#Carl's Date

[whenthegoldrays]

I went to see Elemental today and I was not prepared for the "Carl's Date" short that came before it. Do you think it's okay to make me cry, Pixar??

[gingerduckling]

[movieshaswposter]

Carl's Date

[littlealeta]

Elemental is NOT that bad Review + Carl's Date

Story

No, this is not a racism story nor a Zootopia/Inside Out rip off. This is a coming of age immigration story about the romance between two unlikely elements. Now yes, the immigration story does include the parent-child conflict story, but it actually does something interesting and compelling with it. Instead of the child just wanting to follow their own dreams, it's the child realizing that something that they wanted to do might not be right for them and instead of the child actively rebelling against the parent, it's the child sacrificing their happiness for their parents, both things are something we rarely see in coming of age stories. The forbidden love aspect also does some interesting things, instead of a typical Romeo and Juliet story about society antagonizing the couple for societal reasons, it's about society antagonizing the couple because of how harmful they could be for each other. The clash between fire and water provides for both funny and serious moments.

Unfortunately, the story falls short during the third act.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Yes, the film had that "I like the word moist, okay" scene, except the roles are reversed and it was about the character wanting to follow the dreams of their parents rather than for themselves. Yes, it was not good. The breakup happened way too fast because of that one big blowout between them and instead of patching things up or trying to understand Ember, Wade just crashes her party telling her that she doesn't have to follow her dreams. Excuse me, Wade, did you forget that Ember doesn't want to work at the shop because she can't keep her temper in check, which she's been getting better at doing? You're a water type, you should understand this. Yeah, Wade wasn't a very good character in my opinion.

The film also pulls the Disney Death trope so yeah, no Pixar emotional impact there. And the resolution for the conflict the film had with both the forbidden romance story and to a lesser extent, the parental conflict story were pretty forced. Like for no reason, Ember and Wade can finally touch each other. The parental conflict story also ended shallowly in my opinion. Like the parents tell Ember that they their goal wasn't to force her to work in the shop? But wasn't that what they were doing all this time? I felt like there should've been a deeper moment between those two. And instead of focusing on all this forced melodrama, maybe focus more on how Ember is going to resolve the conflict with working in the shop and what she really wants to do and focus on how Ember and Wade are going to co-exist peacefully despite their elemental clashes.

Characters

This is where the film falls a little bit short for me. Like I said, Ember and her parents have a good coming of age-forbidden love story. But Wade, I just didn't care for. He just seemed like an impulsive, selfish dumbass, which, I get it, he's a water type, but outside of his romance with Ember, he really didn't have anything interesting to do. Except for the Crying Game scene, that's a neat concept and some of the funny scenes like eating hot rocks. But the first scene literally had him fighting with Ember because he, for some reason, wanted to nitpick her workplace. He also has a very small element (no pun intended) where he has a dead father for some reason that he never patched things up with, I don't feel like it was necessary to the story, but it's a small moment, so whatever. Like I said in the story section, they could've done better with him. Clod and his interactions with Ember are, yes, as obnoxious as the trailers made. Good things he's only in two scenes. The pink thundercloud, I forgot her name, another minor character, she was a bit of a jerkass, that's all I got to say. And there's another character who functions like the sloths in Zootopia, also nothing special. I would've liked to see a bit more worldbuilding with the other elements, like how do the Air and Earth elements act? They have a lot of neat details with them in the worldbuilding. Maybe we could get shorts about them.

Animation

As usual with Pixar, the world is pretty. The gags are funny. The character designs... eh... maybe not the most appealing as we saw from the trailers, but they're not awful like people make them out to be. I think they fit the characters well. That's all I got to say. Remember, I focus more on writing than I do the technical stuff, unless I notice something remarkable about them. I'm not a sound or art kind of gal.

Overall

Elemental gets 6.9 bells out of 10.

I'd recommend this film. It's more creative than the trailers made it out to be, it's not a racism story, and it's hardly anything like Zootopia or Inside Out. But don't go in expecting a groundbreaking story or peak Pixar. Think of it like a decent Dreamworks film, creative and cute, but predictable in some places. It's definitely better than most of Pixar's output in the 2010s.

As for Carl's Date... Uh... it's stupid. Probably the worst Pixar short or theatrical short I've ever seen. I haven't seen Up in forever, but the characters feel off to me, like they act more silly and childish than I remember. They even use a couple potty jokes in there, like what the heck, Pixar? It does have some funny things in there with Dug and Carl pretending to date and Dug offering tips from a dog's perspective, but other than that and the emotional moment at the end, there's nothing memorable about the short. It was so bad that I even forgot to review it, lol. So yeah, 4.1 bells out of 10

Shame 'cuz the premise looked cute.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Carl's Date (2023, Bob Peterson)

29/05/2024

[drama-glob]

what do you think of the up short carl’s date being the last installment of the up franchise?

I haven't seen it admittedly, but it looked really cute and there's nothing wrong with Carl trying to meet someone new.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Up

Rating: PG

Director: Pete Docter

Cast: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger, David Kaye, Elie Docter, Jeremy Leary, Mickie McGowan, Danny Mann, Donald Fullilove, Jess Harnell, Josh Cooley, Pete Docter, Mark Andrews

Release year: 2009

Genres: adventure, family, comedy

Blurb: Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest...but at age 78, life seems to have passed him by. However, all of that changes when a twist of fate (and a persistent 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell) gives him a new lease on life.

[spyrkle4]

Aww :’3

Bring it on Pixar, I am ready to cry a whole river of tears over this grumpy old man's new adventure.

[ennaih]

Every Film I Watch In 2023:

198. Carl's Date (2023)

[esichime]

New post over on my Medium:

[mikethemovieguy]

So ready for this.

[fordarkmornings]

Carl Thomsen (Danish, 1847-1912)

Interior With Two Young Women

[blondebrainpowered]

Carl Sagan on Cosmos - The Lives of the Stars, 1980

[carlestin]

butters' pocket money

[kateeorg]

My child is returning

The  2023 Disney+ Sizzle Reel unveiled first look images to a special episode of “Dug Days” from Pixar Television Animation under the title “Carl’s Date”