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Elemental
Disney/Pixar, 2023
Animation/Adventure
3/5 stars
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
One can honestly say Pixar doesn’t make bad movies. One can also say – with conviction – since Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter left the company in 2018, the quality in the storytelling has noticeably diminished. Nonetheless, Pixar‘s animation is still fun. While animation/adventure like the Toy Story installments, Finding Nemo, Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out, Cars (well at least the first one) are all at stellar levels, Elemental, I think, falls into the “mediocre” category.
Yet, there’s a cuteness to Elemental, and strangely enough, not much to laugh about. The theme of Elemental is fire, water, earth and air, all for life to subsist, can only be possible with God. Fire, the element that seems to be most discriminated against, is forced to live in Firetown, on the outskirts of Element City. The story begins with two immigrant Flames Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen come to Element City for a better life. They have one daughter Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) who helps with the new shop that serves Lava Java and Coal Nuts. Ember is slated to take over the shop when her parents retire.… Read the rest “Movie Corner: Oct ’23”
Returning: Epilogue
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
So our little family is on a bus to Guanajuato Mexico, a town steeped in Mexican history and their families’ own history, a town none of them have been to. If you don’t understand exactly what all has happened in “Returning”, fear not! Luz, Angel, Angelito and Lupita don’t either. As to whether the author does or not…
In the meantime, a body was found, an adult female, in a field near the intersection of I-35 and Highway 19, not far from what used to be called The Big Steer restaurant (or “The Bum Steer” by denizens of St. Olaf and that other college in Northfield). The body showed signs of foul play, and a life lived hard. It merited a brief notice on page 4 of the B section in the local papers, and the investigation petered out shortly after it started. Was it the body of Amethyst, the granddaughter of Agnes, who had been used as a pawn in the plot to kidnap Lupita?
There will be a break in our story for a while. Our little family needs some time away, to reflect and grow. When they return in the next novella, it will be New Year’s Eve 2019.… Read the rest “Returning: Epilogue”
