Elementary
Jeez, chill! ‘Elemental’ isn’t the revelation that ‘Up’ was, but it’s a damn sight better than ‘The Little Mermaid’.
Elemental
Director: Peter Sohn • Writers: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh
Starring [English]: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara
USA • 1hr 50mins
Opens Hong Kong July 6 • I
Grade: B
Now, Elemental isn’t a hill I feel a particular need to die on, however, I do feel inspired to defend it against the bullshit, hyperbolic vitriol that seems to have been lobbed its way since it premiered at Cannes – where reviews were good, by the way. Is it up there with the best of Pixar? No, but that just means it fails to reach an incredibly high bar. There’s a lot of chatter out there about how Pixar has jumped the shark, how the magic is gone, and wailing about its so-called identity crisis. That’s on Pixar’s overlords at Disney. Disney is not strong on political filmmaking – and yes, Pixar has a long history of being political – and is even worse when standing up to minority asshat bullies (white power types, homophobes, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, so on and so forth). So when Elemental’s immigration allegory is essentially erased from its trailer and marketing, well, you get what appears to be an identity crisis because Disney lacks the balls to let Pixar be Pixar. Director Peter Sohn has a lot to make up for after the wet fart that was The Good Dinosaur, but bottom line is that Elemental is a perfectly serviceable plea for tolerance and acceptance (which we’re in dire need of right now) couched in some fantastic art (no surprise there) and a gentle romance that speaks loud and clear to its target audience. If the kid five rows back’s frantic tears at the “tragedy” in Act III is any indication, Pixar’s doing just fine.
Sizzling and steamy
The action in Elemental takes place in Element City, populated entirely by element “people” that sometimes mix and mingle and sometimes don’t. Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) is a Fire person living in Firetown, essentially a ghetto where her parents, Bernie and Cinder (Ronnie del Carmen and Shila Ommi) settled after disembarking at the city’s Ellis Island-type port years before. Other Fire people followed and made Bernie a popular shop owner serving his community, a shop he plans to bequeath to Ember. Problem is Ember’s more artist, less retailer. Into the store comes Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), an affluent Water person and city inspector who may have to shut the store down thanks to an outdated city ordinance and neglected infrastructure, which, unsurprisingly, only affects Firetown. Wade and Ember become friends, they team up to find the source of the ominous leak, and eventually fall in love. It’s Pixar!
Elemental is quite masterful in its allegory, with Bernie and Cinder’s failure to find a home, their curdling mistrust of all others in Element City and their determination to hold on to the “old country” traditions, in part because it’s who they are, but also to use as armour, rings true. Ember is coded Indian (sitars, hot food, ancient customs), and Wade is coded white (wealthy, in charge, over-compensating parents), but they can represent any space where one group is constantly at a discriminated disadvantage to another. Think Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. But it’s also kind of sweet in its slow build of Ember and Wade’s relationship, one they’re sure isn’t going to work – because fire and water, duh – and razor sharp in its portrayal of first and second generation immigrant experiences and how kids navigate two worlds.
Sohn, who’s Korean-American, drew upon his parents’ history (and his own) for the story, proving its universality. Did Disney bury this universality for fear of looking too liberal? Hard to say, but The House of Mouse didn’t hide the looming environmental catastrophe and consumerism run amok of Wall-E, or the joyous aspects of Mexican traditions in Coco. Wonder what’s changed?
The emotionally and culturally specific storytelling Pixar has become known for is also the kind of storytelling that’s lightning in a bottle; you get it once every few tries. For every Toy Story there's a Cars, so Pixar’s “crisis” isn’t new. In case it needs reminding, it’s hard to make a shit film, so Pixar is a victim of its own success. There’s plenty of good in Elemental: Athie is particularly charming as the overly-emotional Wade, and the artwork – as usual – is a mesmerising blend of natural and heightened, fluid, boldly coloured world-building. And most of us know Bernie or Brook Ripple (Catherine O’Hara), Wade’s eager-to-be-hip mom, or we are Ember. No, it’s not perfect, but it’s still superior than a lot out there, and at least it’s daring to tell a story more of us need to hear. — DEK