From their 1995 first movie, Toy Story, the Pixar geniuses have adopted an unconventional approach to Disneyland stories. Loosely based on real life, some of their films have featured bugs, monsters, cars, a rat who cooks, and even post apocalyptic robots and feelings. Now, for their 27th movie, they have again taken a more abstract approach by personifying earth elements in a unique-yet-familiar plot.
One of the film’s protagonists is a woman, Ember Lumen (Lina Lewis), from an immigrant family living in the Fire section of Element City. Water people appear to be the controlling force in the city as most methods of travel involve water in some way. Moreover, Earth and air people occupy their own respective places with a sport called Air Ball that has air athletes being especially popular among the residents.
City inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) steps into the life of Ember, who struggles with her temper after an accident breaks some water pipes. Her family on the verge of going out of business, Ember is desperate so she keeps pestering Wade to help. To their surprise, they both develop feelings for each other, but can there really be a relationship between fire and water?
The film, directed by Peter Sohn and written by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hseuh, is largely an allegory for immigration. The parents of Ember are Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) and they originate from the Fire section of Element City. To make the whole scenario more painful, they are frightened by the other elements causing countries – so keeping them segregated is easier.
This entertaining animation feels a little draggy in the beginning, but it certainly catches up in the romantic portion of the film. To my great surprise, the relationship between Ember and Wade is nothing like I imagined. For instance, Ember does her very best to conceal the romance while Wade’s family, particularly his mother Brook, has no problem with it, as she is very accepting of Ember. The filmmakers did a very commendable job building the storyline and it certainly paid off in the end, although I do prefer a quicker pace to the start of a film.
It really depends on how well you can adjust to the animation to the world it is set in, but for me, it was a little more challenging. This is largely due to the fact that elements are both living beings and everything that makes up the world they inhabit. There are so many light hearted jokes and witty remarks that I probably missed about half of them during my first viewing.
The voicework is one department that doesn’t seem to change, making the absence of big names a plus as it helps the audience connect with the characters. The character designs, while pleasing to the eye, were a bit strange, Pixar’s animation is usually great, but some areas were rather photo-realistic compared to what Pixar has accomplished.
Although Elemental does not appear to rank among the highest Pixar films, it does have a compelling storyline that will most likely get the recognition it deserves when watched multiple times. You see, fire and water do not mix quite effortlessly, but a studio like this can manage it.
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