Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Elemental’ on Disney+, a Post-Peak Pixar That Might Maybe Not Really Convince Us That Fire And Water Can Mix

This week in Tortured Pixar Concepts of Anthropomorphism Theatre is Elemental (now streaming on Disney+, in addition to VOD services like Amazon Prime Video), the story of a fire being and a water being who fall in love and THEN what? Evaporation? Extinguishment? Who knows! Peter Sohn directs, following up his previous Pixar effort The Good Dinosaur with a similarly middling outing for the top-flight animation studio, which has settled into a groove of putting out solid-if-unspectacular films in the wake of a parade of classics (its last great film? Inside Out, which is now eight years old). Yet we can’t help but praise Pixar for its original, sometimes experimental concepts – and for trying, maybe a little too hard with Elemental. The film notably struggled to find an audience, opening with an underwhelming smolder and never really creating a big flame, even though it eventually became a relative sleeper hit with a $440+ million international box office take. And it’s fine, I guess; more importantly, maybe it’s time to accept the fact that we’re past peak Pixar.   

ELEMENTAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In this universe, there are fire people, water people, air people and earth people, and they all kinda live in their own segregated boroughs in Element City (which sometimes bears a more-than-passing resemblance, visually at least, to Tomorrowland at Disney World). Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) are fire people because, I mean, look at their names. GET IT? THIS IS AN ELBOW AND IT’S IN YOUR RIBS. They’re fresh off the boat from the “old country” and struggling to find a place to live, primarily because the water and air and earth people – to dance around the racism word – aren’t so sure about the fire people, and the feeling’s sorta mutual. Bernie and Cinder finally find an old fixer-upper and open a shop called The Fireplace, where fire folk in the Fire Town district can buy goods catered for them. There, they raise their daughter Ember (Leah Lewis) to adulthood, and she’s all set to take over the business so her ailing dad can retire. 

That’s the plan, anyway. What does Ember think of this scenario? Hm. Perhaps her flawed customer-service skills not being quite up to (I choose my words carefully here) snuff reflects her feelings: She has a fiery temper because, I mean, you know why. It’s in her nature, and that’s not the first The Crying Game reference we’re gonna make here today. Anyway, retail isn’t for everybody, you know, and Ember doesn’t want to break her father’s heart by defying his wishes. But she soldiers on. One day, the pipes in the basement burst, and before Ember can seal the ruptured metal with her damn bare hands (!), in seeps Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), whose name clearly reflects the fact that he’s not an earth or air or fire person. Even worse, he’s one of those pedants from the local government who notes all the code violations in the shop, and threatens to shut it down. Frickin’ bean counters, man. 

But Ember agrees to help Wade seal a crack in a levee in exchange for letting those violations slide – she heats up sand and creates a hardened glass seal to keep water from flooding into Fire Town. And that’s not all that’s heating up around here (and I say that not knowing the specifics of these characters’ anatomies, and this being a family film, they’ll remain a mystery). Wade and Ember sure seem to be enjoying each other’s company, which is like oil and water or something, except he’s already water, so maybe the analogy doesn’t quite work here? Yet they follow their feels anyway, and we get a romantic montage, and a scene where she meets his parents and learns that he’s a child of relative privilege, which really seems like the least of the problems with their potential relationship, considering their physical makeup makes hand-holding and the like a major issue. Will love supersede the fact that they’re likely to murder the hell out of each other with a single hug? NO SPOILERS! 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It’s hard to tell which post-Inside Out concept is more closely flogged within an inch of its life, Soul or Elemental. The former is overdeveloped to the point of impenetrability; the latter is disappointingly underdeveloped. (And Inside Out is perfectly developed, the benchmark for Pixar’s poignantly existential conceits.)

Performance Worth Watching Hearing: I enjoyed Athie’s characterization of Wade as a sensitive sweetheart of a chap with hair-trigger tear ducts (considering Ember’s emotional flare-ups, if she and Wade do pursue a relationship, I anticipate this being an issue). Note: You saw star-on-the-rise Athie in Jurassic World: Dominion, and he was the best thing about the Amazon horror film Black Box. 

Memorable Dialogue: There’s enough cornball wordplay in this script to prompt the pun-averse to abandon civilization for a yurt in Antarctica. Case in point, this line delivered by a water person: “I just dabble in watercolors. Or, as we call them, colors!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: There’s a funny bit where the Ripple family – who, like Wade, are prone to tearful outbursts – plays “the crying game,” in which they tell sad stories and they do their damnedest not to bawl their eyes out (or bawl their entire bodies out, maybe?). But that’s about the peak of Elemental’s inspiration. The screenplay feels first-drafty: HEAPS and HEAPS of easy puns, too many overly familiar rom-com tropes, a simplistic narrative about the immigrant experience. Its heart is in the right place, and there’s no questioning Sohn’s sincerity, considering he based the story on his Korean family’s experience moving to New York City and opening a grocery store, but I’m not sure the core concept of anthropomorphic elements ever truly catches fi-, er, flow-, er, works. I’m not sure it ever works. 

Visually, the film generally makes up for its dubiously executed premise and underwhelming conflict resolution – it had better, considering the $200 million budget. The character designs are original and otherworldly; the backgrounds are rich and vibrant, eye candy for a fictional cartoon travelog. Subtextually, it’s very much a mixed bag: The flooding subplot recalls the post-Katrina experiences of New Orleans’ Black neighborhoods and the struggles of Ember’s family are poignant, although they’re reflected within a frustrating plot that could be resolved with some simple communication between characters (you know, the ol’ Idiot Plot). Beneath all that is the American optimism that individuals of differing creeds and histories can function in harmony, which goes a long way towards enticing us to like a movie that, considering its intent and pedigree, should be easier to like/love/appreciate/comprehend.

Our Call: Bottom line on Elemental: clunky concept, good message, great visuals. Sum total? Good enough. STREAM IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.