy and a Fire Girl falling in love despite societal norms refusing the relationship. It’s a movie that went over many people’s heads after its release on June 16, 2023. The movie became one of the lowest-grossing films Pixar has ever released, only bringing in $397.5 million, a slap in the face compared to the 1 billion dollars Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 individually got at the box office. But is that because of Elemental’s poor advertising or a poor story?
According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, critiques gave Elemental a 74% on the Tomatometer, whereas audience score gave it a whopping 93%. It can be taken from this information that the movie truly isn’t all that bad, with one critique saying, “It’s dreamy, surreal, magically entertaining without a moment of dullness. Do not miss it for the world.” Another critique states, “The pieces of Elemental go together just like the blending of hydrogen and oxygen to create water.” But are these statements the truth?
The movie starts out with a fire couple arriving in Elemental City looking for a place to settle down and call home. They have a daughter named Ember, and the viewers see her grow up and learn to care for her father’s shop, which she is to inherit whenever he finds her ready to take over.
On Red Dot Day, when the shop puts on a heavy sale, Ember loses her temper and, in an attempt to cool off, bursts the pipes in the shop’s basement. Here she meets Wade, a waterboy inspector who reports the shop for pipe leakage and illegal construction of the shop. After telling Wade her story, Ember and him embark on a journey to save the shop.
The story shows many moments of Wade and Ember getting closer, forming a romantic relationship as the movie progresses. There are heartfelt scenes and emotional turmoil when Ember slowly realizes she wants more in life than to take care of her father’s shop. There are many relatable scenes and a conflict within the familial relationships.
The story is paced perfectly with beautiful animation and scenery. There are lovable characters like Wade’s considerably large family or Ember’s “smoke-reading” mother. There really is nothing wrong with this movie, so why don’t more people know or appreciate it?
Disney did many different types of advertising on social media and in the public. With teenagers being the main audience for the movie, the social media platform TikTok became the perfect place to advertise the movie. However, many app users didn’t find the advertisements appealing or intriguing. Users found the ads focused on Rock Boy Clod, a minor character from the film, to be annoying. What’s On Disney Plus says, “There’s been a lack of promotion through traditional media, like posters, tv spots, product tie-ins, etc.” This can explain how many weren’t even aware that the movie was being made and released in June of this year.
Unfortunately, this amazingly written story with heartfelt characters and real-life issues many can relate to was thrown to the side after advertising failed to do its job. Thousands of viewers were blind to the romantic fantasy, and now many will never know the experience they missed.
I would recommend this movie to anyone because anyone can relate to it. This movie pulled my heartstrings with its amazing characters and story. I would give it an 8/10 only because it didn’t quite blow me out of the water, but it became very close.
