THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The best thing in life is that love comes in all shapes and sizes, which I couldn’t be anymore impressed with that message being in displayed in Pixar’s Elemental.
PLOT
The film takes place in a dystopia where the basic elements of nature are sentient beings. The story follows Ember, a fire that element that lives in Element City with her parents Bernie & Cinder who emigrated from Fire Land. Her father wants to retire and allow her to look after his convenience store the Fireplace, but will only move forward with it until she controls her temper. He tries to let her run the store for the day, but it quickly gets out of hand as she ends up having an outburst, overwhelmed of the responsibilities. However, the moment to release her inner stress unintentionally summons Wade, a water element who is also a city inspector. When he sees the store surrounded with safety violations such as the flood Ember unintentionally started, which was also possible due to faulty plumbing. He reluctantly goes to City Hall to turn in his report, but Ember begs him to undo it as she knows the Fireplace will have to shut down. Out of kindness, Wade takes her to his boss Gale (Wendi McLendon Covey), an air element. They meet her at a sports event and the fire is able to convince her to reconsider the shutdown. She gives them the chance to track down the leaks to save the Fireplace. Together, they find a hole in the nearby dam and choose to close it up with sandbags. When that works temporarily, Ember is able to seal it again with her ability to make glass. The duo continue to spend time together to the point where Wade invites Ember to meet his family that include his two siblings, his maternal uncle and widowed mother Brook. She bonds with them all over their own family game, ‘The Crying Game’, where you must make someone cry with emotional words & imagery. Wade is able to make her cry for the first time when implying he wouldn’t mind spending his life with her after the time they’ve already spent together. Brook would be so impressed of her glassmaking ability that she recommends her an internship for her work. Upon returning home, Cinder catches her daughter with Wade, resulting in her to share a fortune that they shouldn’t be together due to being different from one another. Wade decides to go against this warning the next day by taking Ember to see a rare flower called the ‘Vivisteria’, one she always wanted to see in person during her childhood but she and her father were publicly forbidden to at the time. After giving her a once in a lifetime experience, she touches Wade’s hand with her own for the first time and are able to not harm each other. Despite an important revelation after believing elements cannot mix, she chooses to cut ties with him, knowing how prejudiced Fire is over Water. Ember is almost passed on to officially taker over the Fireplace at a public party hosted by Bernie, but it gets ruined when Wade shows up uninvited, confessing her love for her while accidentally admitting it’s her fault the flood happened. She still chooses to reject her, but Cinder now senses genuine affection. The following day, the glass seal would break, as the dam would be overwhelmed by a flood that flows all over Firetown. When Ember discovers what has happened, she rushes to protect her family’s traditional Blue Flame. Wade rushes to help her as well, but the flood causes the two to be trapped in a room in the Fireplace. When that happens, Wade would start evaporating from the enclosed heat. By the time the flood recedes, Ember breaks down confessing to her parents she never really wanted to take over the Fireplace and truly loved Wade back. Thankfully, he was able to survive due to being seeped into the stone ceiling. When he drops back into his normal form, the two would share their first kiss without the worry of harming each other. Some time after the flood, Bernie would pass on the rights of the Fireplace to some local friends and choose to retire. The film would end with him and Cinder saying goodbye to their daughter as she & Wade leave Element City so she can travel the world and study glassmaking. THOUGHTS
Pixar is known to push boundaries in the animation department and this decade is close to being halfway done by writing this to show they still ain’t slowing down. David Bianchi & Jean-Claude Kalache’s cinematography is so on point with the storyboards, it made every frame such a beautiful sight. It’s so logical to look such since the four basic elements are what make whatever beauty we can find from this planet. I mean it ain’t that hard to be in awe with each landscape we get to see. The film works overall because Director Peter Sohn is able to tell a personal story of love and diversity, having you feel encouraged to find your own path and love for yourself in order to truly be happy. The message felt perfectly sent thanks to a handful of uniquely written characters, voiced by talented actors. Ember is indeed a relatable star because you relate to the pressure on wanting to honor family while wanting to explore personal desires. Leah Lewis encapsulates all of that from the voice alone. She would think small for so long because she never thought she’d have an opportunity to do what she wanted. Little would she expect one accident would be a blessing in disguise. Mamoudou Athie has us adore Wade in an instant. He may be sensitive, but it doesn’t change the empathy he has over everyone he encounters. He and Ember end up having such a connection because they bring the middle ground that anything is possible in life as long as you try. They fall for each other because they simply bring out the best of each other. Ember inspires Wade to help those in need. But as for him, he inspires her to let out her inner feelings and to try what she never thought she’d do. If this doesn’t define true love, then the first touch between them will do the trick. It would’ve been a bold decision for Wade to not survive the evaporation, but his survival showed how strong can be for some people. With him and Ember making each stronger versions of themselves, I don’t doubt they’ll have an incredible future together wherever they go. I feel like half of who are reading this are lying to not relate on how he barely tolerated fire food. While this couple is what makes the movie so special, the characters surrounding their adventure are what make it all the more memorable. No hatred can be spread towards Bernie & Cinder as their intentions were about being protective towards their only daughter. Ronnie del Carmen showed the former to be one full of pride and wants Ember to live with that and nothing else because it’s all he knew. He never liked Water because they can kill Fire without even intending to, hence being intimidated whenever he saw Wade. Shila Ommi may make Cinder come off brusque, but still has compassion towards her daughter’s happiness. She doesn’t snitch on her because she wants to her a have a chance on second thoughts. They never asked her what she wanted before because they thought she wouldn’t mind living simple. Once Cinder felt the genuine spark between her and Wade, she realized she was holding her back. Bernie would catch on as well when she went out of her way to protect the Blue Flame. With everything happening the way they did, he realized he had to give her needed space to be her best self. When he gave his goodbye, it warmed my heart because he passed on the respect he never had from his elders. That comes to show history never needs to repeat itself. And off of that, Ember will live this new chapter of her life with the mirrored pride. I also appreciated Catherine O’Hara as Brook because you see where Wade gets the optimism. With the brief time you get to see her, you admire the empathy she gives towards Ember because she’s got no reason to dislike her. Seeing her give a good cry with her family shows it’s okay to be vulnerable because it shows your true colors without the need to worry of criticism. Again, she saw Ember’s potential and knew it deserved to be put to good use, this referencing the internship. However the relationship continues to blossom between her and Wade, there is not doubt she’ll be there with her endless and selfless support. This film was dazzling to get through, but even good stuff like this has moments that prevent it from being better. For example, I am totally on Ember’s side about the customer trying rip her off with the restaurant policy of ‘Buy one, get one free’. You can’t anything for free without a legit purchase and I’ve seen this shit go down in person so I know how annoying this can get. I also thought Ember was wild to vandalize the train with her powers just to get to Wade. I mean I know she’s in a rush but she could’ve went to one of the doors. It only felt more odd for Wade to boil when she makes contact with him, but it doesn’t singe the notebook. On top of that, he survives Ember’s outburst which I don’t think should be possible. Also, is it really a skybox if Wade’s boss isn’t even secluded from the rest of the crowd in attendance. If that thing is fireproof, that’s pretty damn crazy. I don’t want to point out the remaining technical stuff, but it has to be said because it’ll drive me crazy if I don’t. Like why don’t fire people have anger management? If Ember got to have that, she wouldn’t have put her dad’s shop in jeopardy even if it would mean she’d never meet Wade. That also has me thinking how come Bernie never considers hiring other employees before Ember? If he was hesitant on letting her run things, there should’ve been other people for him to trust. And I cannot be the only one think who thought Wade’s nephews were dicks to consider wondering Ember could die if falling into water. I know they’re kids but they should know that already. Other than that, I’ll still enjoy this movie for what it is. To wrap up, Elemental is another animated classic for telling us to be proud of the personal choices we choose to make or we’ll never improve as individuals. If you love Pixar and want a different kind of love story, check this out.
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