Disney's Elemental: An Exploration of Immigration and The Burden of Parental Expectations
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Disney Pixar's Elemental was a surprising and heartwarming film that illustrated the struggle of an immigrant family. The story depicts how two generations of expectations affect our protagonist Ember.
This movie speaks magnitudes on concepts relating to family, culture, and traditions as we navigate through the complexities of immigration and the often unspoken burdens of parental expectations. This video essay delves deep into the animated portrayal of life's elemental challenges, examining how identity and aspirations collide in the quest for acceptance.
Embrace the story as we dive into the heart of Elemental's message, and perhaps find a piece of our own stories within. Whether you're here for the love of Disney, an interest in animated takes on real-world issues, or the art of storytelling, this video is for you.
Ignore the weird pitch in the beginning LOL, I had to for copyright issues and I wanted to keep the song
⏰ Chapters⏰
00:00 - Introduction
01:19 - The Struggles of Immigration
02:50 - Meet Ember
03:59 - Meet Wade
04:58 - The Lumens
06:31 - Wade and Ember
10:43 - The Cracks in The Glass
12:56 - The Crying Game
17:17 - The Big Bow
18:54 - The Vivesteria
21:36 - The Power of Communication
25:46 - Conclusion
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Thanks so much for the love yall, just released another video essay: czcams.com/video/s_C5CfCqKNs/video.html
“You can do everything right your entire life but the one time you mess up, you become a nightmare to your immigrant parents” is a banger line 🥵
Iykyk 🤷🏽♂️
certainly agree
The voice actress for Ember is amazing. The more I hear her the more raw it is
Agreed fs
My dad is a second gen immigrant and my mom has always lived in the United States. While Mom cries easily, Dad never did, and he told us kids to do the same. It always felt like Dad wanted us to work hard in school, and he would tell us stories about how he woukd work hard in school and his parents wouldn't be proud. How he grew up in poverty. How he was kicked out at 18. How he had to find job after job to support himself while me and my siblings have yet to ever have a job. My mom, on the other hand, is much more forgiving when we mess up, cries much easier, and is a little less frugal than Dad...this video made me realize perhaps why they're so different and why it always felt like a conflict when dealing with mistakes or emotions. Thanks for this
It's actually not fully ember's fault that the shop doesn't meet city regulations. The original shop builder might have not made the builder meet the city regulations which lead to it closed. Ember's parents also definitely did not know the shop is supposed to comply with city regulations. Ember was the one that got Wade to find out that it was not meeting regulation.
25:12 “i personally think he should’ve died” KILLED ME
I'm not immigrant, didn't watch the movie, yet I still teared up when Ember openly communicates with her father. Man, the voice actress killed it!
22:43 Another great parallel here is the glass breaking as Ember says this, symbolically shattering the parts of herself too.
I have a friend who isn't an immigrant, but does have high expectations placed on them. He wants his own life, but since his mom worked so hard to fight from poverty to middle class living, he sympathizes with Ember's struggle of being a "good child". A sound analysis, thanks for the great video!
As a second gen immigrant to a mother who left everything to come to the states, I resonated with this movie so much. Ember’s rage being her only defining characteristic to some people is something I can’t really explain how relatable it is.
I’m so glad the algorithm blessed me by recommending this channel
This is legit underrated marketing of the movie
As someone who grew up like Wade in a western family, with supportive parents who want me to find my own path, this video make me appreciate the movie far more.
I thought it was already good. But hearing it from the perspective of someone who could really identify with Ember made me look at the movie with a different lens.
the writing here is absolutely fire.
This movie broke me, I cry every time I see it.
One thing: technically you'd probably say Ember is first-generation, not second-generation. Though "second generation immigrant" is sometimes used, usually "first-generation" is the appropriate term for someone whose parents immigrated. And I would say, this movie does indeed touch upon many parts of the first-generation experience in an unexpectedly poignant way, like the scenes at 16:24 and 12:10; especially the latter, would 100% agree this is a question every first-gen ponders upon. Wonderful work on this and your Monsters University recaps.
Even tho there’s stuff in this movie that doesn’t make sense or is just not good, it’s still one of my favorite movies ever now. I SOBBED watching this movie and I sobbed again when you showed that scene of Ember crying to her dad
This is an unexpectedly great story. I could tell right off the bat it was going to be a story about immigration and could guess the story beats that were going to come up but I also thought they were gonna do that fantasy thing and disregard Ember's parents and go. But they didn't. Ember worked things out with her parents to find a solution that works for each other and Wade simply exists as a channel for Ember to discover a better life for herself. They kept the theme up to the end and that was the best decision they could make.
Elemental does show a lot of heartwarming scenes, and good morals, thank you Pixar, not to mention Ember and Wade are the greatest power couple. The only thing I don't understand is why this film was hard to make, since it literally took 7 years to make the film, in other words, I felt like this was released a decade too late, why not release it in 2015 after Inside Out or maybe 2016, kinda like how it would've made a lot more sense if Monster's University happened first, or if Turning Red was actually released in 2002, or just change the year in the storyline, still blaming COVID-19 for this. Either way, I still love Elemental no matter what.🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧🔥💧
Even tho I'm not from an immigrant family at all I feel like I can sorta relate to ember. The weight of the expectations, feeling like I can't be myself without being judged by my parents, feeling like I have to be something big to as good as them for them to still love me. This movie is underrated, and I think it deserves much more love. Thank you so much for making this video :)
I can see why you can relate, I think that this movie applies to people that feel they need to sacrifice as much as their parents do. Which is why it’s mostly relatable to immigrants
I’m so glad I told you to watch this movie
This is SUCH a great video! This movie got a lot of hate initially because people said it was cliche and then just sorta got caught up in the cycle of hating on it more and more, so I hope this gets more traction, like the monster universuty video.
Like yeah SOME of the worldbuilding is a lil flimsy and maybe some scenes really didnt work for people, but these are things that most often can be overlooked if there was a general good effort, but i guess it just didnt happen for this movie
This whole perspective on it is also really cool to see, like... I would not pick up on any of the nuances presented here myself, this whole thing is just.. SO so incredibly cool to see!
I hope you keep making appreciation videos like this, bdcause they really are just a joy to witness
I feel like ember because I was born in the US despite my parents coming from Mexico, and having to live a better life than my parents is something that was always told I had to do
I'm not an immigrant, but I am an Asian eldest daughter LOL so I relate to this movie as well, especially the relationship between Ember and her dad. I love this movie and I cried so much watching it. Expectations can be heavy.
I actually love that wade doesnt die cuz it makes sense given water is water.
This entire video made me legit tear up.
I have never watched this movie, I only watched one review (from Shaeffrillas Production) of it where he didn't ranked it the highest. However, I think that he did not fully understood what the movie was about as it could be really hard, just like for Wade, to connect and understand the struggles of immigrants they never experienced. Yes, the ending would be more impactful if Wade actually sacrificed himself and maybe the movie is not the best written piece of art that ever existed and could be much more original in terms of world building. But that wasn't the goal of this movie. The goal of this movie, as seen from your video, has been explored to subtle details that even I would have never noticed. Thank you for this video. I'm looking forward to more analysis videos from you which cover niche topics not everyone immediately sees.
I love this movie! And I love your commentary! I’m not a child from immigrant parents, so hearing it from your perspective was really eye opening, thank you!
Thank you for making this video!! I IMMEDIATELY knew I was going to love your analysis the second I heard your first sentence lol (a first-gen Chinese immigrant here). The few youtube movie critics I usually watch all disliked this movie and I think it's probably because they aren't able to connect with the main theme of immigration and sacrifice, but I love this movie so so much and it saddens me to hear them complain about small things and completely missing the amazing aspects of this movie.
Definitely subscribing!
This analysis (or whatever you call it) is really underrated
I lived only two years in Canada, had to go after the work (in Poland is damn hard to get one without connections) to Canada. I have specific name that exsists only in Polish so friends from work asked whether they can call me by my middle name. Being immigrant especially alone without family with you is hard. I cried first two months because I missed them and home so much, the question was always: "wtf am I doing here". After two years came back to country because didn't get permission to stay longer there.
My dad is an immigrant but my mom is white so I only got parts of this but my family has had to work hard and that’s what I deal with trying to repay all of their sacrifices
I’ve seen a lot of people not care for this movie but personally I really liked it. it’s the first Pixar movie since inside out to make me cry (I’m sorry coco didn’t get me) and I was tearing up multiple times before I fully burst. Even just watching some of the clips you’ve chosen for this video I’ve let a few tears loose. I’ve seen some people say they didn’t like the movie but could understand what it may mean to immigrants but I’m 4 or 5 generations in and still felt very deeply for Ember especially during the final bow. there’s also just so many beautiful lines in this movie that can connect with you regardless of where you come from. it makes me sad that this movie gets a bad rep. I truly feel like if it came out at a different time, before people started to get tired of Pixar, it could’ve been as well loved as their pre-pandemic movies
I don't usually like "love stories" but this one felt different, and you explained why perfectly, love your essays!!
This is a wonderful video that really highlights what elemental brings to the table in terms of storytelling. I understand some people are tired of the generational trauma approach, but i think it's just a lot of the people who had these experiences as kids and who loved film are now simply working in these spaces. They're writing what they've lived through, relfecting the real world with these stories, and there's nothing wrong with that.
For every person wishing Disney would go back to it's standard of having villains be evil just for the sake of it, there's another bawling their eyes out watching Elemental/Turning Red/Encanto. There's space for all of these in the world, making a few within the same years isn't going to kill the animation industry and it really doesn't hurt anyone either
How do you not have more subscribers?! Your videos are great, best wishes for your future!
Beautiful movie and wonderful analysis!
Gosh durn this video made me cry. I'm basically the Wade in good ole murica (minus all the money) and I just never thought about this kind of struggle, despite most Americans being descendants of immigrants to some level. Need to go watch this movie now.
I was looking for this video again and I just have to say, this is so underrated! By far the best analysis of this movie on CZcams, and one that really opened my eyes to how deep this story is. Awesome stuff!
Well said brother, I'm a second gen, i've never been able to express these types of feelings. You hit it spot on
Pretty much every metacritic rating that gave this movie a low score says it “lacks sincerity”. I have scarcely read something more ridiculous
Such a great video! Love how you touched so many points and articulated them beautifully. I absolutely loved this movie
I didn't want to see this movie, so I didn't. I am also not an immigrant...did I shed tears watching this video? Yes. Yes. I. Did. Hearing her finally tell her dad that she didn't want to run the shop really got me D:
Great channel! Happy I found it !
Binging all the videos now.
Is there an upload schedule ?
I have never watched 2 video essays in a row. You earned a subscribe
you have made some very respectable essays on this channel! please keep making more!
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Simply beautiful.
I wish I could've enjoyed this movie more. As a western person like Wade, I can't connect with the immigrant themes in the movie.
Yes I feel called out. Yes I cried. This was a beautiful review and I'm not sorry.
Relateable immigration stuff
You get this treatment in Eastern Europe with being born as a native kid.
I just want to know your thoughts on you story 4
For a very small CZcams channel, you make videos comparable to bigger channels.
Wow. The movie is deep because different elements get along. This has never been done before. (Avatar TLAB)
No, it's deep because it's about how the expectations of someone's parents can stifle their growth and learning to overcome that while still respecting their parents. This is a completely different theme to A:TLA.
25:13 no maan why so edgy.
Let stories have a happy ending
1 off from being number 600
The love is crazy 🙏
Im gon remember that im in you first 1000 subs when you hit 1M subs