Pixar has always walked the fine line between simple and complex with rather expert precision. Complex, layered characters often build the story with simpler plotlines allowing them to shine. This has worked for young and old audiences alike, and the formula has never failed the vaunted animation studio… except maybe for Cars 2.
It is interesting, then, that the formula is somewhat inverted for Elemental. And, still, it results in similarly amazing storytelling.
Like many Pixar movies, Elemental is set in a fantasy world similar to our own. Elements, divvied up as water, earth, air, and fire form the citizenry of this world. While most of the elements have found ways of living together in harmony, fire nation elements are largely outcast. Forming their own society in exclusion, fire elements regard the rest of the world with distrust and anger.
Much of the movie is built around two protagonists, the fire element Ember and a water element Wade (gotta love the names in this movie). Neither are particularly complex characters, efficiently serving common tropes to allow the movie’s primary messaging of proper integration to shine through.
To best allow this, Elemental dives headfirst into a politically-layered scenario and story in the simplest way a possible: a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner-styled romcom. And it’s brilliant.
Allowing the traits and factors of the worldbuilding to take precedence, the protagonist-driven story somewhat takes a backseat to the larger happenings in the world. Not to say that there’s any lack of time spent with any of the characters–even the casual comic relief characters are endearing and worth rooting for. But it is a unique trait of a Pixar film for the characters to be secondary to the world they live in.
Perhaps it’s the potential of setting more stories in this particular universe, like with Cars, or maybe Pixar just decided that some issues needed addressing, but Elemental’s approach is one relatively unto itself. It is here that director Peter Sohn’s expertise comes through, having done something quite similar with The Good Dinosaur.
With the world taking the forefront, much of Elemental’s narrative strength comes from the remarkable performances of voice actors Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as leads Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple, respectively, along with Ronnie del Carmen and Shila Ommi as Ember’s parents, and Catherine O’Hara as Wade’s mother.
In what is becoming more of an animation tradition, not many of the voice actors are what one would consider “well-known,” instead focusing on the individual’s cultural background and how it can lend itself to the character. And it seems to be working really well.
Unfortunately, some of these changes do come with consequences. With the characters’ primary function very explicitly being about exploring and questioning the status quo of the world they in, their own journeys seem a little unrefined. The film also uses flashbacks a little more than usual for a Pixar film, leaving details strewn across the narrative.
Shifting from one act to another is almost always punctuated with an event, a far cry from the usual seamlessness of Pixar films.
Nevertheless, lovable characters, an interesting new world, and stunning visuals pushing the boundaries of animation all make up for the slight diamond-in-the-rough vibe of Elemental.
Elemental floods theatres on 15th June 2023.