2023-05-29 19:00:00
What is the newborn from the famous animation studio worth, presented at the end of 76e Cannes Film Festival 2023, and which will be released in theaters on June 21? We tell you everything.
By Victoria Gairin
© Disney
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« Tyou are playing with fire! », « All aquatics are not alike like two drops of water! », « You’re hot, it’s crazy! », « Go spread yourself elsewhere! Let’s stop here the enumeration of puns around the lexical fields of fire and water. There are so many in Elementary that we quickly stopped counting them.
The new cartoon from Pixar studios, previewed at the end of 76e Cannes Film Festival, which will be released in theaters on June 21, indeed stages, in the line of Vice versa, the encounter between fire and water against a background of acceptance of differences. In Element City, the four elements – fire, water, earth and air – live in perfect harmony. Finally, except for creatures from fire, considered dangerous by others, and relegated to the suburbs.
This is where Flam lives, an intrepid, quick-witted young woman with a strong character, with her parents who run the Foyer, a neighborhood grocery store that has become an institution. While trying to learn to tame a fiery temperament in order to take up the torch after her father, Flam meets Flack Delamare, an “aquatic”, a sentimental boy, funny in spite of himself, rather a follower at heart , from the upscale neighborhoods of Element City. Of course, the friendship between these two will quickly challenge the limits of the world they live in and shift the boundaries of tolerance.
Romantic comedy
After a few difficult years for Pixar (the flop of Buzz Lightning in 2022, and the release on the platforms of the magnificent Soul due to the closing of cinemas in the middle of Covid), the studio returns here to its best with this love story, both so personal and so universal, inspired by the meeting of the director of the film, Peter Sohn (Arlo’s Journey, 2015), with his wife. “I am Korean; she is American, half Italian. At first, I hid this relationship from my parents because they traditionally wanted me to marry a Korean. My grandmother’s last words were literally, “Marry a Korean!” My father and mother emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s, so I was born and raised with Korean traditions, language, and culture in the very American city of New York. This resulted in culture clashes between the first and second generation. I took for granted the trials and tribulations they had to go through. »
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Clash of cultures, conflict between generations, transmission… To make the remarks realistic on these thorny subjects, Peter Sohn has not only summoned his personal history, but also that of a hundred colleagues from Pixar, first-class immigrants or second generation, who came together to talk about their past, their experiences. The result on the screen is both funny and moving, at the crossroads of the family saga and the romantic comedy, and carried by the formidable musical score of Thomas Newman (Finding Dory, OO7: Skyfall…).
But it is above all a step further for the studio acquired in 2006 by Disney, which is innovating once again with a revolutionary process which makes it possible to animate the characters in a constant manner. Flam and its congeners are thus flames, in permanent motion, and it’s sublime to watch. The graphic prowess also applies to the decor of Element City, an architectural madness, megalopolis with an archi-futuristic look, where bodies of water, fountains and lush vegetation have their place. Fans of VO, prefer this time the VF. Vincent Lacoste is amazing in naive, whiny and humorous Flack and Adèle Exarchopoulos offers amazing variations to her voice to go from lassitude to overheating. Renowned for his masterpieces like Toy Story or The world of Nemo, Pixar had never before placed love so much at the heart of one of its plots. The two robots of Wall-E had a little crush, but nothing to do with the sparks caused by the relationship of Flack and Flam, who do not dare, at the start, to touch each other. What happens to water when it comes into contact with the flame? And the fire drowned in tears? Answer in the room on June 21.
#Pixar #fire