Pixar waters down new film

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This article was published 16/06/2023 (967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This candy-coloured new cartoon may be mid-tier Pixar, but even average Pixar projects can be charming.

Elemental has plenty of charm, along with detailed world-building, lots of visual cleverness and some feeling voice performances.

The story, unfortunately, is a dud. Major plot points hinge on city infrastructure, safety violations and bureaucratic red tape, which is about as fun and child-friendly as it sounds.

Element City is a bit like New York, if NYC were populated by people representing the four elements — Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Earthers are stolid and woody, Water types are blue-ish and given to tears, Air people are flighty puffs of cloud, and Fire folks are orangey bursts of flame.

(Recent Pixar characters have included emotional states and preborn souls, which makes us wonder what might be next. Subatomic particles? Myer-Briggs personality types?)

Bernie and Cinder Lumen (voiced by Ronnie Del Carmen and Shila Ommi) have emigrated from their home country of Fireland, leaving their families and their traditional culture to try and make a better life for the child they are expecting.

They arrive in Element City, a cosmopolitan burg where the four elements all live together — but not necessarily with the same opportunities.

They Lumens settle in Firetown, a poor, underserved neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, building up a small business, a corner store that serves authentic Fire foods and “Kiss me, I’m Firish” T-shirts.

Their now grown-up daughter Ember (Leah Lewis of The Half of It) is training to take over the store, but her fiery temper is getting in the way of customer service. Wade Ripple (Archive 81’s Mamoudou Athie), a super-sweet Water guy and city employee, is in the neighbourhood looking for leaks — which are particularly dangerous in Firetown — and ends up reluctantly having to cite the store for safety issues.

Opposites attract, of course, as the two young people race to save the store.

Despite her parents’ belief that Fire and Water can never mix, Ember and Wade are soon on their way to getting steamy.

Director Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur), working from a script by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh, draws on the experience of his Korean parents coming to the U.S. to tell an immigrant story.

The movie’s message is enormously well-intentioned — Ron DeSantis, in his ongoing war with Disney, might even end up denouncing it as “woke” — but using anti-Fire prejudice to denounce xenophobia is at once too abstract and too on-the-nose.

Ember has a childhood memory of trying to visit Element City’s conservatory and being stopped by a “No Fires” sign. She knows that non-Fires consider Fire food too hot (literally). When she heads uptown, where the Air, Water and Earth types have their big offices and swanky apartments, she’s often the only Fire in sight. And is the term “Sparkie” a racial slur?

There’s even a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? scene in which Wade introduces Ember to his wealthy liberal family. His mother (Catherine O’Hara) is determined to demonstrate her broad-mindedness, while his uncle (Ronobir Lahiri) compliments the Element City-born Ember for speaking English so well.

Meanwhile, back in Firetown, Bernie growls about their culture being “watered down.” (Get it? Watered down?)

Given a bit more room to breathe, the family story and the rather sweet romance could have made for a much better movie. Too bad Elemental is cluttered up with the inexplicable mechanics of water lines and planning permissions.

One bonus here: The accompanying short film is Carl’s Date, starring Up’s best duo, grumpy Carl (the late Ed Asner) and the ever-optimistic Dug, everybody’s second-favourite dog (after their own).

alison.gillmor@winnipegfreepress.com