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Pixar is renowned for crafting heartwarming stories with top-notch animation and storytelling. Their stories teach morals, depict real emotions, and their formula has created incredible films. Even when their movies have had relatively straightforward or generic storylines, they’ve managed to make them emotionally compelling and entertaining.
This year, Pixar brings us their 27th film Elemental, whose familiar story brings a fresh take on it using the basic elements of life (air, water, fire, earth).The story is about Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted, and fiery young woman, and Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a fun and sappy guy, and their adventures together challenge Ember’s beliefs about the world they live in.
The movie surprisingly starts out very weak with a poorly construct first act that overly relies on its visual scope to impress the viewer. The story begins as an immigrant story as Ember’s family struggles to find their feet in Element City, where they have just moved. It gradually becomes a journey of self-discovery with Ember trying to prove to her parents that she is ready to take over their family business, and then we finally get to her romance with Wade. All this happens in the first act alone.
In terms of animation artistry and visuals, this movie is nothing less than a spectacle. The meticulous art direction, color usage, and attention to detail create a visually stunning experience. The character design and city elements are brilliant, enticing you to explore this world further. The pacing of the film is decent, and it incorporates some genuinely good humor. What holds this movie back, is its screenplay. The first act has too many problems, and the story takes too much time to find its feet, and when it eventually does, the story is about to end.
The second and third acts shine brightly, focusing on the love story and our two leads. Everyone delivers really good vocal performances, but some odd directorial and editing choices limit the impact they have. Another aspect that was a major letdown was the music. In my opinion, the music choices were odd and didn’t complement the movie’s tone. The narrative also tries to relay a deeper message about racial discrimination, which it does but not very convincingly. Somewhere between the ambitious world-building and establishing too many subplots, it loses the soul of the story and fails to connect with and engage the viewer for most parts despite some very strong moments.
Elemental boasts some incredible visuals overloaded with creativity and clever nuances but sacrifices the emotional investment to focus on a deeper message. It burns the brightest when the screenplay solely focuses on the love story and gives freedom to our leads to freely express themselves. Overall, Pixar’s Elemental brings a fresh and fun take on the highly familiar plot of forbidden love and executes it reasonably well. It is worth a watch.
★★★
Elemental will release in cinemas on June 16.
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