Elemental review

ELEMENTAL: 

A DERIVATIVE BUT CHARMING PIXAR OUTING! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DISNEY/PIXAR

Ember and Wade in Disney/Pixar’s Elemental

 

            The emotions from Inside Out become Element Benders and learn a bunch of lessons about prejudice in Elemental, the latest animated feature from Pixar Animation Studios. It’s no secret that I love Pixar (I think the previous reviews I’ve done for their films kind of makes that perfectly clear) and think they’re behind some of the best animated films around from groundbreaking classics like the Toy Story series to fun blockbusters like The Incrediblesmovies and bold character pieces such as Finding Nemo, Up, Inside Out, Coco, and Soul. 

            With that in mind, I thought Elemental looked stunning when I first saw the teaser trailer, the animation and character designs were unlike any other Pixar film I’ve seen and it’s one of their original movies not associated with Pixar’s Ips which I’m always down for. The film is directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) who is probably better known for his voice-over work in the Pixar films Ratatouille, Monsters University, and Lightyear in his second directing effort after 2015’s The Good Dinosaur. 

            The Good Dinosaur definitely isn’t a high-point on Pixar’s legacy as it was a massive box-office failure despite mostly positive reviews from critics and I don’t think it’s one of the studio’s best work. Regardless, I’m always down for an original Pixar idea even if it doesn’t always turn out to be gold. 

            Now that I’ve seen it, I can say that Elemental is…decent! This is a perfectly fine Pixar movie that has impressive animation and likable protagonists, but the story is very formulaic and derivative of other animated features. 

            The film is set in Element City, a world populated by anthropomorphic creatures based on the four elements (Earth, fire, water, and air) and follows Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis-Nancy Drew (2019), The Half of It, How to Deter a Robber), a tough, quick-witted fire element working in her family’s convenience store in Fire Town. But when she befriends a fun, sappy water element named Wade (voiced by Mamoudou Athie-Cake, Uncorked, Black Box), it challenges her beliefs about the world they live in as elements don’t mix. 

            The film also features the voices of Ronnie del Carmen (Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Soul) as Ember’s father Bernie, Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911, Bridesmaids, The Goldbergs) as Gale Cumulus, Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice, Home Alone 1 and 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas) as Brook Ripple, Joe Pera (Joe Pera Talks With You, F is for Family) as Fern Grouchwood, Matt Yang King (Riverdale, Powers, Only Yesterday) as Alan Ripple and Lutz, and Jonathan Adams (American Dreams, Bones, Marvel Animation) as Flarry. 

            Overall, Elemental has a lot of appealing elements (No pun intended), and it does cover relevant and thought-provoking themes about prejudice and xenophobia, but the plot is very formulaic and derivative of other animated features and romance movies. It hits just about every beat you’d expect from a film like this and there really isn’t much new being done with these plot tropes. 

            You have a main character with parents trying to encourage their child to go into the family business, but the character wants to go their own path, befriending and starting a romance with a polar opposite and is deemed a forbidden love, and there’s even an incredibly forced third-act breakup that’s been done to death several films prior. It doesn’t necessarily mean the movie is bad, but all throughout the third-act I kept thinking to myself “What’s the point in breaking them up when you know they’re just going to get back together by the end?”, there isn’t anything new being said and is about as forced as when the first Shrek did it back in 2001. 

            The film is often being compared to Inside Out and Zootopia, Inside Out for how the elements’ character designs resemble the emotion characters from that movie and Zootopia for its social commentary on prejudice. But the big difference here is those movies also had great storylines to coincide with their messages whereas with this, it’s just more of what you’ve seen a million times before in entertainment and doesn’t really have its own identity. 

            Still, these are very important topics that should be explored especially in entertainment for children and the film does a fine enough job conveying them to young viewers. Had the plot been more original, I think Pixar could have had something great here, but as is it’s perfectly serviceable. 

            Where Elemental fumbles in storytelling, it excels in animation as this is one of the best-looking Pixar films I’ve seen. The film is a visual marvel with incredibly vibrant colors, imaginative element-themed environments, unique character designs that are quite different from usual Pixar fare, and various sequences where the animation and creativity shine with one of my favorites being a cloud basketball game reminiscent of Blitzball from Final Fantasy X…except a lot more tolerable. 

            Despite its formulaic plot, the two main characters of the film are very likable and have strong romantic chemistry. Ember is kind of this sarcastic and sassy fire woman with a bit of a temper to say the least while Wade is this very talkative, high-energy, and free-spirited guy without coming off as a bumbling moron, not only are they opposites in terms of elements, but also personality wise which I think is very smart and the scenes with them together are quite sweet. 

            Elemental isn’t exactly a high-point for Pixar, but kids will probably enjoy it and animation enthusiasts will relish in its dazzling animation and artistry. It’s a mostly harmless animated feature that families can go see and have fun with…if Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is sold out everywhere.