Elemental: A Spoiler-Free Discussion
***Unlike these are normally done, because Elemental does not hit theaters until Friday, this review will be spoiler-free.***
Pixar has been in a bit of a slump lately. While there have been a few gems in the form of Soul, Coco, and Turning Red, entries like The Good Dinosaur, Cars 3, Onward, Lightyear, and Luca have ranged from just terrible to just fine. Luckily, Elemental is a return to the Pixar of the mid-2000s, and does so with an original story and stunning visuals.
The movie follows Ember, a fire person who is the daughter of immigrants who is set to inherit her father's shop. Her life gets turned upside-down when she accidentally causes a water leak in her business that brings a city inspector named Wade in. The two of them have to work together to fix the problems that could lead to her father's business being shut down.
Without spoiling too much, the movie is a hybrid of a traditional immigrant story and a modern romance. The romance definitely takes the forefront of the story but the depth comes from the immigrant story, which is a shade underserved. The juxtaposition of Ember's upbringing and Wade's upbringing creates some interesting character moments. The problem is, it is almost as if these moments are from an older draft of the script where the focus was more on the family drama.
That said, the romance between Ember and Wade is endearing at least so, while the movie spends a ton of screen time on that, it will keep the viewer engaged. The visuals that go along with these moments are all gorgeous as well, and play with the interactions between the various elements around Element City.
The biggest issue is that the movie does not feel like it is quite as ambitious as it could have been and maybe a movie that is not split in so many directions would have been more interesting in the long run. Perhaps focusing the story on Ember's relationship with her father and dealing with the conflict that exists there. It does get some time devoted to it over the course of the film, however it is under-baked and makes the resolution to this conflict feel a little unearned. That's not to say it's bad, but it could have been better.
Elemental is in the upper tier of Pixar films, among the likes of Inside Out, Soul, and Turning Red. The visuals alone make it one of the better animated movies this year (sorry, it's not beating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) but is still worth watching in a theater. This is especially noteworthy since it's an original property and not a spin-off of one of Pixar's numerous franchises and it is always good to promote movies like that.
Elemental arrives in theaters on June 16th, 2023.
★★★★★
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