Elemental starts out with fire immigrating to Element City and trying to find their place. People in Element City are unwelcoming to this new element, fire, and they settle just outside the city creating their home away from home, dubbed Fire Town. This is a story about the struggles immigrant families face when acclimating to a new society and interracial relationships. The main character, Ember, is a first-generation immigrant. Ember is meant to take over her father’s shop when he retires and has been actively working towards this goal her whole life. She comes across Wade, a city inspector, whose element is water, and writes citations for their building being out of code for several things. Seeing how upset this made Ember, they embark on a journey to fix the problem to save the shop.
During their time together Wade gets to see some of Fire Town and Ember gets to go to Element City and be around other elements like water, air, and earth. As Wade and Ember try to solve this problem together, they are also learning more about each other and becoming friends. Wade shows Ember that it is okay to show emotion and go for what you want in life to achieve self-fulfillment while Ember shows Wade how to adapt and get out of his comfort zone a bit.
Pixar’s new film Elemental has received mixed reviews from audiences stating this is not Pixar’s best work when it comes to animation, some plot threads are unfinished, and some characters lack depth. People are also saying the marketing team did not market this movie properly which is why it had an opening weekend of $29.6 million.
The film does lack supporting characters such as Gale, Fern, and Clod. These seem to be the only other characters outside of the water and fire element and they do not get a lot of screen time. We see even less of their worlds and the same can be said for the element of water. We see Wade’s family two or three times but really only see their world and what is it like living as water one time. Pixar could have put a little more into the backstory of the elements or given more screen time to supporting characters to give a well-rounded look into Element City and what it is like for all elements. The story is mainly set in Fire Town yet the whimsical creative aspects of the elements and how they live, use transportation, etc. are mainly seen in the city.
While I agree with the people saying the marketing team did not advertise this properly and other characters fell a little flat, we must remember this movie’s target audience is children. With that being said, the subliminal message of immigrant families, first-generation kids, and discovering what you really want for yourself despite possibly disappointing people you love is easy to digest for children. Pixar could have upped their game in some areas to make the story more complete and whimsical, but this is still a must-see. The animation, the story, and the creativity are all good. Could it be better? Sure. Is it bad? Not at all.
