‘Elemental’ – Review
There’s always cause for excitement when the geniuses at Disney-Pixar bring a new world of animated amazement to the big screen. Their latest animated cinematic work Elemental, is a film of big emotion and meaning, and it will bring joy to audiences of all ages.
In a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman named Ember (Leah Lewis) and a go-with-the-flow guy named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.
Drawing on the idea of the four elements for inspiration, filmmaker Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) brings to life an exciting, colourful and bustling new world for cinema fans with Elemental. Drawing on his own life as the son of Korean immigrants who arrived in America in the mid-1970s, Sohn builds out a heartfelt narrative that examines the immigrant experience and how one can pursue their own dreams. As a Pixar filmmaker, Sohn is known for bringing plenty of emotion and heart to his stories, and this is exactly where he takes us in this story of ‘literal’ opposites attracting.
Constructed around a sincere and special love story, Elemental follows the tough, quick-witted fire element Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a young woman born to immigrant parents in Element City, who, through happenstance and sheer chance meets the sappy yet good-spirited water element Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), and whose chaotic friendship eventually blooms into a blossoming, yet secret romance, that Ember desperately has to keep hidden from her parents, and her father’s strict moral way of doing things. Elemental stars Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie have great back-and-forth chemistry together, and slowly but surely, sparks fly in this heartfelt tale.
With each new production, the artistic wizards at Disney-Pixar are able to push the boundaries of narrative storytelling to even greater heights, and the artistry on display in Elemental is gorgeous to look upon. Fire, water, earth and wind all come to life in brilliant cartoonish rendering as the world of Element City comes to life on screen. There’s a softness and almost childlike artistic wonder to the images that make their way on screen, and audiences will be swept up in this story of elements seeking harmony with one another. Younger audiences will be especially wowed by the art and storytelling of the picture and will be pulled right in.
For audiences who are looking for a fun escape into the cinema that the whole family will enjoy, Elemental makes for a very special watch. With its theme of love, family and connection, this is a film everyone can get behind, and there’s plenty of meaning to be found in Elemental.
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
