Movies & TV / Reviews
Elemental Review
Image Credit: Disney/Pixar
Loading...
Directed By: Peter Sohn
Written By: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh, and Peter Sohn
Runtime: 103 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language
Leah Lewis – Ember Lumen
Mamoudou Athie – Wade Ripple
Ronnie Del Carmen – Bernie Lumen
Shila Ommi – Cinder Lumen
Wendi McLendon-Covey – Gale
Catherine O’Hara – Brooke Ripple
Mason Wertheimer – Clod
Joe Pera – Fern
Pixar’s latest film, i>Elemental, is not getting much buzz in a crowded summer movie season, and that is unfortunate because Elemental is a wondrous, imaginative, and emotional story that is worth a look while it’s playing in theaters. Pixar veteran Peter Sohn has crafted a wildly poignant and heartwarming story with Elemental, and it’s one of Pixar’s best efforts in recent memory.
The world of Elemental features a concept that hues closely to traditional Pixar stories, but by no means does it lack charm and ingenuity. Elemental is set in a fictional imagined world made up of sentient “elemental” beings — a world inhabited by living individuals comprised of fire, water, earth, and air. Many of them emigrated from their homelands, and Element City is a community where all the various elemental races live together. Unfortunately, not all of the races easily intermingle with one another. Water people can douse fire people, and fire people could potentially evaporate water people.
At the start of Elemental, fire people Bernie Lumen (Del Carmen) and his wife Cinder (Ommi) immigrate to Element City, hoping to start a new life there with their unborn child. Through their hardship and struggles, the couple creates a home and raises their young daughter Ember (Lewis). Bernie raises Ember with the expectation that one day she will inherit the family business, a general store that caters to other fire people who also live in their neighborhood. As she gets older, Ember struggles with the added responsibilities that come with managing the store and consistently loses her temper with customers. One day, she blows her top, unwittingly causing a flood in their store basement, which brings the water person, Wade Ripple (Athie), into her life.
Unfortunately for Ember, Wade is a city inspector, and he writes up multiple code violations on the store, causing Ember to move out of the comfort zone of Fire Town in pursuit of Wade. After Ember convinces Wade of her family’s long struggle to build their store and livelihood, Wade seeks to help Ember get the citations forgiven. However, to make that happen, they need to fix a debilitating water leak plaguing the city’s waterways and bringing water to Fire Town, where it’s not supposed to go. Even though Ember and Wade are complete opposites, literally fire and water, in Wade, Ember finds a kindred spirit who supports her artistic creativity. There’s an undeniable spark between the two, even though water and fire are not supposed to mix.
Elemental is infinitely clever in the way it disguises and explores issues of the intermingling of societal classes and races, with the different sentient elementals subbing for various races or ethnicities. While the characters are sentient, elemental beings, their stories and interactions still generate powerful emotional impact. The film depicts the immigration of the Lumens to Element City resembling the landing of immigrants on Ellis Island in New York, which beautifully resonates throughout the opening act. Ember and Wade’s developing romance is an allegory for an interracial relationship. The story finds its true emotional heart with Ember’s inner conflict in her wish to love and respect her parents while still desiring to follow her dreams rather than her parents. There is no cliche villain in Elemental, and that’s never a problem. The conflict challenges the characters to overcome their personal biases and prejudices, daring them to move outside of their comfort zones.
Peter Sohn cleverly plays out the human allegory of Elemental, but certain aspects warrant further exploration. Some scenes acknowledge that Element City is not as fire-friendly as it is for other elemental races since most elemental races do not mix well with fire. Characters conceive creative workarounds to help Ember in this regard, but the plot misses specific opportunities to explore the class and race issues at work in Element City. Wade and Ember’s relationship and Ember’s dealing with her inner turmoil are still strong narrative arcs, but the prejudices of the elemental people could have served as a sufficient B-plot. For a sizable chunk of the movie, Ember and Wade team up to solve the city’s water leak problem. The subplot has value in that it brings Ember and Wade closer together, but it unfolds sloppily.
Throughout the film, the voice actors of Elemental deliver tremendous vocal performances with their characters. Pixar usually does a remarkable job casting their films, and Elemental reinforces that premise. Mamoudou Athie is outstanding as Wade, a big crybaby and softie. He’s a puddle of emotions, but his sincere and earnest empathy for others is infinitely charming. Lewis’ vocal performance is fantastic because she vocally performs Ember’s fiery temper, along with her softer, warmer side for Wade and her parents. Lewis nails the gamut of emotions Ember experiences throughout her character’s journey. She vocally portrays a daughter who loves and respects her parents. Ember desperately tries to live up to their expectations, yet she still wishes to forge her own path. Most children can relate to that universal truth. Not to mention, her parents are strictly traditional in the ways of their people, and with that in mind, Ember’s romance with Wade is taboo. It adds to Ember’s dilemma in wanting to honor her family traditions despite desiring a relationship with Wade. The method by which the writers and Sohn have crafted an emotional, human, allegorical story around sentient elemental creatures is endlessly fascinating and clever.
The other value of the actors is that the cast truly becomes their characters. The film’s cast is not burdened by an abundance of celebrities. The biggest names in the cast are probably Wendi McLendon-Covey as Wade’s boss, Gale, and Catherine O’Hara, who voices Wade’s mother, Brooke. The actors capture their roles wonderfully, vocally encompassing and disappearing into their characters, especially McLendon-Covey as Gale.
Visually, Elemental is lovely. Element City is a visual feast, and the world-building of a society made up of elemental beings is cleverly realized onscreen. Not to mention, Pixar’s animators created impressive eye candy with the various elemental people, especially the fire people, but it’s also clear they had a lot of fun when Ember chases Wade across the city. Since the elemental beings are not composed of flesh and bone, they can squeeze through tiny cracks and crevices, offering some exhilarating direction, animation effects, and camera angles.
Elemental has a few plot issues that could have made the stakes even more dramatic and harrowing. It holds back in expanding upon certain themes regarding racial prejudice, but it’s still a charming, heartwarming, and powerful story. In addition, the movie is aptly titled since the emotions featured in the story are basic, “elemental” parts of life.
