Coming to cinemas on July 7th is Elemental. This is the latest Pixar film, and it is directed by Peter Sohn. Starring Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie this is a love story about two people from two very different cultures. The Pixar twist this time is that everyone in this film is an element. Everyone is broken down into Water, Air, Wood and Fire. And it is the Fire Elementals that we see the film through the lens of, in particular Ember (Lewis and her family. The Fire people are immigrants to Element City. The background of the city is that with each wave a new element is introduced to the city and the Fire people are the latest wave.
The film opens with Ember’s family arriving at Element City and finding a new home. Years later, Ember is all grown up and will soon take over the store from her father. Unfortunately, she stresses out easily and one day when she blows her top (literally) Wade (Athie) spills into her life. Through a series of unfortunate events they find themselves intertwined in each other’s lives and honestly, they find themselves falling for each other. The problem? Elements do not mix.
Elemental – Oil and Water
Elemental is a fascinating film. There are several positives about this film, however, there are some glaring issues. One of the problems is sadly the story, it is all over the place. I told you about the main plot which centres around these two, there is another subplot that detracts from them significantly. With a runtime of 110 minutes, both storylines are fighting for relevance and to me the subplot should have been ended as soon as the two of them met. Instead, it’s there for the entirety of the film, leading to a trope-filled (but well-animated) finale.
Also, the comedy never lands. Many people wondered would this film be the next Zootopia, unfortunately, this will not be the case. Where in Zootopia there were clever sight gags and well-thought-out jokes this film has puns and that’s about it.
Now what I did like about Elemental was the animation. The emotions running through each character are reflected in how they move and how their very being reacts to their surroundings. I believe that’s why the Wood elementals and the Air elementals were rarely used outside of sight gags. These two elements are nowhere near as interesting as Fire and Water and the animators know this. When you see Wade drinking something and he briefly changes colour is fascinating, also there is a beautiful scene with Ember and crystals that is brilliant.
That gets to what I personally adored about Elemental. It was Ember and Wade. Both started off quite annoying. Ember is too stressed out and Wade is too weepy. However, when they met and they bounced off each other I began to really adore them. Their journey is sweet, corny and filled to the brim with tropes but it’s still charming.
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