What has fallen flat atPixar?
Pixar always had something new up its collective artistic sleeve.
And yet here they are, coming out with a film as dull-witted and syrupy asElemental.
‘Elemental’Disney/Pixar
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Fire people are dangerous goods.
Water people, afraid of being turned into steam, ban them from public buildings.
Nasty ones regularly tell them to get back where they came from, meaning Fireland.
Embers family are immigrants who came to Element City from Fireland after storms laid waste to their hometown.
The barely-tolerated fire people therefore stick with their own.
It would take an act of God to get me over that bridge… everything I need is here.
Lets not shortchange it.
There are also some wild explosions, particularly when Ember loses her temper.
There are sensational floods and a colorfully conceived football match between aggressive clouds.
There just isnt a line or a situation that would make you laugh out loud.
Not even if you were four.
Nobody knows anything, as William Goldman said.
There are bits that are just plain dull.
Perhaps the romance is aimed at girls, while the engineering snippets are a sop offered to the boys?
Smug moralizing is an enduring element of family entertainment, admittedly.
It would have saved time.
