A new Pixar film that expresses the intergenerational struggles of immigrant families
Disney Pixar's Elemental Poster, IMDb
I am almost always a sucker for a good Pixar movie. With their generally wholesome ideals, growing strides towards more diversity and representations in their films, their expanding animation skills, and their talent for making abstract life philosophies understandable for a younger audience, their films are truly those to be admired. However, how does their newest film Elemental measure up to their past successes?
The moment I heard that Pixar was releasing this film, I was hooked. The idea of each earthly element holding their own and coexisting in a fictional society made for an intriguing dynamic. I anticipated it having similar undertones to a differing, non-Pixar film Zootopia, which is also produced by Disney.
In some ways, those assumptions were correct. Zootopia's rhetoric definitely is aimed towards racial justice and the discouragement of discrimination on a basis of physical appearance. In some ways, Elemental was similar to this line of thinking.
A film clearly aimed towards eliminating generational trauma and pressure to succeed under immigrant parents, Elemental explores the life of Ember Lumen, a fire person in Element City. Element City is a place that presents itself as utopic: a perfect harmony among all beings despite their differences. Element City contains elemental persons with elements such as wind, water, plant, and fire.
However, even in this image of perfect harmony, the curtain falls as we get to know this main character, Ember, and her parents, Bernie and Cinder. The story begins with Bernie and Cinder making their way to Element City. Upon their arrival, there is a clear language barrier between these characters and the surrounding citizens. This is so much so that the names Bernie and Cinder came from the officer letting them into the city who could not understand their names in their native language "fire-ish."
Bernie and Cinder then go on in search of a place to live. It then soon becomes clear that things in Element City are not as peaceful as they seem. Due to Bernie and Cinder being fire people, they have to face much adversity in attempts to find a place just to exist. They eventually find a rundown building to completely renovate and start from scratch. This will aid in the development of "Fire Town", a neighborhood where fire people are able to exist (mostly) away from the discrimination of the other elements. This entire time, it is evident that Cinder is pregnant with the character we will come to know as Ember.
Ember and Wade from Pixar's Elemental, HollywoodReporter.com
The film quickly progresses through Ember's life and into her early adulthood, showing her desire to take over her father's shop that he had made for himself. But, Ember has one fatal flaw in these endeavors: her temper. She often is hot-headed with customers, causing a mess for herself and her family to have to clean up.
As time goes on, chaos follows Ember. Accident-prone and hot-headed, Ember has a hard time proving to her father, who is growing older and weaker, that she can be trusted to take over the shop for him. But, on a sale day, Bernie decides to entrust Ember to handle the store as a means of proving to him that she is capable. This day is ultimately the inciting incident for the film, creating differing circumstances from the norm that lead to the overall conflict of the film and ignite (no pun intended) Ember's character arc.
On this sale day, Ember once again loses her temper and causes a bursted pipe in the basement, allowing a water-person to be let through (by very odd circumstances). His name is Wade Ripples.
We find with Wade and his involvement that there was an issue with a barrier that was supposed to be blocking off the water since water to Fire Town had been shut off a long time ago.
The story then follows Ember and Wade as they navigate through this obstacle, attempting to make things right to avoid Ember's father's shop from being closed down. In this journey, Ember and Wade quickly fall for each other, despite each others flaws and vastly different elements. Even with these feelings though, Ember and Wade cannot have contact with each other due to the possibility of extinguishing or evaporating the other.
Wade Ripple and Ember Lumen in Pixar's Elemental, NPR.org
This causes great confusion for the both of them, but especially for Ember. She holds great shame in disappointing her family and quickly decides to no longer affiliate with Wade, even after they discovered that, despite being opposite elements, having contact with the other doesn't harm them.
In the end, their temporary solutions to the water leak did not work. There was a public confrontation from Wade to Ember about his feelings and how she never truly wanted the shop, she just wanted to make her father proud. All this leading up to Ember making attempts to save her parents' sacred "Blue Flame" that they brought over from the Fire Country. Wade stepped in to help her at the last minute, allowing Ember the opportunity to apologize and express her feelings for him. But alas, in the process of helping Ember save the flame, Wade is evaporated.
This doesn't last long however as his previously established emotional availability is what saves him: crying until he was a puddle and then a full water person again! At this point in the theater, I myself was crying.
The resolution was one that illustrates the generational trauma that follows immigrant parents and their children: the fear of disappointing their elders and not making them proud. Ember spent so much time living in fear and anxiety about living up to her father's dream that she had not bothered to ask him what his dream was.
Then the groundbreaking discovery: her father's dream was to be able to create an opportunity for Ember to follow her dreams. This then leads Ember to end up with Wade and pursue her dreams in glass-making.
Even with this film being the lowest earning box-office opening in the company's history, according to Yahoo News, it is definitely an important film to see and have your children see. It was a great film for a wide array of audiences. There are some minor writing flaws with some of the characters being a little too on-the-nose with their voice and thus making it a bit expository and more simple. But, regardless, it effectively gets the message across in a way that is entertaining throughout the duration of the film. I am not sure where the disconnect is in regard to why it isn't drawing in more people. I theorize that it is a similar instance to Onward, a prior film by Pixar ranked last on Pixar's box office performances, according to IMDb's Box Office Mojo (not including re-releases ad later released 3D versions of films). This was until the arrival of Elemental. Both films are completely original films that are not a part of a series. This makes the connection with the audience less established. I think it is common among what I have seen, especially with young children, they are more likely to see a sequel to a film series they have already established favor with rather than a completely new idea, theme, and set of characters.
Despite all of this, Elemental creates an understandable perspective on the oppression and adversity that immigrants face when coming to a new country. This causes it to be more digestible for young children. However, it still elaborates on complex, deep themes that allow the older audiences to pick it apart and start analyzing what role they play in societal inclusion. It even creates that representation for children of immigrants who feel they are suffocating under the pressure to succeed and prove themselves, showing that they are not alone in their struggles. So, no matter what age, ethnicity, or origin, Elemental is a film that will leave the audience with a fire-warmed heart.
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