Elemental
Elemental is in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG. Common Sense says 6.
STORY: B+
Ember is fire (literally). Wade is water. They live in Element City, a sprawling metropolis inhabited by citizens who are the personified forms of Earth’s elements.
The trailer leads us to expect a Romeo and Juliet story, that Fire and Water will overcome all odds and prove that forbidden love is the worst kind of love in the world (or the most exciting kind … it depends on which side of the forbidding you’re on). Fortunately, the story gives us much more than a basic, tried and true star-crossed lovers plot.
Ember’s parents came to Element City via boat. A sea voyage seems like a dangerous choice for fire. But their travel choice is meant to serve the narrative, not their safety. Arrival to a new land by boat evokes images of immigrants sailing to the US in search of a better life. A customs agent also hastily changes her parent's’ last name when he can’t understand what Ember’s father is saying, something that happened often at Ellis Island.
There’s more. Ember’s parents live in Firetown, a neighborhood where everyone looks the same. They open a store. They work their best to keep traditions from their native land alive. The pressure from all the sacrifices her parents made for her overwhelms Ember. There’s no hiding that this is a film an allegory about the immigrant experience. That makes the film feel a bit heavy handed at first, but its charms and important messages win out by the end.
PEOPLE: B-
A drawback of using allegory is that characters in allegories often lack depth. That’s because they’re either supposed to represent specific people or broad stereotypes. For an allegory’s purposes, these characters work extremely well. They’re easy to recognize inside the story’s world. And kids who aren’t from immigrant families should have no problem now recognizing people in the real world living similar lives to the film’s characters.
The voice acting is mostly very good, especially Ember (voiced by The Half of It’s Leah Lewis). All the rapidly expanding purple fire and explosion make it easy to know when Ember’s upset. But her voice needs to do the work in her quieter, more reflective moments. Lewis shines in them.
FILM NERD STUFF: A-
You ever notice that the more familiar something is, the less you notice it? For example, the same buildings you pass on your way to school every morning. The morning announcements. The warning beep your car makes whenever it gets within fifty yards of a solid object
But imagine the gray building is painted neon pink overnight. Or that one morning your principal raps the announcements. Or your car meows instead of beeps. These changes - things that are outside of your own, personal everyday ordinary - can snap you back into the present moment faster than Doc’s Delorean.
Composer Thomas Newman uses this principle in the compositions he uses during the film’s chase scenes. It’s music seldom heard in American movies (I can’t quite place it, but it sounds either Middle Eastern or Latinx to me). The music is different enough from what we hear in American movies to catch my attention and lure me into the scene in a major way.
But it’s more than just an attention grabbing gimmick. He’s actually using music to reinforce the film’s theme. Most residents of Element City claim elements (read: cultures) can’t mix. Newman mixes cultures and shows us the beauty that can be created when they do (just like Ember does the night she meets Wade’s parents).
LET’S GET SOME PERSPECTIVE (Elective Class): A
My great (x 5) grandfather moved to the US from Germany and settled on an island in Western New York sometime in the mid 19th century. I am the seventh generation of my family to grow up on that island (and am constantly reminded that I broke that streak). I say all of this to establish that I am in no way, shape, or form an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.
Writer/director Peter Sohn is the child of Korean immigrants. Ember’s story has abundant similarities to his own. I can’t thank him enough for telling his story, which is also Ember’s story, which is also the story of thousands and thousands of modern day Americans. It’s most definitely not my story, and I can honestly say my view of the world was expanded by watching Elemental.
At one point, Wade says he doesn’t understand what Ember is going through. She replies that his inability to understand is why they’ll never work. I’d argue that not much works in this world when we don’t (or won’t) understand what makes each of our experiences unique.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Elemental tucks revelations of the immigrant experience into every corner of its dazzling fictional depiction of our world’s essential ingredients. Come for Pixar’s typical goofy characters and fantastical worlds. Stay for either the feeling of being seen or a drop of enlightening insight our world very much needs.