Elemental
Disney/Pixar, 2023
Animation/Adventure
3/5 stars
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
One can honestly say Pixar doesn’t make bad movies. One can also say – with conviction – since Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter left the company in 2018, the quality in the storytelling has noticeably diminished. Nonetheless, Pixar‘s animation is still fun. While animation/adventure like the Toy Story installments, Finding Nemo, Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out, Cars (well at least the first one) are all at stellar levels, Elemental, I think, falls into the “mediocre” category.
Yet, there’s a cuteness to Elemental, and strangely enough, not much to laugh about. The theme of Elemental is fire, water, earth and air, all for life to subsist, can only be possible with God. Fire, the element that seems to be most discriminated against, is forced to live in Firetown, on the outskirts of Element City. The story begins with two immigrant Flames Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen come to Element City for a better life. They have one daughter Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) who helps with the new shop that serves Lava Java and Coal Nuts. Ember is slated to take over the shop when her parents retire.
One day, a leak unexpectedly occurs in the shop and Ember can’t stop it. She calls for Water, Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a weepy character, to stop the leak before it damages the store putting out the Fire in the store and throughout Firetown. (The other Elements don’t like Fire because they burn everything they go near.) It isn’t long before Wade finds Ember as a love interest. There’s precious little time to fix the problem before a real disaster occurs. Not only that, the Blue Flame, a spiritual totem of their culture can be damaged in the ordeal. One contradiction, for sure, is that Ember incinerates everything she comes in contact with, but she can write on paper without it burning up. Furthermore, the elements Earth and Air are relegated to the margins. The metaphors in Elemental strongly refer to segregation and immigration. But what works best in Elemental is the love interest between Ember and Wade, both from different elements. I will probably always look for a Pixar animated picture in the future even though Elemental is really just average with contradictions.
Director: Peter Sohn.
Cast: Leah Lewis (voice of Ember), Mamoudou Athie (voice of Wade), Ronnie Del Carmen (voice of Bernie), Shila Ommi (voice of Cinder) Wendi McLendon-Covey (voice of Gale), Catherine O’ Hara (voice of Brook), Mason Wertheimer (voice of Clod), Ronobir Lahiri (voice of Harold), Wilma Bonet (voice of Flarrietta), Joe Pera (voice of Fern), Matt Yang King (voice of Lutz), Clara Lin Ding (voice of Little Kid Ember), Jonathan Adams (voice of Flarry).
Screenwriters: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh.
Original Music: Thomas Newman.
Cinematography: David Bianchi, Jean-Claude Kalache.
Art Director: Jennifer Chang.
Running time: 101 minutes.
Howard McQuitter II is a longtime movie critic. He has been reviewing movies for the alley since 2002.
