Élémentaire

De manière surprenante, le film a été projeté lors de la cérémonie de clôture du festival, après la remise des prix. Honnêtement, j’ai souffert pendant les trente premières minutes et j’ai eu envie de partir, mais je me suis dit que je ne pouvais pas quitter ma dernière projection à Cannes. Finalement, il y a eu une sorte de rupture et le film a commencé à me plaire, avec même une petite touche d’émotion vers la fin. Je n’ai pas vu En avant, Soul et Alerte rouge, et je ne peux donc pas comparer Élémentaire à ces films récents ou aux dernières réalisations de Pixar... Mais pour l’amour de Dieu, si je prends par exemple Monstres & Cie (selon moi le meilleur), Le Monde de Nemo, Les Indestructibles, Rebelle, Vice-versa, et Coco, il s’agit de films d’un niveau radicalement supérieur, tandis qu’Élémentaire, je suis désolée de le dire, est terriblement ennuyeux et n’atteint pas le degré de qualité des films Pixar, bien qu’il y ait des scènes qui m’ont fait rire et m’ont émue, même si l’émotion était un peu trop appuyée… (Luca est aussi un peu limite, soit dit en passant). Les enfants vont probablement aimer, c’est gai, coloré, mais aussi rempli de clichés populaires contemporains. [Festival de Cannes 2023] (31/05/2023)

A generic, dull animated that didn't please me at all. The animation is fine, but the rest is worse. 110 minutes is just too much, the story is literally purely and only romance, which on the one hand completely obliterates the motif of the "elements", which is completely unexploited, and on the other hand it doesn't fit a fairy-tale for children at all. In fact, the lovers' spats make up perhaps half of the film, the humour is terribly stilted and if a cinema full of children doesn't laugh even once in 2 hours, something is wrong. It has no personality, it has no quality characters and there are no laughs either. When I compare it to The Minions or Zootropolis, it's a noticeable drop. It's a shame. (16/06/2023)

Pixar, once the kings of animated films, have fallen quite a bit behind the competition, and Elementary isn't the next big hit either. It's better than Inside Out and Luca for me, but it's nowhere near the quality of Puss in Boots, The Mitchells vs. the Machines or Raya and the Last Dragon. The problem is that they've worked with a fairly original idea in an attractive world in a fairly unengaging form. I liked the premise with the different elements, it's just that they focus exclusively on water and fire (ignoring the other elements most of the time), and also focus on two specific characters and the love story between them, instead of exploring the world and its potential. So we are deprived of both action and funny interludes, as the humour here is punishingly little for a fairy tale. The love story itself is nicely presented and it's heartwarming in places, but I can't imagine the kids having much fun with it. I wasn't bored, but it could have been much better, 6/10. (21/08/2023)

Strong pixar film, which, to my surprise, will pull me back to animated films for a while. And probably the best of this decade. In the last year or two, I have been quite neglecting animated films in general (see my exact yearly delay) and I was really shocked by how much I liked the animation and how it caught me, even though of course it won't be such a cult as it turned out to be with Inside Out and its sequel this year. For me, Soul is a bit higher and I am glad that I didn't completely fall for it like the also great Onward. (29/06/2024)

The beautiful visual style and overall sophistication of the City of Elements makes every shot a unique experience. Combined with Thomas Newman's unfailingly beautiful score, it is about the most beautiful experience to whizz through the cinema. The story is a little weaker, as it doesn't bring anything particularly new although it does a great job of making the romance work. Things sparkle between Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple despite the bare-bones dating line. The action is dynamic, makes clever use of the setting, and the humour mostly works. I was bombarded for most of the film with my daughter's nosy questions, like where is daddy, including what it means to die, so I'll probably watch it alone again. (19/08/2023)