I love how she wove lights into her hair! It’s hard to cosplay a character that has been done so many times before and still make it unique. I loved this one.
Disney
Elemental – JenEric Movie Review
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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Elemental.
Story
The trailers made this look like a trope-y rom-com rip-off of Zootopia. What it is instead is a wonderful story of immigration and family. The elements together in a big city is used well and not as a gimmick but a metaphor.
Score: 1
Characters
The two main charactes are animated in very traditional proportions and that’s unfortunate and stereotypical.
Their personalities are much better however and don’t fall into stereotypes too much. It did feel a little odd that neither of them had friends.
The rest of the characters and cast are fun and fairly well fleshed out.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
There are so many element puns that I can’t wait to rewatch and catch more.
The dialogue was very honest to their emotions and simplified. I liked the micro-aggressions from the well-meaning family, it gave the story some needed grounding.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The animation was amazing. Lighting, colour, detail, backgrounds, all beautiful. I loved the line art look of the fire people.
One of the fun parts of watching things with subtitles is seeing how they describe the music. Accorting to the subtitles, the music was “[Emotion] New Age music”. It was however extremely well done and worked perfectly with the tone and feel of the world.
Score: 1
Fun
This was fun in every concievable way. The 6yo said it was good but not great and the three year old concured.
The rest of the family loved it and I think it’s one of my top Pixar movies. Definitely going to want to rewatch this one.
Score: 1
Overall
The movie takes the story of an immigrant family and wraps it into a magical world of elements. The emotions are authentic and story compelling. It’s colourful, fun, and easy to watch.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5
The Rescuers – JenEric Movie Review
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1977 film The Rescuers.
Story
It followed the basic recipe of old noire detective stories even, ending on a boat. The story is well contained and cute, but not super original and wastes a lot of time on antics instead of story or characters.
Score: 0.5
Characters
I really like the interplay between the two mains, there was a nice romance arc to them. I also like the competent but humble male lead. It’s a nice switch.
The little girl was cute and the albatross hilarious, but the others were a little boring. The villain felt like a bad copy of Cruella.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue was efficient and had some nice quippy lines. Again, most of the best dialogue was between the two main characters.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
Watching it on Blu-ray meant being able to see the brush strokes on the stunning backgrounds. This movie was beautiful. I can see where this still influenced other film makers.
The music was good, especially the songs.
Score: 1
Fun
It’s a fun, easy to watch adventure movie with two likeable main characters. What’s not to like? The 6yo and the 4yo were glued to their seats (a refreshing change).
Score: 1
Overall
A classic adventure movie that is absolutely beautiful to watch and has two of the most likeable main characters in animated history.
Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5
