Elemental

Release Date: June 16, 2023

Watch Date: November 4, 2023

“In a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: How much they actually have in common.”

---

    Everyone has a Pixar movie.

    That one Pixar movie that’s just theirs. That resonates with them more than any other film. The one that connects to emotions and memories in the perfect way. For Bob, that’s Wall-E. For me, Coco. And for us, now, it’s Elemental.

    It’s our date night. And yes, it’s Bob’s movie month, but how often do we actually watch new releases? And how often do we watch romantic movies on our date night, and not just whatever is proscribed by the list, or the theme? So Bob chose ‘Elemental’, because he can, and I think we are both amazed by how happy we are that he did.

    This world is imaginative, though I’m not quite sure of the rules. The Fire element can burn other people, and clearly effect the world around them, but they don’t burn paper or products they touch, so either those things are treated with fire proof aspects, or, they can control their flame. That had me questioning things throughout the film a little bit, but it never took me out of it so much that I couldn’t enjoy it.

    I think the romance is…superb. I love that Wade isn’t this macho man who has to save Ember, and I like that Ember is strong and can handle things on her own. Yes, in the end, Wade does show her different aspects of her personality, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Your partner should help you to discover parts of yourself, help inspire you to greater things, to be true to yourself. I think they should. They shouldn’t change you, but they should love you for your flaws, not despite them, and still want to encourage you to be the best version of yourself. Wade doesn’t grow as much as Ember through the film, but he does open up about things, and I don’t know if he was that open about his emotions before that, and he was definitely more anxious, and he overcomes that through his love for her.

    There’s also a lot of familial love, and a lot of honesty about being a child of an immigrant, or a child of parents who have made their entire life about you, and the guilt that comes with not following in the steps they’ve plotted out for you. I can, personally, relate to just wanting to earn your father’s approval, to make him proud, to take the pressure off of him and let him have an easy life. So that relationship between Ember and her father rang very true to life, at least for me, and added an extra depth to this movie that made it more than just a basic romance.

    The other part that kept this from being a basic romance? The racism. The obvious, clear, racism, of this city. I think it’s a racism that any immigrant could relate to, anyone who goes to a city that was obviously not designed with their family, their culture, their needs in mind. It’s downright dangerous for a Fire elemental to leave the confines of their neighborhood, and there’s very little effort by the city to make it habitable for them. While there are lots of well meaning, non-judgmental people that might inhabit a city, that doesn’t make it a welcoming place. And it takes a lot for that to change, and Ember and Wade aren’t going to change it, nor is it their job to. But in their small way, they show that it can change to the community around them, and those micro changes might be the thing that makes the difference.

    I cried, often, at this film. I held my partner a little tighter, and I appreciated him a little bit more. It’s a simple story, that touches on deep themes, but the basic romance, and the connection between Ember and Wade felt very real, very honest, and I could see my own relationship and our own emotional struggles reflected back at me. And having that mirror held up to your own life, and seeing it reflected back so perfectly, is a special kind of magic that only Pixar seems able to manage.

    I’ve heard a lot of negative things about this film, but I don’t know why, because I didn’t see it anything wrong, not really. It’s not a complicated story, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s kind of perfection it’s in own little way, and I would put it back on and watch it again right now if I could.