'Elemental' Review: Pixar's First Rom-Com Burns Bright
Elemental
PG: For some peril, thematic elements and brief language
Runtime: 1 Hour and 43 Minutes
Production Companies: Pixar Animation Studios
Distributor: Disney
Director: Peter Sohn
Writer: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh
Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O'Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera, Matt Yang King
Release Date: June 16, 2023
In Theaters Only
Pixar Animation Studios' current era of embracing director-driven original stories has been exciting. While I watched Turning Red during the one week it played in theaters at Manhattan’s AMC Empire 25, Pixar hasn’t released an original theatrical film in years. Until now! Their latest, Elemental, might seem like another anthropomorphized noun-based thing set in a metropolitan society film with a heavy-handed allegory for discrimination—wait, what?—but who can resist a rom-com about fire and water? Don’t show this to Shonda Rhimes or Mindy Kaling, though.
Set in Element City, where anthropomorphic nature elements—water, fire, air, and earth—roam, Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) trains to take over her aging father, Bernie’s (Ronnie del Carmen) convenience store. Unfortunately, Ember is too hot-tempered to deal with customers. One day, a water-guy city inspector named Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) enters the store’s basement after a plumbing accident. He inadvertently writes up the shop for not being up to code. A stressed-out Ember convinces Wade to help her save the shop before her dad finds out. As they work together, the two slowly begin a budding romance despite their incompatible elements.
Pixar's recent rejection of realism and embracement of cartoonishness makes its films stand out against its earlier fare. Turning Red and Luca featured unique character designs propelled by exaggerated expressiveness. That, mixed with luscious, colorful environments of top-notch quality, made for dazzling movies with distinctive flair. Peter Sohn's Elemental continues that streak.
The expressive character designs and elemental textures are astounding, especially in its water and fire-based characters. Ember and other fire-people's flames are in constant motion, and their facial features consist of rough, sharp-edged outlines. Wade and other water people have water ripples flowing through their skin while all their facial features make wavey, squiggly shapes. The film's VFX artists brought their A-game, for the detailing is stunning. The animators get comedic mileage by pushing each character's unique reactions to their emotions.
As one can expect at first glance, Elemental is full of funny sight gags and puns. Sight gags are better than puns, but I commend the team for setting them closer to its universe than making cheap jokes related to ours. There is a lot of physical and physic-based humor central to different elemental people interacting with each other.
As the first Pixar rom-com, Elemental presents a sweet, heartfelt romance between leads Ember and Wade. Ember is rooted in the belief that elements can't mix, given her immigrant parents' prejudice toward others. When she and Wade eventually meet, their differing personalities: her being a hothead and him being sensitive, they share a charming connection that fuels the film's engine. Sohn must've watched Nora Ephron movies as an influence because when he goes for the sentimentalism for his leads, he yanks on those heartstrings. I even found myself choking up at several points.
Mamoudou Athie and Leah Lewis pour lively soulfulness into their voice performances as their respective characters. Lewis provides warmth to her Ember; Athie charm to his Wade. Enhancing their chemistry is the fact that Lewis and Athie recorded their voice sessions together.
Beyond the romance, Elemental astonishes through its authentic second-generation immigrant angle reflected in Ember's arc. Sohn himself is a second-generation immigrant of a Korean family that moved to New York, and the love and pressure of doing right by parents who sacrificed so much for the life they live flow through Ember's character. Through her budding relationship with Wade, the film creates enough internal conflict for Ember to reconcile. To give up her life and make her family proud, or follow her dream? That part will surely resonate with many kids and adults from immigrant families.
Elemental has the potential to achieve greatness, but the story feels incomplete due to weak plot devices and incongruent story beats. A plot device includes a dam, which Wade and Ember try to hold together to prevent water from flooding the shop. Yes, the dam is a simple metaphor for their romance, but it forces a wedge in the narrative’s flow. Much of the script disregards the dam plotline for so long that by the time it returns, you completely forget it was there in the first place.
The film prospers from a rich opening that illustrates the Lumen family’s immigrant experience when they entered Elemental City but snips pieces of their backstory in their former home, Fire Island. Elemental's writers (John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh) store information about Bernie and Cinder in their back pockets for a long time when they could've benefitted from playing their cards early. Midway through the film, Bernie explains why he and Cinder left their home country via flashback and narration. It's a great moment that comes at such an awkward time. Usually, the background details occur after strides are made in Ember and Wade's relationship, repeatedly reminding the audience of what's holding Ember back.
Although meant to contrast Ember as the central lead, there's room for better development with Wade. Wade is an H2imb0 with a heart of gold, but his background is unexplored outside of exposition. He details a tragic backstory about himself, explaining why he behaves carefreely, and as enticing as it is, they missed an opportunity to further his character. Hardly any dedication is given to Wade outside of comical flashback gags when there's room for so much more.
Bolstered by incredible animation, Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie’s vocal performances, and a rich, authentic lens through a second-gen immigrant angle, Elemental is a heartfelt Pixar romantic comedy sure to wash you up in feels.
