Disney’s new woke children’s film “Elemental” bombed at the box office on opening weekend.
The film aims to “tackle” racism and xenophobia and features the company’s first “nonbinary character.
CNBC reports, “Disney’s animation rut continued with the release of ‘Elemental,’ which is expected to have the second-lowest opening of any wide-released Pixar film in the studio’s history. Estimates peg the film’s debut at $29.5 million, just higher than the $29.1 million ‘Toy Story,’ Pixar’s first-ever theatrical release, which opened in 1995.”
“Depending on where it falls, this could be the lowest-earning opening weekend Pixar has had since ‘Toy Story’s $29 million take in 1995. Even then, ‘Toy Story’s box office take has not been adjusted for inflation, making ‘Elemental’s box office figures even more disappointing,” according to ScreenRant.
The studio is said to have spent $200 million on the flop.
To make matters worse for Disney, Elemental is on track to become the lowest-earning Pixar movie in the studio’s history.
The movie is aimed at children six and up and is “set in Element City, where fire, water, land, and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in,” according to the Disney website.
Since the two elements that fall in love are opposites, fire and water, their relationship faces some challenges.
The Hollywood Reporter described the movie as having a “serious overarching theme about ethnic strife and racial tolerance; humor for both kids and adults, although this one is more geared toward the 10-and-under set; a plot that hits all the right beats at exactly the right time.” It also contains a pro-immigration message for the children.
“Where Wade comes from a well-to-do aquatic clan that lives in a fancy high rise, Ember is an immigrant from the world of fire who is bent on honoring her parents by taking over their shop, which peddles things fire people would eat (that would be wood),” USA Today wrote of the kids movie. “At one point in the movie, after Ember’s father, Bernie, seems to recognize Wade, Ember says, ‘Not all water people look alike,’ an allusion to the sentiments that many ethnic groups can relate to when being stereotyped. In another scene, Ember is yelled at by Element City citizens who tell her they don’t want fire people around.”
The nonbinary character, Lake Ripple, is Wade’s younger sibling.
