Together, let’s take a history lesson. It wasn’t that long ago that Pixar were the premier animation studio and streets ahead. Then they started sequelising their canon to varying critical results. Of the original content woven in, I have recently been most impressed by Coco and Luca, while the rest of the world also seemed to love Soul, and Turning Red was okay. The COVID pandemic pushed Pixar onto Disney+ but Lightyear flopped big time as cinemas reopened last year. Elemental looked all but likely to do the same, threatening to become Pixar’s second bomb in a row, before an unexpected last-minute surge in later weeks. Phew, for the company. I must admit, the trailer for this movie didn’t have me running to my seat. It looked like a generic, “two opposites from each side of the tracks must work together, and will they ever get along? 🤪 Can fire and water ever produce anything but steam?!” But ultimately, with Pixar, you can never tell what emotional heartstrings their movies might play upon ahead of time – who knows, I may come out of this movie never able to look at flame or droplets in the same way again 😮
Raised by immigrant parents, and living in a fire-heavy suburb outside the main Elemental City, Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) helps her father run a small but prominent corner shop with the plan for one day the shop to be turned over to her. Ember is so great at the job; except she lacks the calm demeanor required when dealing with a difficult customer. One such incident, miraculously leads a city inspector, Wade (voiced by Mamoudou Athie), to realise that the Fireplace shop is not up to code, and Ember’s family business faces foreclosure. Ember yearns to work with Wade to fix the problems with the shop without her father finding out, while inadvertently making a connection with a new friend, and the wider city, which may be a key to help quell her internal anger. Peter Sohn directs Elemental, and the story comes based upon his own experiences as a child of immigrants, with a lovely photo tribute to his parents’ sacrifices at the end of the credits ❤
What’s got to jump out at you first is the world-building. Yes, a lot of fantastical animated movies, from Robots to The Lego Movie, love to provide as many everyday occurrences as possible, and show how they would occur differently in these fictional worlds. But I feel like this movie never lets up, nearly constantly adding new fascinating components to Elemental until the very end. From the food to the transport, it’s uber impressive and extremely creative 🤗 While watching Elemental, I wasn’t sure if Pixar had ever done a straight-up romance movie before… And, just flicking through their catalogue now, no – 27 movies and counting, and this is the first pure romance by my estimation, while the other action adventures have romantic elements within. This makes Elemental a more mature movie by nature I think, and where I reckon movies have completely moved away from a cliché kiss at the end of every story, you get the feeling about halfway through that this movie is going to have to bring it back.
Within the world building, it’s also well-established that there is a cultural bias towards water, earth, and wind elements, for the way structural practices are established, while fire is forsaken as too hot to handle 😏 It’s an obvious allegory for immigration and immigrants not feeling like their new home is also for them, and it’s a point well made. Where this suggestion might break down a little bit, is that there’s a sincere danger if these elements even touch each other – fire can burn through shrubbery and water can extinguish fire. A simple train ride becomes a deathly safety hazard, where in the real world, our perceived ill-will and ignorance towards each other intermingling is a purely social misinterpretation. This concern can extend to the romance as well, where it’s all well and good that Ember and Wade have found each other, and they may want to be together, but THEY CAN’T TOUCH EACH OTHER! Until, eventually, as I said before, you know they will, and I do like the suggestion that at the right balance of energies, water and fire can co-exist, as their fingers intertwine – I’m not a scientist, but um, that makes theoretical sense to me 🤓 Where there’s a will there’s a way, and even though I give pause at the practical implications of this world and how it relates to our own, the metaphor and social lesson intended regarding perceived limitations still breaks through!
Storywise, the first half of this movie makes heavy reference to the supporting characters and their parents, from the sullen wind-sports player to Wade’s windy boss, coexisting alongside Ember’s own valued relationship with her father herself. However, I thought from Ember’s parent’s introduction, that the movie would eventually be about Wade and Ember realising together how bias their society was setup to be, where perhaps they hadn’t noticed before. Yet, when Ember has her first emotional revelation, it’s instead that she doesn’t want what has been destined for her whole life, running her father’s shop. But then, it’s a two-parter, as the emotional downturn is then added to because Wade doesn’t understand how Ember can feel trapped by perceived limitations her society may yield, because they haven’t grown up noticing the same things. As Ember is riding her bike next to the train line alone afterwards, I felt her “by golly, how did things get out of hand so quickly”. I also really liked the earlier insight from Wade, that anger may be “me trying to tell me something I’m not ready to hear”.
Lately, I’ve been having real trouble with these big idealistic movies converging their actual story with the messages they want to send, (from Encanto to Strange World, and even Turning Red), but I think Elemental does it nearing perfectly. I can think of this as setup and payoff, as a plot runs through it… and congratulations, Elemental, for getting it right for me! This movie is so clever in many facets, and extremely solid, but I think my biggest negative observation would be with what it’s not – because it’s so grounded in complicated human emotions and issues, it’s never as wonderous or magical as something like Coco; not that it’s ever trying to be. I just say this to make the point that Elemental is not something that ever emotionally blew me away, although it’s something I never regretted watching, and will happily watch again. And I’m sure Disney+ will have ideas anyway, but I’d love a spin-off children’s tv show to branch from this – because I need more Clod (voiced by Mason Wertheimer), I need more Clod in my life! Make a preschool show about him and I’ll be happy from afar 😊
4.0
P.S. I have more to say, regarding the climactic death scene that sees Wade completely steam it up. In the moment, I had so many mixed feelings! Firstly, disgust, that this genuine and affable fellow had been written to die in the face of love. That isn’t very nice, and I felt personally affronted. Then, a little impressed, and I appreciated that a movie such as this had the cahones to make a sacrifice as big as Wade, as a result of an often scripturally mundane, yet seriously dire situation, such as a burning building. Then, I felt relief – I don’t usually like it when characters don’t say dead, but the dude is made of water, and scientifically, in part at least, I think his resurrection checks out 🤓 All bets are off in this imagination land, and I wanted the dude to live!
P.P.S Based off the dinner scene, where Ember meets Wade’s extended family, am I the only one who wants a Get Out parody for this universe, where water elements are stealing fire elements for maniacal rejuvenation experiments – c’mon internet, don’t let me down, now!
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