Movie Substrate · Film

Elemental (2023)

★ 7.6 · 5,261 ratings on TMDB

Opposites react.

Elemental poster★ 7.6

In a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy will discover something elemental: how much they have in common.

DirectorPeter Sohn
CastCatherine O'Hara, Joe Pera, Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Mason Wertheimer, Ronnie del Carmen
GenresAnimation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The emergence reading

In Elemental, consciousness is carried by another substrate — a plane of “elemental metropolis”. The story fights on E8/E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing prejudice, identity, love, bureaucracy, tradition.

↷ another substrateUSprejudiceidentitylovebureaucracytradition
Also inConsciousness carried elsewhereFilms about loveFilms about prejudiceFilms about identity
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Same rung, same subject

Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.

Frozen (2013)E8/E9 · identity, loveHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)E8/E9/E10 · identity, prejudiceThe Jungle Book (2016)E8/E9/E10 · identity, prejudiceShrek 2 (2004)E8/E9/E10 · identity, loveFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)E8/E9/E10 · identity, prejudiceHigh School Musical (2006)E8/E9/E10 · identity, love

Same subject, different rung

The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.

Men in Black (1997)E11/E13 · rare rung · bureaucracy, prejudiceX-Men: The Mutant Watch (2000)E11/E12 · rare rung · identity, prejudice

Also hides consciousness here

Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.

Secret of the Wings (2012)consciousness carried elsewhere · seasonal fairy realmBarbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia (2006)consciousness carried elsewhere · fairy-undersea realmAladdin (1992)consciousness carried elsewhere · Arabian fantasy kingdomTinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy (2014)consciousness carried elsewhere · fairy dust realmThe Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)consciousness carried elsewhere · moon‑earth mythTinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014)consciousness carried elsewhere · pixie hollow

Same subject, different mask

The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011)consciousness in animals · identity, loveShrek (2001)consciousness in monsters · identity, loveThe Little Mermaid (1989)consciousness in animals · identity, loveThe Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)consciousness in monsters · identity, loveYoung Frankenstein (1974)consciousness in the dead · identity, loveConeheads (1993)consciousness in aliens · bureaucracy, identity

Same people

Shared director or cast.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)dir. Peter SohnPartly Cloudy (2009)dir. Peter SohnHome Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)Catherine O'HaraBeetlejuice (1988)Catherine O'HaraHome Alone (1990)Catherine O'HaraBlended (2014)Wendi McLendon-Covey