We follow Ember and Wade, fire and water on a journey of discovery that while they are complete opposite elements that they have so much more in common than they could have ever realised.
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Elemental attempts to push the boundaries of talking about different races in a totally new way. Using the four elements of fire, water, land and air. The tagline of the film being “opposites react” and that is the perfect way to start talking about this film.
As you are probably aware I am quite the Pixar fangirl and really do love the work that they have done over the years and the way they now attempt to push those boundaries while doing it with good characters and rather stunning animated work.
The film is based on the life of director Peter Sohn and how it was for the family immigrating from Korea to the USA without being able to speak English and trying to settle in the Bronx. I feel as though this makes it so much more personal and good in terms of it being a passion project having lived it himself. Just using the differences in elements to tell the story is an impressive aspect.
This is then shown with Bernie and Cinder Lumen who move to Element City where they face prejudice from other elements due to them being fire! When their daughter Ember was born they set up Blue Flame which represents their traditions and have a convenience store called Fireplace. As Bernie is approaching retirement he wants Ember to take over but her inability to control her fiery temper is putting him off.
After she is overwhelmed when working alone one day she breaks a waterpipe and this has Wade Ripple a water element and city inspector coming to the store. The faulty plumbing means that he has to shut down the store, but Ember tries her best to prevent that. This is then the start of a friendship and relationship between the pair that should quite frankly never actually work out at all.
The deepness of the issues at the core of the film really is hard-hitting and it does create such a good turn of events and quite frankly a very impressive way of getting these messages across. I don’t feel Elemental has been given the love it truly deserves.
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