By M. Ahmadad

“Stunning animation sparks this cross-cultural, high-concept ‘Romeo & Juliet’ romantic comedy, inspired by the periodic chart of elements that one recalls from science class.” (Critic Susan Granger on ‘Elemental’)

‘Elemental’ is one of the most recent Pixar films, released in June 2023. Despite receiving a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and being generally seen by the media as a cute, likable, and enjoyable film with a nice plot, the movie suffered an unfortunate flop.

The first opening weekend for ‘Elemental’ only made $29 million, and over the span of two months grossed $425 million worldwide. The budget for the movie’s creation was $200 million dollars, so the profit made was much smaller than other Pixar films opening weekend, like ‘Inside Out’ or ‘Coco’.

Prior to the movie’s release, people were skeptical about ‘Elemental’ and didn’t have high hopes. Now that the movie is released, a lot of people are actually quite satisfied with it; the movie having a 4.2 star rating.

The problem likely stems from the promotional marketing strategy for ‘Elemental’. Fans were already skeptical about newer animated children’s films from Disney/Pixar, so seeing the first teaser for ‘Elemental’ made already wary people form assumptions about how the film would go.

The trailers and ads on social media, like TikTok, did not attempt to showcase the two main characters and the chemistry between them, which was the highlight of the actual film. Instead, they tried to go the comedy route and advertise a minor side character, in hopes that he would be endearing to viewers.

However, Clod has less than 3 minutes of screen time in the actual movie, so the amount of time they spent promoting this character lead to people finding it misleading. There was even a short-lived meme where people made sarcastic comments behaving like they cared about Clod, saying that they screamed when he came on screen and cried.

It is generally agreed that the marketing of this movie was not up to par, considering that the trailers decided not to promote much of anything about the two main characters and their relationship, which was the highlight of the actual film.

So, while ‘Elemental’ may not have been given the chance to shine, many people think it’s a touching and beautifully animated film. If you’re considering watching it, it’s recommended to not keep the ads in mind.

You can watch ‘Elemental’ on Disney+.