By Jana Monji
Korean American director Peter Sohn draws from his childhood growing up in New York City to tell a story (with John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh who wrote the screenplay) about immigration and cross-cultural exchange and understanding.
In Elemental, the characters are anthropomorphized elements and, in a case of opposites attract, a water element guy finds he’s attracted to a fire element gal, but things won’t get too steamy because this is a Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios PG full length animated film.
Fans of Pixar or animation may already be familiar with Sohn. The character of Russell, the Asian American boy in Up was modeled to look similar to Sohn and he provided the voice for Russell in a short. He also voiced a character in The Good Dinosaur (Forrest Woodbrush, a Styracosaurus) and, more recently, the robotic cat, Sox, in the 2022 Pixar film, Lightyear.
Pixar’s 2015 The Good Dinosaur wasn’t that good, but it was Sohn’s feature film directorial debut. The Good Dinosaur had a troubled production history. The original director, Bob Peterson, was removed from the project. Casting and characters changed. However, The Good Dinosaur had a ready market: fans of dinosaurs. Elemental is doubtlessly harder to market not only because who really wants to play with fire but also because there is no cute, cuddly sidekick or mascot in this film.
The elements are taken not from hard science, but from old Western understanding of the world. If you’ve dabbled in astrology you’d be familiar with them because the 12 signs are divided into four elements: fire, earth, air and water.
Fans of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender will also recognize these elements. Although that animated series was heavily influenced by Chinese martial arts and Asian Pacific Islander cultures, the writers were two non-Asian Americans: (Italian American) Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (who is possibly Slavic American). In Chinese astrology, the signs are divided into five elements: water, wood, fire, earth and metal.
In Elemental, a young fire element couple, Bernie (Filipino animator and voice actor Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen, arrive at Element City, a place better suited for water, air, and earth elements. They are unable to find a place to live, but eventually, make a home in a deserted part of town. From their homeland, they’ve brought a Blue Flame that they keep in a special ceremonial fire pit continuously burning. A community forms around the convenience store they open, The Fireplace, where they offer tasty treats that are literally too hot for non-fire elements.
Flash forward, and their young adult daughter, Ember (Chinese American actress Leah Lewis) helps run the store which she will eventually inherit. Ember unfortunately doesn’t always have the patience to handle some of the more problematic customers and loses her temper. For a fire element, that means letting go with fire instead of ice and things burn or melt. On one such occasion, she runs to the basement but her meltdown literally melts down the old water pipes in spots, causing water to flood the basement and from the water spring water element and city inspector Wade Ripple (Mauritanian American Mamoudou Athie).
Wade needs to report water piping violations that will force the Fireplace to close. Ember tries to prevent him from filing his citations but arrives too late as earth element bureaucrat, Fern Grouchwood (Joe Pera) sends the citations on. As a last appeal, Wade takes Ember to air element Gale Cumulus (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Gale gives Ember and Wade a brief reprieve: If they can find and fix the water problem in three days, the Fireplace will be saved. Things don’t always flow the way you want, but this couple will find romance. This is clean-cut romance with some waterworks (crying) and bathos.
The voice acting is good and the elemental wordplay makes it fun for adults and older kids. The real strength of Elemental is in its visuals. Element City is a wonderfully inspired creation and the way the different elements act and react to both each other and their environments is inventive. Diversity casting is apparent in the voice actors and the director, creators and writers. Elemental is a good film for the family and for anyone about to embark on an adventure to live someone new.
This isn’t top-tier Pixar, and considering the difficulties Disney and Pixar seemed to have had in marketing this film it might have been better suited for release on Disney+ where it will probably end up soon enough.
Elemental made its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival (27 May 2023) and opened in the US on 16 June 2023.
For a longer review on this film, visit AgeOfTheGeek.org.
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