Elemental

Who else but Pixar could give emotions to anthropomorphic elements of nature with Elemental and manage to mix a love story with themes of immigration, prejudice, and inheriting traditions. Set in Element City where people based on air, water, earth, and fire all reside, it centers on Ember Lumen, a young fire based girl whose family owns a convenience store that one day she'll inherit. After dealing with overbearing customers, Ember's anger causes a pipe to break and as water floods the basement, a water based city inspector named Wade falls out after he had been stuck in the city's pipes. Since Wade finds the plumbing to the store faulty and sends a report that may close the store, Ember tries to keep him from sending it. From there, the two go on an adventure where they find out that the wall protecting the fire based people from flooding is breaking, meet Wade's family, and learn how fire based people are often looked down upon by the other elements due to their seemingly destructive nature. What sets this apart from much of Pixar's work is that there isn't a villain to face or an antagonist who keeps the heroes from achieving their goals. There are characters who judge Ember and the other fire based characters, but they're not the main focus and by the end their prejudice does start to soften. For the most part it's a romantic comedy-drama inspired by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Moonstruck as well as director Peter Sohn's experience as the child of immigrants. The writing doesn't do anything too outstanding or new in terms of the genres and subject matters but how it handles those themes together as well as how the characters are all written really show how careful and understanding. You couldn't have this well rounded characters without the impeccable performances from the cast, most importantly Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as the leads. Lewis makes Ember's anger and impatience feel believable, while Athie gives Wade such an endearing vulnerability, all while the two give off great chemistry. It should be no surprise that the animation from a Pixar movie is stunning, but you add that with the incredibly vibrant colors and how fluid the many elements are, you start to wonder what they could do next. Despite the initial belief that this movie would bomb despite just how incredible it is due to how Pixar's last few since COVID hit have either made under or went straight to Disney+, Elemental becoming a sleeper hit is one of the best success stories of recent times. Over all: 100%

2023 top list so far:

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

3. Elemental

4. Air

5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

6. Creed III

7. John Wick: Chapter 4

8. Scream VI

9. M3GAN

10. Cocaine Bear

11. Knock at the Cabin

12. The Flash

13. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

14. Renfield

15. Fast X

16. The Little Mermaid 2023

17. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

18. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

19. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania