So close! The base story in Pixar’s Elemental is a terrific one, but it never quite becomes one of those special Pixar projects kids and parents will be crying over for years. But it IS still a Pixar movie, meaning its still a cut above mediocre animated fare out there.
Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen movie from the land of the Fire People to Element City to make a better life for their daughter Ember (Leah Lewis). By the time Ember is a teenager, she feels she’s ready to take over her family’s convenient store. There are two things holding her back: Ember’s short temper, and a water leak in the basement, drawing health inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) to regrettably issue code violations on the business to potentially shut down the store.
Despite the obvious initial friction, the big highlight of Elemental is Ember and Wade’s courtship. In every way these opposites attract. Physically, they are afraid to touch one another, because it causes a chemical reaction between the two of them that may completely alter their elemental status and Ember’s parents don’t like water and fire mixing. But emotionally, the movie really hammers home that this is really a story about first generation immigrants/working class people dating upper class multi generational residents of a country. Having many friends who are first generation immigrants, the weight of multiple hopes and dreams lie upon you. So you never have time to think about yourself, because the family is more important than any one person, pushing Ember’s feelings down inside of her until they erupt from anger/frustration. However, this changes with money and privilege: Ember’s dinner with Wade’s family is eye opening for her, as Wade’s mom (Catherine O’Hara) is hyper supportive of her son to follow his own dreams and make something of himself, a thought Ember never had time or perspective to consider. Wade’s open emotional conversations with his family unlock those feelings inside of Ember, attracting her to Wade but also frightening her, as she know has feelings directly in conflict with her family’s wishes. It can be a bit on the nose at times, but Elemental’s romance is legitimately swoon worthy, because of how honest and well drawn Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie make Ember and Wade as characters.
Usually Pixar animators dazzle the screen when they make their animated art. However, the minute the opening credits roll and look like they were created 5 minutes ago, it’s clear Elemental might have been a rushed to the big screen. Most of the time was probably spent rendering the characters, who look lovely and are constantly changing colors and moving. That must have eaten up the animation budget and really forced the rest of the movie to be hastily and cheaply put together. The animators try to make up for the mediocre quality with color explosions. For my money, that’s a trade I’m ok with, as some of the romantic dates especially dazzle with vivid imagery of flowers or water/color dances. But in the summer of Across the Spiderverse, merely great just isn’t good enough, and even Pixar would probably agree Elemental’s animation could have used at least one more good once over.
I wonder if maybe Elemental started as a short about a fire/water courtship, and the animators realized the movie was better as a feature. Too bad, because the movie wastes a great Leah Lewis performance. As romantic as Elemental can be in parts, I’d encourage you to seek out The Half of It to see what Lewis can do in real life: let’s get her more romantic partners Hollywood!