This makes me so sad. The movie was really great, I loved every part of it and am even looking forward to watching it again when it comes out at home. It's unfortunate that marketing dropped the ball so badly.
It's kind of obvious focusing on the love story is the wrong angle here, what really resonated with me is the city, the amazing animation and the underlying message about finding yourself, the sacrifices of immigrant families and the love of a parent towards their child over their own dreams.
What a shame that execs had to ruin what was a really good work of art with a misguided and confused marketing campaign.
I usually like Pixar, but I haven’t seen the movie. From the commercials, I thought it looked like a boring, generic, fish-out-of-water/“opposites attract” type story that’s tired, unoriginal, and overdone. Sure, it would be animated well, because Pixar, but ugh. No thanks.
It’s good to know that the movie is better than the marketing suggests. Now I think I’ll actually give it a chance!
I don't know why, but I think it was sometime after Inside Out that I kinda started losing interest in Pixar. Not that their films were bad or anything, but I just kinda... stopped getting excited for them
Would highly recommend Soul and Coco if you haven't seen them yet, both go blow for blow with any top Pixar movies. The others I agree have all been kind've meh.
They did market it, but it just didn't resonate with everybody and looked like a rehash of every other Pixar movie on first glance. Normally I'd see it anyways but Pixar has dropped the ball many times that I'm not very interested in what they put out recently.
I usually don't check out trailers or read about movies before watching them. I didn't plan to see this one in theaters, but a friend gave me a free ticket, so I went for it. I really enjoyed it! The animation was fantastic, and they portrayed the interactions between the different elements so well.
After watching the movie, I looked up some posts and discussions about it. Many people felt that the marketing didn't accurately represent the story. Instead of being marketed as a forbidden love story, it should have focused on a parent's love for their children and dreams, along with the beautiful city and its elemental residents. I agree with that sentiment.
Overall, it was a fun experience and definitely worth watching, especially if you appreciate great animation and a heartfelt story about nuances of family and dreams.
I think streaming is a pretty big factor. Lots of households who already have D+ saying to the family let’s just wait and watch it at home? Those longer home video windows had an effect.