Elemental proves Pixar has some big problems

It should be a school holiday blockbuster. Instead, it's a reminder of Pixar's decline. Plus, everything else landing this weekend, including Mission: Impossible 7's weird weekend premiere.

Hello and happy Friday! If you’re a parent, congratulations on surviving your first week of school holidays. If it was anything like mine, you probably found yourself winging it, organising play dates and snack packs on the fly while desperately trying to grab some brain space to get through your own to-do list. What would help is some decent content to pass the time, stuff that isn’t just brain fluff but actually provokes thoughts and feelings. There used to be a studio that did that the best. Sadly, that’s no longer the case. Today, we’re talking about the rise and fall of the once mighty Pixar.
-Chris Schulz, senior writer, The Spinoff

Pixar’s new film will not set your school holidays on fire

Where’s the spark? Ember and Wade, the duo at the heart of Elemental.

It’s a love story between an unlikely couple. The saying opposites attract is apt: one’s hot-headed, the other’s cool as a cucumber. But the pair live in a world in which they can’t be together. When everyone around you belongs to one of the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – there’s a simple rule you’re forced to abide by: the elements can never mix and mingle. Yet the two of them can’t stay away from each other. When Ember (fire) and Wade (water) are together, sparks do indeed fly.

The same can’t be said for Elemental. With its 27th film, Pixar is attempting to steady the ship and reclaim its crown as the titans of animation. After the limp Luca, the underperformance of Turning Red and the just plain terrible Lightyear, Pixar desperately needs a hit. It’s gone all out to get it with Elemental. Seven years in the making, with a budget of $200 million, it’s expecting this to do big business, the kind of box office success story a new Toy Story or Monsters Inc sequel might become.

I’m sad to report that Elemental does not return Pixar to its glory days. It feels more like a throwaway, the equivalent of an artist’s b-sides album, with a few decent scattershot ideas in among stuff that’s already been done to death, mostly by Pixar itself. Crucially, Elemental feels lightweight, lacks soul, and has few of the knowing in-jokes that helps a movie connect with both parents and their kids. The jokes fall flat. The story is one-dimensional. Much of it is boring. Even the animation feels … off.

“[It] may be the first work from Pixar to feel like it was generated entirely by AI,” said The Hollywood Reporter in one of the film’s harshest reviews. Box office takings are not good. In fact, it’s had one of the poorest receptions for a Pixar film yet.

It didn’t used to be this way. Up until 2019’s Toy Story 4, Pixar had a lock on supplying school holiday stunners. The studio’s trick move was wrapping up movies that looked like they were for kids into packages that everyone could enjoy. They let kids be kids but also allowed adults to feel like children again, too. Look at the line-up: Toy Story, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, Up, Wall-E, Cars, Ratatouille, and my personal favourite, Inside Out. It’s a hard heart that isn’t softened by at least one of those films.

Lately, though, it’s been slim pickings. I remember watching Soul in Dunedin during the 2020 Christmas holidays and thinking, “Yikes”. While Turning Red had a great premise and solid reviews, it was thwarted by bad marketing and a lack of theatre promotion. I haven’t seen Luca or Lightyear – the trailers weren’t promising, the reviews sounded bad, so I didn’t bother.

Pixar’s internal problems may have something to do with this. It recently cut 75 jobs including several of the key team responsible for Lightyear. Much has been written about the misconduct of ousted boss John Lasseter. It’s true that Pixar is going through something of a troubled post-Covid phase, reorganising its operations while it works out the correct mix between streaming and theatrical release dates. It’s also true that Elio, next year’s space-themed original, could help right some of these wrongs, but that all depends on the film fixing some of the very big issues on display in Elemental. (To address their problems, Pixar’s also going back to its greatest hits. Inside Out 2 is scheduled for next year, and Woody and Buzz are returning for Toy Story 5.)

Pixar’s biggest problem is that times have changed. Things have gotten darker since the whimsical worlds of Toy Story and The Incredibles were bought to life. The studio doesn’t seem to be moving with the times. Recently, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse swung into theatres, showing off a dizzying web of pulsating animation tricks that pop all over the screen. It’s the best-looking movie of the year, perhaps of the decade. It hums with the kind of vibrancy and life Elemental can only dream of.

Then there’s Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, a film based on a hit stop-motion YouTube clip that has the kind of visual quirks and whimsical premise – shells alive! – Pixar used to spit out regularly. Even if you’ve already seen it, I’d suggest watching it again (it’s free, on Neon, from today) with a few kids on the couch beside you. They’ll be giddy with delight. Sadly, Elemental’s probably not going to light your school holidays on fire in the same way.

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WTF is going on in the world of podcasts?

It’s hard to ignore the headlines. Spotify has laid off entire divisions, made hundreds of staff redundant and shuttered previously lauded studios. Stitcher, the podcast app I’ve favoured for at least the past five years and one I use almost daily (it takes second place on my home screen, only behind Apple Music) is being closed down completely. On August 31, Stitcher will be deleted from the App Store and cease operation. The rough year for podcasts predicted by Vulture in January seems to be coming true.

Personally, I’ve noticed this trend in a different way: a decline in the number and quality of new podcasts being launched. It wasn’t long ago that you didn’t have to look far to find a hot new show to binge your way through, whether that was a true crime murder mystery or two friends talking shit about the same topic twice a week. Family and friends used to send so many links I didn’t have time to listen to them all.

That doesn’t seem to be the case any more. I can’t remember the last time I ripped through an entire podcast in a weekend. Things seem bleak out there.

So what’s going on? I asked a friend who spends her days working in this world to help explain it to me, and she listed a number of problems facing the industry, including decreasing advertising spend in media, a tidal wave of poor podcast content swamping services, post-lockdown malaise, and a lack of innovation, meaning everyone seems to be spinning their wheels. “It seems like everyone’s throwing shit at a wall to see what will stick to it,” seemed to sum up what she was telling me.

Things change, like they always do. If you’re a Stitcher fan and don’t want to use Spotify, my colleague Shanti Mathias, who does excellent work reporting on tech and the internet, pointed me towards the Google Podcasts app. So far I’m finding it to be a very handy replacement with a clean, organised interface. It’s been nice having a bit of a cull and only signing up to the podcasts I really want to listen to too. Even the logo resembles Stitcher’s.

If you’re looking for a new podcast, why not dive into the archives? Everyone seems to have recently discovered Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding?, a 12-part true-crime series released in 2020 and based on a real-life situation: someone did indeed do a poo on a boat during a couple’s wedding reception. I’m five episodes in and can confirm: it’s very funny and the word “shat” makes me life every time someone says it.

All the new stuff you can watch this weekend…

It is the iMax tantrum to end all iMax tantrums. Tom Cruise didn’t like it that Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, due for release on July 20, would replace Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in iMax theatres. So, with weeks to go, he made some calls and changed up Mission: Impossible’s release date. That’s why, this weekend, Cruise’s action-packed new movie makes a rare Saturday night debut – and in Aotearoa first. From 6pm, it’s out. Is it any good? Advance reviews are HYPE.

(The brave films debuting in theatres alongside Mission: Impossible are horror film Insidious: The Red Door, the pastry chef comedy Sugar and Stars, Odesza’s The Last Goodbye concert film and the road trip comedy Joy Ride. Good luck to them all.)

On streaming, your best bet seems to be The Horror of Delores Roach, a Prime Video adaptation of Gimlet’s hit podcast about a masseuse released from prison after 16 years into a very different world from the one she left. The Guardian calls it a “darkly comic thriller” and if you still need to be swayed, check out the trailer.

Elsewhere, Netflix has a well-received documentary about George Michael’s 80s pop group Wham! (“Goofy and entertaining,” says the San Francisco Chronicle) as well as the deepfake reality show Deep Fake Love. TVNZ+ has the mini-series Then You Run, a drama about London teens on a getaway in Rotterdam when things take a twist. Neon has season three of the action series Warrior.

If you need some laughs, you’re in luck. Prime Video’s Robots posits a Black Mirror-type future in which everyone has doppelganger robots; one couple accidentally sends theirs on a date together and they fall in love. Meanwhile, Neon has Everyone Else Burns, a UK comedy about a religious Manchester family who believe the world will soon end. Netflix film The Out-Laws is a heist movie meshed with a rom-com that has a promising premise but poor early reviews (“Leaden,” says MovieWeb).

Don’t forget: if you need some school holiday content and Elemental doesn’t light your world on fire, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a delightful family-friendly film available for streaming for free on Neon for the first time. It’s too cute. You’ll love it.

For more try our weekly New to Streaming guide.

Everything you need to know:

• For his new show You’ve Been Scammed (TVNZ 1, Monday nights), Nigel Latta did some scamming of his own. “It’s everywhere and … it’s easy,” the clinical psychologist and trusted telly dad told us. Here’s Alex Casey’s review of the show.

• The writers strike has been going on so long that those taking part are switching things up and choosing themes for their protests, including ‘Musical Monday’ and ‘Back to the 90s’. The Hollywood Reporter has more.

• Vulture has some key questions to ask about The Idol. Like, Why did anyone do any of the things they did on it, ever? You can read the rest of them here.

• Tara Ward carves up Bravo’s new reality series Snow Crew that captures the ups and downs of working on a Queenstown ski field. 

• Finally, here’s your trailer dump: The Passenger looks intense and twisted, Casey Affleck and Zooey Deschanel share some whimsy in Dreamin’ Wild, The Year Between is a mental illness comedy starring Succession’s J Cameron Smith, here’s Frankie Adams in the big budget Prime Video series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Reservation Dogs’ third season looks awesome, and if you’re still having nightmares about the Big Fresh animatronics then you probably shouldn’t watch Five Nights at Freddy’s.

That’s it for Rec Room for this week. If you liked what you read, why not share Rec Room with your friends and whānau.