‘Elemental’ Review: Sparks Fly In Pixar’s First Rom-Com
Ember (Leah Lewis) & Wade (Mamoudou Athie) in Elemental. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Can Pixar get out of their own way and make a good rom-com? This is one of many questions brought up by Elemental, Pixar’s latest, their first rom-com, a pretty successful one, at that. Set in Element City — a very Zootopia-esque setting for the film, swapping animals for humanoid beings made up of the four elements, air, earth, water, and in the case of Ember (Leah Lewis), fire. For Ember’s parents, Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi), Elemental City is very much a foreign place — they reside in Fire Town, a suburb, one of the intricately layered metaphors for immigration and belonging throughout the film, reflecting on the place of the fire people.
Ember (Leah Lewis) & Wade (Mamoudou Athie) in Elemental. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Ember, a first-generation Elemental City citizen, has only dreamed of one thing — taking over her father’s shop (a general store for all things fire-related), and things seem to be going well, that is until a burst pipe sends City Inspector (and water-man) Wade (Mamoudou Athie) into her shop, in which he seems only to notice its flaws, writing up a list of citations — one long enough to shut them down for good. To stop this, he and Ember are going to have to work together to fix a cracked barrier that’s supposed to stop water runoff from ships from entering the Fire Town canals (and pipes) by the end of the week to have all citations forgiven, sending them to locations like windball matches (an endless realm for fart-related jokes, though they’re seemingly exclusively funny to eight-year-olds), underground tunnels, and city hall, with enough time for exposition-heavy flashbacks that explain these characters and the world they live in, setting up later emotional payoffs to make the progression of their relationship (which moves really fast, but sure) feel more natural.
To get this out of the way, yes, Elemental is a movie targeted at younger audiences. It’s not a future classic rom-com, such as one like When Harry Met Sally, and it doesn’t reach the romantic heights that Pixar previously achieved with films like Up — not a great idea to play the final Up short in front of Elemental, a short that, in only a few minutes, creates more emotion and sense of romantic longing than in Elemental’s entire runtime, even if it is for a mere 30 seconds of the short (the rest is a frustrating watch). What Elemental does have (and when you really think about it, it becomes more impressive) is strong cameo between its leads, strong enough to make their story feel natural (Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie hadn’t even met, let alone recorded together before the film was completed).
Wade (Mamoudou Athie) & Ember (Leah Lewis) in Elemental. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Though Ember, the hotheaded (pun not intended) one of the two, is repeatedly cooled off (okay, maybe it was intended) by Wade’s presence, there’s always something lacking between the two, needing more than just falling back on the old — and in this case, literal — “opposites attract” idea. Elemental doesn’t know how to balance its storylines in an effective manner, to the extent that, towards the end of the film’s second act, it feels like things are wrapping up, losing its grip on its rushed — and slightly boring — plot. As a love story, it’s contrived. As an immigrant tale, it’s emotional. It’s a shame that the relationship between Ember and Bernie gets sidelined as we enter the film’s second hour because the ideas it brings up regarding legacy and identity are stronger than anything that comes up from the romance side of the film. The animation is pretty, though it feels familiar — Pixar really isn’t pushing boundaries anymore. Composer Thomas Newman certainly is, however, with a score that — and I’m not exaggerating — would steal the film if it weren’t for the young, ambitious Clod (voiced by Mason Wertheimer).
Though Elemental has a lot to offer, it’s hard to disregard the Pixar of it all. In its third act, — one laced with tropes from different genres — everything culminates in a satisfying, but sour-tasting ending. There’s the potential for a stronger, more impactful ending that brings up themes of cherishing what you have, while you have it, but that’s quickly thrown out of the window so we can get another Pixar Happy Ending™. Elemental is in no way one of the studio’s weaker offerings from their recent slate, but it doesn’t particularly stand out — especially when we’ve seen parts of this movie throughout their previous movies. Elemental feels like an entry-level romance — for its target audience, that’s probably for the best.
Elemental arrives in theaters on June 16.
This review was made possible thanks to Disney who invited us to an advance screening of Elemental for review.
