ELEMENTAL, AN EXTRAORDINARY ANIMATION FROM DISNEY AND PIXAR
Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote the comedy and adventure animation “ELEMENTAL”, for America’s Los Angeles-based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.
CUTE ELEMENTS OF NATURE
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, Elemental is the 27th animated feature film of the studio, directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream. It offers an original story inspired by the director’s childhood times spent in New York–Bronx as he immigrated from Korea to the USA (without knowing a word of English). In the subtext of the story, in which elements in nature, known as Anthropomorphism, that is, anthropomorphization, are handled; We see that the community, brought together by different cultures and languages, focuses on the sociological and social behavior aspects. On the other hand, the story; It is seen that the concept of “Deterritorialization” of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the leading philosophers of postmodern philosophy, comes to the fore in this sense. Another important detail is the feeling of trust that establishes the bond between Ember and Wade characters. The great Roman philosopher, politician, and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero gives wise advice on the qualities and benefits of friendship in his book On Friendship, which he wrote in the form of a dialogue inspired by Plato. Cicero; “The basis of the immutability and steadfastness we seek in friendship is to be reliable.” he says that this is an immutable rule. Just as the relationship between the characters Ember and Wade is based on trust. Animation, the production design of which went through a great time and effort, has a huge budget of 200 million dollars. In this sense, Pixar Studios needed a lot of computing power for Elemental animation, and for this, it had to buy more computers and increase the processing power. There are also over 151,000 operating system cores used for this movie in three large rooms on its campus. For comparison, Toy Story has 294 cores and Monsters Inc. It had 672 cores and Finding Nemo had 923 cores. Elemental’s this big rate encompasses a tremendous amount of computing power. Story Artist Jason Katz; shared that the story team did their part while working remotely from home for the animation, which took 7 years to complete (both in the studio and at home).
TOPIC OF THE ANIMATION
In the Element City, where the inhabitants of the elements of fire, water, earth, and air live, the people live harmoniously and happily. Ember, a clever and quick nervous young woman, she meets and befriends Wade, a man with a completely opposite character who has let his life flow. After her friendship with Wade, she will change Amber’s beliefs about the world they live in and take her on extraordinary adventures. This animation of two opposite poles of fire and water will take you on a journey to an incredible world.
Stars; Leah Lewis (voice), Mamoudou Athie (voice), Ronnie Del Carmen (voice), Shila Ommi (voice), Wendi McLendon-Covey (voice), Catherine O’Hara (voice), Mason Wertheimer (voice), Ronobir Lahiri (voice), Wilma Bonet (voice), Joe Pera (voice), Matthew Yang King (voice) and Clara Lin Ding (voice).
FORCES OF NATURE
Elemental is the first Pixar movie to feature no humans since the Cars franchise. After the animations of Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018) and Turning Red (2022), this production is the sixth Pixar film to feature a female lead, and also the first original Pixar film in which a female protagonist falls in love. Director Peter Sohn; “My family immigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and set up a very busy grocery store in the Bronx. We were among families migrating to a new country with high hopes and dreams mixed in a salad bowl of different cultures, languages, and beautiful little neighborhoods. “This is what got me into the story of the movie ‘Elemental.’ Our story is based on classic elements like fire, water, earth, and air. Some elements can mix but some don’t. What if these elements were alive?” says the director, describing the starting point of the movie with these words. Instead of visiting countries for research, the production team spent long working hours watching POV (Point Of View) city tours on YouTube like Venice and Amsterdam for inspiration.
Elemental, in the genre of adventure and comedy, is a fun animation that will take you on an incredible journey through the fascinating Pixar universe.
EFE TEKSOY
REFERENCES
Cicero, On Friendship (Dostluk Üzerine), C. Cengiz Çevik, translate, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları press, 2020
