One thing Pixar has been very good at is dealing with issues that young people may face daily in a way they can understand. For example, Soul dealt with death and grief, Turning Red dealt with puberty, and Inside Out dealt with emotions. Their latest film, Elemental, covers several issues. While they can be commended on this, it isn’t as successful as past films due to the designs of the characters and an overwhelming issue that stands out above all the others within the film, that of the relationship between a daughter and father.

Ember is a fiery young woman who lives in a part of Element City devoted to those who are fire. Working in her father’s shop, which he hopes will eventually be hers, she loses her temper and causes leaks to appear in their pipework. Slipping in through those pipes is Wade, a watery safety inspector who sadly sees too many issues within the building that he needs it to be shut down. Desperate for this not to happen, Ember is offered an ultimatum to work with Wade to find the source of a leak running through Element City. What she doesn’t expect to find is love.

Director Peter Sohn, whose credits include The Good Dinosaur and the balloon lift in Up, has delivered a very personal film which tries to explain the difficulties of immigration as well as inter-racial relationships, with Ember and Wade as a sort of Romeo and Juliet style love story, asking the question: can fire and water fall in love? This may seem obvious at first that what Sohn has decided to make is a romantic comedy that includes this at its heart. Sadly, the love story doesn’t work, mainly because of the design of the characters.

The background and overall look of the film are right up there with the best of Pixar. It’s the actual characters that distract from becoming truly connected with the story. Inside Out, which this film closely resembles, had emotions looking like humans in cartoon form, hence why it works. Here the fire people are distracting while Wade just looks odd, with his jagged head and eyes that bobble. I know he is water, but he looks more like something you would place on the back shelf of a car.

Where the film scores big, however, is the relationship between Ember and her father. The director has stated this is close to his own relationship with his father, and this is probably why this is the winning part of the film. He is a man who has come to the city with nothing, escaping his homeland for some unknown reason that has made it impossible to stay there. Arriving in Element City, he and his wife are shunned by water, air and earth, so he sets up a home in a distant part of town away from the others. With hard work, he turns a building into a mildly successful store, serving other firepeople who have arrived and set up home in the surrounding areas. His dream, however, is to pass the store on to his daughter.

This, to me, seems to be the heart of the film. The love story is fine, but you find yourself caught up emotionally with this part of the story, especially when Ember knows that this isn’t what she wants but wants to find her own identity in the world. If Sohn had focussed on the difficulties of coming to another country and dealing with setting up in a place no one wants you, this would have been a far more emotional piece, especially with immigration so prominent in the news here.

Having said that, Elemental is entertaining and has enough to keep the young happy while never being dull or boring. It’s not top-notch Pixar, but with so many films failing at the moment, this should keep the kids happy during the summer months. It also includes a beautifully simple short at the beginning called Carl’s Date, with Up’s Carl and Doug.

3 out of 4

Director: Peter Sohn

Starring: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Mason Wertheimer

Written by: (also story) John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh and (story) Peter Sohn

Running Time: 101 mins

Cert: PG

Release date: 7th July 2023