Movie Review: Elemental
Ever since their first full-length movie came out in 1995, Pixar has specialized in breathing life into the unconventional, making their audiences feel joy and sorrow for toys, bugs, fish, and anthropomorphic emotions. With their latest film Elemental, they take that same idea, this time applying it to a world made up entirely of sentient manifestations of the four elements. The result is a film equal parts heartwrenching and romantic that tells a layered, complex story with plenty of humor and heart.
The story follows Ember Lumen, a fire element who dreams of taking over her family’s shop in Fire Town when her father decides she’s ready. As good as she is at her job, when it comes to the actual customer part of “customer service” Ember tends to run a little…shall we say, hot. She meets Wade Ripple, an extremely in touch with his emotions water element who accidentally leaks into her family’s store via the pipes, and from there begins an unlikely partnership-turned-friendship-turned-something more.
Elemental feels like two movies rolled into one, each complementing the other seamlessly. On the one hand, we have Ember and Wade’s individual stories, and what it means for kids to try and meet their parents expectation - particularly in Ember’s case as the daughter of immigrants. On the other, we have the love story between the two, and make no mistake, director Pete Sohn leans right into the romance of it all.
The film is full of moments that pull directly from the best rom-com tropes, adding a sweet, comedic layer to the more emotional journeys our heroes undergo with their families. I find it’s rare for a movie to really dare to actually go there with romance lately, with stories told outside the genre either shoehorning in a chemistry-less love story, or else forgoing one entirely as though their existence cheapens the overall message. Elemental as a story knows that to be untrue, and puts as much effort into Ember and Wade’s love story - and all the sweetness and angsty complexities it entails - as it does any other part of the story.
The animation is some of the most inspired I have seen in years, with the talented team at Pixar using the different qualities of each of the four elements to their fullest advantage for some really clever visual gags, and an overall beautiful, thoughtful approach to Element City. It is vivid, it is lively, it feels grounded and real while still feeling obviously fantastical, and it’s clear a lot of thought went into how four such distinct groups would come to inhabit the same space.
While it could have been easy to tell a broad strokes “immigrant parent” story, it’s clear Sohn and the writers are speaking from a very personal place. It’s more than a difference of generations, or a difference in upbringing. The love Ember has for her parents, and for being a fire element is never in question. Her parents are never seen as unreasonable. The all-too-relatable toss-up between expectations and personal desires is something many of us recognize well. More than anything else, in every aspect of the story - the familial, the societal, the romantic - Elemental stands out as a film that really has something to say, and it says it very well.
Elemental arrives in theaters on June 16.