Elemental Review: Richly Animated, But Poorly Scripted
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
While the Disney-Pixar partnership has been wildly successful for nearly 30 years, the track record has been spottier recently as it has stepped up production on more features. In the past 8 years, they have made almost as many films (13) as they had in the previous 20 years (14). Elemental is Pixar’s latest release, and while it has a lot of the creative Pixar earmarks, it feels like a lower-tier Pixar film.
Elemental is set in Element City, a bustling urban environment populated by anthropomorphic embodiments of the four elements: land, air, water, and fire. Ember (Leah Lewis) is the daughter of two fire elements, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen. Ember grows up in her dad’s store in the small borough of Fire Town, and her father has designs on her taking over the family business.
Ember is prone to fiery, explosive outbursts and accidentally causes some pipes to burst in the basement, which results in a health inspector water element named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) showing up and setting events in motion that results in the pending shutdown of the family store. Ember’s impassioned pleas with the bureaucracy of Element City moves Wade to try to help her fix the situation, and a romance starts to blossom between the two.
Elemental City is an intricately designed urban environment that reminded me of Zootopia. It has grown and expanded naturally, and elements have adapted to it as they have immigrated, similar to how Irish, Italians, and others have come to the United States in various waves.
Also, similar to how immigration has unfolded in the US, the latest arrivals are treated with hostility. In this case, the fire elements are the last of the four groups to migrate to Element City. This also means that the layout of the city is more unfriendly to them, as the city has been designed with air, land, and water in mind; water-based public transportation runs right above the street where Lumen’s shop is located, constantly raining water from above as a significant inconvenience to the fire elements on the road below.
The story of Ember and her family is a nice illustration of the immigrant tale many minority communities have experienced while laying out the experience of being a stranger in a strange new land in a way accessible for all ages. Other elements are reluctant to interact with fire elements for fear of being burned. That hostility breeds more hostility, as Ember’s father routinely mutters, “Water…” under his breath, resentful of water elements.
The film also handles the generational aspects of the immigrant story quite well, providing some background detail on how and why Ember’s parents left for Element City, how her father’s departure played out with his father, and how the family chooses to honor their customs and traditions by keeping and maintaining a sacred Blue Flame in their store that they carried with them from their village.
Even those without a background personally rooted in immigration can relate to being in situations where they are out of their element (pun fully intended). That is part of Ember’s story too. Having lived her entire life in Fire Town, her incident with Wade forces her to brave the greater Element City environs. Navigating the bustling city and avoiding bumping into people proves difficult.
Elemental is overtly a romantic comedy, something Pixar has not done much in the past outside of Wall-E, which remains my favorite Pixar film. Sadly, despite its best efforts, the kindling (pun, again, fully intended) romance between the two mismatched elements did not resonate, limiting my overall enjoyment of the film. Ultimately, this is a tale of two people from different backgrounds falling in love with a disapproving parent and the hardships of cultural barriers.
Ember comes across as a more complete character, while Wade feels a little underdeveloped. Ember having passionate, fiery outbursts and Wade being a crier because he is made of water felt a little derivative. This is nothing against the vocal performances; it is more to do with the script and story than anything.
The animation continues to be top-notch and inventive. Pixar always nails the fine details, such as how a part of Wade’s body might boil if he gets too close to Ember while the rest of him remains normal. At its best, Pixar’s animation takes their films to another level, elevating an already strong story even higher, but there is a ceiling this time.
Pixar’s track record has set a high bar, and they won’t always measure up. Elemental is just an ok Pixar film, which is still above average compared to most others, but it did leave me wanting. Even with that said, it is an ambitious original story not based on previously existing intellectual property.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars