Review: Pixar's Elemental is a familiar, fun film about prejudice

Three stars

It's been a while since a Pixar movie had a cartoon short as a prelude. Carl's Date is a mini-sequel to Up (2009) and shows widowed Carl (Ed Asner) nervous as he ponders dating someone new and prepares for it with his dog Dug (Bob Peterson). It's fun.

So is Elemental, which doesn't reach the emotional or creative heights of the best Disney or Pixar movies but looks good and has lots of humour (heaps of gags fly by in the background - for example, check out the signs).

It's consistently entertaining though its well-intentioned message feels a bit too heavy-handed and its story a little too cliched to pack the intended emotional punch. And the world-building isn't all it could be.

Elemental is reminiscent of Disney's Zootopia, though the latter's anthropomorphic animals are replaced by characters who are made up of the elements - earth, air, fire and water.

They all live in Element City but the place is rather segregated. Each group lives in its own neighbourhood, with each largely sticking to its own kind, and viewing members of the others with suspicion if not outright disdain. There's an informal rule that "elements don't mix". It's a pretty obvious metaphor for racial prejudice.

Director Peter Sohn (who also has a story credit) was inspired in part by the experience of his Korean immigrant family when they moved to New York City.

In Firetown, Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) is the - literally - fiery daughter of immigrant parents Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi). Their names were changed by an immigration official from the ones they had in their home country, Fireland. Bernie runs a neighbourhood grocery store - hot foods are among the items sold, naturally - and wants his daughter to take it over when he retires.

Trouble is, Ember's temper gets the better of her when customers are difficult and she flares up (in both senses) so she isn't ready yet. And she might not even want to take over: she has other talents she could pursue if not for the weight of family expectation.

One day, Ember accidentally ruptures a pipe in the shop and the basement is flooded, and not for the first time.

City inspector Wade (Mamoudou Athie) rushes in - again, literally: he's from the Water side of town (which seems to be the wealthy district: he's a slacker drifting from job to job).

Wade is investigating the source of a leak in the canal system that threatens all of Firetown. Given the state of the store, he says he'll have to file a report that might lead to it being closed.

Not wanting either of these to happen, Ember accompanies him to try to plead her case at the bureaucracy and to help him in his quest. While there's a certain antipathy, as they get to know each other they begin to like each other. Wade is empathetic and emotional, prone, like other Water folk, to burst into tears. But, even aside from the conflict that brought them together, can these two elements really mix? And what will their families think?

There's quite a bit of inconsistency in how things work in this world: sometimes objects burn when Ember touches them, for example, sometimes they don't, seemingly for the convenience of the story or the sake of a gag. And the flooding subplot feels a bit casually handled: the threat is real but apparently not taken seriously.

Earth and Air don't get much screen time, though the home team at a sporting match is the Windbreakers (and Wade leads the crowd in a wave, both figurative and literal). The way the elements interact - such as on the public transport system or at work - isn't explored much: perhaps we're supposed to think of how different cultures mix in our own world.

Ember's mother has little to do until later in the film (she's a mystic of some kind) though she does play a crucial role. Similarly, Wade's wealthy family come in late but are surprisingly sympathetic and encouraging to Ember.

For all these (sometimes nitpicky) reservations and the predictability of the story, it's warm-hearted and worthwhile.