Elemental (2023) Disney/Comedy-Adventure RT: 109 minutes Rated PG (some peril, thematic elements, brief language) Director: Peter Sohn Screenplay: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh Music: Thomas Newman Release date: June 16, 2023 (US) Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Ronobir Lahiri, Wilma Bonet, Joe Pera, Matt Yang King. Box Office: $154.4M (US)/$496.4M (World)
Rating: **
Pixar isn’t even trying anymore. Their latest “effort” Elemental is proof of that. It’s yet another computer-animated movie in which human traits are assigned to things that aren’t human (e.g. toys, cars, monsters, etc.). In this case, it’s the four elements of nature- i.e. fire, water, air and earth. They all live together in state of disharmony in Element City. Right off the bat, it brings to mind Inside Out, the one about the preteen girl’s tumultuous emotions. That one was brilliant! Elemental is just lazy hence the quotation marks around effort in the second sentence.
Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur), Elemental doesn’t explore any new territory. It covers the same themes as Pixar movies past. It gives us a heroine who (a) feels like she doesn’t belong and (b) secretly wants to do her own thing rather than follow in the footsteps of a well-meaning but clueless parent. It also gives us a mismatched couple forced to put aside their differences and work together to save their city from some impending disaster. It’s set in a sprawling metropolis with a clear distinction between social classes. The privileged water people reside in luxurious high rise buildings while the less-privileged fire people (mostly immigrants) form a tight-knit community united in their dislike for water-based beings. In case you haven’t yet realized it, Elemental is also a thinly veiled metaphor for racial prejudice. More about that later.
Ember (Lewis, The Half of It) is the daughter of immigrants Bernie (Carmen) and Cinder (Ommi, Tehran) from Fireland. Upon their arrival, they got hit with prejudice from all directions. None of the other elements wanted them in their neighborhood. Eventually, the couple found a place to call home, named it Firetown and opened a bodega. Ember is born soon thereafter.
Years later, Ember is constantly told she’s not ready to take over the family business. It’s because of her fiery temper. She’s not the most patient fire being in the world. When pushed, she goes from red hot to purple which typically results in property damage. One day, the day her dad leaves her in charge of the shop for the first time, she’s pushed too far by all the PITA customers. She goes to the basement to vent and ends up breaking a water pipe which causes a flood. The flow of water brings with it Wade Ripple (Athie, Archive 81), a health inspector who threatens to have the place shut down due to unsafe conditions. Ember tries to stop him and a chase through the city ensues.
Forced to plead her case to Wade’s air element boss Gale Cumulus (Covey, The Goldbergs), Ember is told her father’s store will not be shut down if she helps Wade find and fix the source of a leak that threatens the safety of everybody in Element City. Along the way, the two opposites fall for each other despite knowing full well that fire and water don’t mix. Or so they’ve been told all their lives.
In the past, Pixar consistently set the bar high with titles like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Up and Inside Out, all of which made my top ten lists in their respective years. Lately, we’ve been getting lesser movies like Onward and Lightyear in addition to the deluge of cash-grab sequels like Cars 3 and Finding Dory. You can add Elemental to the list. It’s not a terrible movie per se; it’s merely a flat and unoriginal one that bears a very close resemblance to Disney’s non-Pixar billion-dollar hit Zootopia. Instead of anthropomorphic animals, it’s the elements. Both films deal with prejudice and xenophobia. It’s clear early on what Elemental is up to, but it really shows its race card in the scene where Bernie tells his daughter to keep an eye on the water elements that just entered the store. It’s an all too familiar scenario. But here’s the thing. The writers fail to develop this theme beyond a superficial level. They let us know what the movie is really about without actually exploring it in a meaningful way.
Now let’s set aside the film’s loftier intentions and talk about it as entertainment. I have no doubt little kids will enjoy Elemental. They don’t care if it’s a rehash of other movies they’ve probably watched a million times. They’ll like the colors and that it’s constantly in motion. I’ll grant it has a few imaginative moments like the game of Air Ball played by cloud-shaped air elements, but scenes like this are few and far in between.
For the most part, Elemental bored me. I didn’t think the animation was all that great which is especially bad given Pixar’s rep for quality CA. I thought the story and characters were uninvolving. I found Wade and his family incredibly annoying; in particular, their tendency to weep torrents of tears. The only voice talent that stands out is Covey and she’s not in it that much. I also found the whole thing predictable. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elemental was written by an algorithm rather than actual humans. It has a noticeably manufactured feel to it. It may as well have been titled Pixar Movie #27 in how it doesn’t stand out at all.
If your kids insist on seeing Elemental at the movies, make it a little less painful on the credit card by taking them to a matinee (in 2D). You’ll be bored, but at least you won’t have spent a fortune on mediocre product.
