Elemental – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Peter Sohn
Writers – John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh
Stars – Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen

This is the latest film from Pixar, the studio which brought us Toy Story and Up, among many others. The setting is a skyscraper metropolis Elemental City where four different communities co-exist – the elements of fire, water, earth and air. However, the two elements that predominate in the story are fire and water with earth and air only having minor roles. What is made plain from the start is that elements cannot mix and this is the rule by which the inhabitants live. It’s an easy comparison with the ethnic communities that establish their neighbourhoods in big cities.

Ember (Leah Lewis), who is from the Fire community, is a young woman who is a second-generation inhabitant and works in her father’s shop in Firetown. Ember is being readied by her parents to take over the shop. That is their legacy to her for which they have worked hard all their lives, but she has her doubts. The Fire community are fairly low down the social ranking in Elemental City. On the other hand, the Water community, are able to come and go anywhere in the city just as they please. They are the upper strata.

One day while working in the shop a pipe bursts which results in Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a water inspector, flowing into the shop. He has been investigating a leak which could wipe out Firetown. There is an immediate chemistry between Ember and Wade which has little to do with leaks or burst pipes and so this romance which is against all the rules of Elemental City starts to blossom.

Elemental City is a world of skyscrapers and futuristic roadways and flyovers. Firetown is hot and cramped but where the Water folk live is cool and spacious. The animation of Ember as a representative of fire is engaging and in human storytelling, a fiery woman is a well-established concept considering Carmen, who has given her name to a shade of red and the eponymous opera. Water taking human form is not such a well-established concept so the creation of Wade and his folk represented a bigger challenge. As Wade explains as he makes his entrance the pipes “squished me out of shape” but with a little shake he reshapes himself into a fine-looking youth. This is a consistent challenge for the water element throughout and its various solutions are imaginative but not always convincing. All the action takes place at a frenetic pace and this is complemented by the score by Thomas Newman, which keeps up an insistent rhythm that heightens the sense of the speed of the action. It does not linger.

The film lasts ten minutes short of two hours and is undoubtedly entertaining but who is its target audience is less clear. Children are unlikely to appreciate the social and class divisions it portrays and adults are unlikely to be seduced by the story of Amber and Wade. While it is undoubtedly enjoyable it is not required viewing.