Elemental

The latest Pixar film, Elemental, had a pretty rocky start when it was released during the middle of June in 2023. Already having to contend with other big movie releases that were supposed to draw in big bucks (even though they failed to do so), that along with a pretty poor advertising campaign and casual audience’s lack of faith in modern Pixar, resulted in the film not performing well originally and seemingly becoming another Pixar flop. However, hope sparked back up when it became a sleeper hit, gaining attention after positive word of mouth and earned a modestly impressive $483.3 million at the box office against its gargantuan budget of $200 million (being one of the most expensive animated films of all time). This is a fantastic turn-around for a movie that looked like nothing on the surface but was actually so much more than expected. After immigrating from their old home to Element City, fire elements Bernie and Cinder (voiced by Ronnie del Carmen and Shila Omni) are faced with Xenophobia from the water, air and earth elements that inhabit the city, but they eventually find a small shop to live in, grow a family business and raise their newborn daughter in. Now all grown up, Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) tries her best to look after the shop now that her father is growing old and weary, but her temper often gets the better of her and she finds it hard to maintain herself. This stress gets even worse when a water element safety inspector named Wade (voiced by Mamoudou Athie) gets swept into the store after Ember causes a leak, and Bernie’s shop is at risk of being shut down. While working together to try and solve the issue, Ember and Wade form a romantic bond and Ember starts to discover her own passions and desire for life that aren’t connected with her father’s shop. But with the guilt of not wanting to throw away everything her parents sacrificed for her to live a stable life, she is left unsure of whether to pursue her own future (including one with Wade) or her father’s dream. Elemental is a very charming, beautifully animated, and overall entertaining film that carries with it much more engrossing material and content than would be expected from its trailers (Pixar seriously needs to fix that problem). While it isn’t anything groundbreaking, the very engaging leads, the stellar visuals, the surprisingly strong score, and its genuine heart creates a film that is worthy of getting a comeback.

The origins for this story have their roots in real life, as director Peter Sohn based this idea off of his own experience of growing up in New York City during the 1970s, highlighting not only the cultural and ethnic diversity of the city, but also the sacrifices and pains that his parents (Korean immigrants Yung Tahk Sohn and Hea Ja Soh) had to push through in order for him to have a happy life. That personal and heartwarming sentiment already puts this film in a good direction, yet the movie is also matched with a very solid story written by Sohn along with screenwriters John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh, that takes a seemingly generic and even done -before premise of a romance between a fire and water being (this kind of opposites attracts setup isn’t that special anymore) and injects it with an underling theme of the struggles of immigration and the guilt that new generations feel about wanting to express their own desires at the expense of a past generation that gave up their own dreams for their sake. It’s not held down by any lame cliches, forced antagonists, or even big climatic situations, it’s a very subdued character and emotion-driven film that sucks you into the dilemmas each of these main characters are dealing with. Having previously directed another Pixar film in The Good Dinosaur (which was not a good film in any sense), this is a leagues better job by Sohn who keeps the Pixar magic without going too overboard to the point of feeling sappy, it feels wonderfully timeless in its message and themes while still containing a lot of great modern touches, the atmosphere is soft and mellow yet still engaging, and while there are a few elements of the script that aren’t great like several humorous moments that just kind of die or fall flat, there’s an occasional romance cliché that feels little pointless (although thankfully kept short) and it is a pretty small-scale movie that doesn’t really capture the weight and presence of previous Pixar classics, but the way it ties together its plot in such a beautifully touching way is very impressive and may even bring a tear to the eye.

The cast for this film is not really up to par for most Pixar films, as a majority of the supporting roles are underwritten at best and flat out ignored at worst. Pixar is known for creating a memorable cast through creative designs, distinct voice actors and good humorous writing, but because the film lacks good comedy and most of the other elemental beings aren’t given much attention, it leaves a majority of the background characters as pretty uninteresting and useless. Characters like a young earth elemental named Clod (voiced by Mason Wertheimer) and an air element named Gale (voiced by Wendi McLendon-Covey) are featured heavily in the advertising, yet are completely pointless in the overall film, and outside of Wade’s mother, Brook (voiced by the ever-impressive Catherine O’Hara) who does feel decently defined for such a straightforward role, none of them feel like much outside of one-off jokes. The trade-off for this is that the leads are actually very strong and do more than enough to off-set the less-than-impressive support. Ember and Wade already have fantastic design and while the idea of a fire and water being falling in love is a little generic, it doesn’t just resort to this one idea and both characters do feel properly fleshed out and not just defined by their romance. Ember’s sparky and hot-tempered yet still kind and likeable demeanor makes her a lot of fun to watch and her struggle of deciding whether to pursue her own passions or fulfill her father’s dream at the expense of her own makes her a very engaging lead to focus on, and Leah Lewis does a fantastic job at bringing this character to life matched with the equally expressive and dynamic animation and design. Wade at first loos like he’d be a bit of a pain to sit through with his overly sappy demeanor (a running joke is that he constantly bursts into tears over anything, and it can be a little much), but as the film keeps going, it mellows out and he becomes much more tolerable and even surprisingly charming, helped out by an equally impressive vocal performance by Mamoudou Athie. The two have great chemistry between each other, the scenes of them building their romance is not overplayed and feels remarkably natural, and while it can feature a cliched plot thread that seem a little pointless, it doesn’t distract away from how well these two hold this movie up. This can also be said for Ember’s parents, who also feel like leads in their own right and are also done pretty well. Shila Ommi as her mother is a little more comedic in nature, but when she gets a serious moment it works well, and Ronnie del Carmen as Ember’s father is really well done, being given his own conflict to overcome as well as enough characteristics (both good and bad) to keep him from being a one-note antagonist, but still making him an active part of the story who is made pretty likeable.

The look of the film is definitely an aspect that many people were drawn to by the trailer, but moreso in terms of the character designs rather than the location as people were a little skeptical of Element City when it was first show off. It isn’t a bad looking location by any means, as it is very vibrant and elaborate in a way that still feels like a location that people could live in, it is cool seeing how Firetown (where all the fire elements live) is an equivalent of ‘’Chinatown’’ where a group of foreign immigrants are pigeon-holed into a specific portion of a city that clearly isn’t made for them (made very apparent by the various water, plant and air iconography everywhere) and there are a few fun visual gags that help make this world feel a little more distinct and takes advantage of its concept like air elements actually powering some of their transportation and the various water tunnels going throughout the city almost like their equivalent of a basic road, but it doesn’t feel that unique or even different for Pixar (it gives off strong Zootopia vibes) and since fire and water are the only elements that are really focused on, it makes earth and air really feel redundant and only there because of the elemental cycle. With that said, this is a gorgeous looking movie with fantastic backgrounds, incredibly vibrant colors, soft atmospheric lighting, and very impressive and cool-looking character designs that have this formless shape to them that actually allows for some really cool instances that wouldn’t be possible on characters with more structure like how fire people grow dimmer and lose their shape the sadder they become. The musical score by Thomas Newman is also really great, providing a soft atmospheric piece that features hints of Asian-based tonality that really adds to the overall feel and tone of the story in general. What could’ve been just another straightforward element in the film has much more effort put into it than it arguably needed, which is an element that could be stated about this film in general.

Considering the revival this film has had and that it did eventually grow a following after an initial bad start, it really feels like people just didn’t expect much good to come from this film from the advertising, but the generally good reception plus people being more willing to watch it on streaming rather than at the cinema (which is also probably a big factor) really helped it out in the long run. Elemental is a surprisingly strong film that takes a small and even unimpressive concept and really does the best with it to result in a heartwarming picture with a great personal touch, two solid main characters that provide a very solid romance, and stunning visuals and music. It does have pointless side characters as well as pretty unimpressive humor (ironically most of the moments that populated the trailers), but with a solid script, directing and voice work, it created a spark that truly needed to be seen in order to properly understand it.