Elemental review: Rare Pixar rom-com doesn't generate much heat
This beautiful-looking film, directed by The Good Dinosaur's Peter Sohn, tries to double as a second-generation fable

At its core, Elemental is a story about the challenges that come with being burdened with outsized expectations. Pixar’s latest follows Ember, a fiery young woman who finds herself veering away from the life her immigrant father dreamed up for her after she meets and falls for the affable and tear-prone Wade. Equal parts sprightly rom-com and moving second-generation tale, the story is set in Element City, where fire, earth, wind, and water beings live (mostly) in harmony. But the film only intermittently shines with the originality and emotion that characterize Pixar’s most beloved properties.
From the very beginning (read: 1995’s Toy Story) Pixar mastered the art of blending high concepts with character-driven storytelling. Toys became metaphors for fleeting childhood nostalgia; a clown fish was at the center of a fable about helicopter parenting; a rat had us believing we could follow our talents wherever they take us. With every new film, Pixar turned what felt like wholly absurd premises into tear-jerking narratives that delighted critics and audiences alike. On paper Elemental fits quite nicely in the studio’s wheelhouse, what with this near-absurdist world playing backdrop to a story about following your dreams, embracing one another’s differences, and, above all, letting go of ill-founded prejudices.
When we first meet Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis, a standout in the film’s ace voice cast), she’s eager to take over her father’s store in Element City. As we watch her grow up in a fire neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, designed to be reminiscent of immigrant enclaves in large urban centers, plucky Ember is the great hope for Bernie and Cinder Lumen (Ronnie Del Carmen and Shila Ommi). Having successfully built a business from the ground up, the couple are excited to hand over the keys to their oft-times hotheaded daughter. Sure, Ember needs to work on her temper (she has little patience for her customers), but since this is the life she’s always known, our protagonist has no inkling that there may be more to her world than selling sparklers and log kebabs to her neighbors. Enter: Wade (Mamoudou Athie).
A city inspector with the power to have Bernie’s business shut down, Wade becomes (true to rom-com rules) a thorn in Ember’s side. In trying to plead her case with Wade and hopefully avoid having her father find out how precarious their current situation is, Ember crosses into the downtown area of Element City where she’ll have to reevaluate why she’s long felt the need to stay with her own kind. Especially once Wade proves to be much more helpful (and much more interested in Ember) than he’d first let on. Not since WALL-E has Pixar so openly flirted with the romantic comedy genre, offering in Ember and Wade not so much a battle of the sexes as a battle of the elements: can this hot-tempered young woman learn to go with the flow the way this cool young man seems to do so effortlessly? And, more to the point, can she learn to trust her feelings and carve a path for herself that leads her away from everything she’s known and loved for so long?