The animation style and messages carry the film from start to finish, even if the plot can be quite predictable from the beginning. Did it deserve to flop? Absolutely not.

I saw this after seeing The Flash last weekend. I was initially going to post a review on that first before posting this. I finally got a review on that which you can find on my website. Since posting that, I really want to highlight the better film here. Elemental continues to take a safe approach within its plot, yet manages to overcome it to make a worthy movie with amazing visuals and relevant themes. It may not make or break your experience, but seeing this in 3D not only made the movie experience worth it, but I was in awe throughout this film with its visuals. It is nothing like any other animation, or Pixar, movie I have ever seen. It continued to make each scene fun and exciting. The messages were quite surprising as it attempts to convey why it’s okay for people from different backgrounds and origination to be okay together. There are stereotypes set in place due to the anxiety and anger that people have experienced without getting the opportunity to ever understand the other perspective. I personally loved that and I believe this will be welcoming to all viewers.

The only thing I knew about this film prior was that it was being described as a romantic story. Better yet, it was being marketed as Pixar’s first romantic story. Based off that alone, I just knew what was going to happen in the overall story and how it was all going to be wrapped up in the end. The complex nature of these characters are challenging, yet the way it all gets resolved is perhaps a little too easy and relatable to films that did it better. There is really no curve-balls that surprise the audience; although, I will say that something towards the end did catch me off guard a little bit, but then I reminded myself that I was watching a Pixar movie. Low and behold, it was resolved easily and quickly. I don’t think there were enough challenges to make this story unique, but I think the messages alone make this movie worth watching.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty enjoyable movie. I had a good time with the visual style, the messages were extremely relevant, and it had a lot of light-heartedness to it. What really holds the movie back is that the end can be seen from a mile away. It is very predictable and it doesn’t stand out for a Pixar movie. If anything, I am starting to see a safe formula in terms of plot for Pixar, which is probably the reason why it hasn’t done well at the box office.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)