Pixar's Elemental Is A Richer, More Thoughtful Film Than You May Realize
This article contains spoilers for "Elemental."
Pixar's latest feature film is "Elemental," the first romantic comedy for the animation juggernaut about a young fire woman named Ember (Leah Lewis) and a water man named Wade (Mamoudou Athie). The idea of a relationship forming between fire and water is ripe for societal interpretations and serves as an avatar for anyone who has been in a relationship with someone from a different background. The unlikely "opposites attract" pairing is a timeless trope old enough to have been featured in William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," but "Elemental" takes a determined route by showcasing a metaphorical approach of anthropomorphic characters existing in a fantastical world. At the same time, the film is deeply relatable to the human occurrences we face every day, making it difficult not to walk away feeling the need to recontextualize your own place in the world.
One of the beautiful things about Pixar films is that there is always a deeper meaning beneath the family-friendly veneer. "Toy Story" isn't just an adventure film about talking toys, it's also a story about learning how to curb jealousy and accept that evolving from the status quo is a good thing, "Ratatouille" isn't just a film about a rat chef, it's also a story about overcoming the fear of failure and trying things that scare you, and "Cars" isn't just a film about talking cars, it's also about ... okay, it's mostly about talking cars, but it's also why relationships matter more than fame.
So what is "Elemental" about other than a rom-com? Well, it might just be Pixar's most ambitious film yet.
Elemental is based on real experiences
During a presentation at Pixar attended by /Film's own Ethan Anderton, director Peter Sohn told the story of his parents' immigration from Korea to the United States in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The Lumen family's existence in Element City was inspired by Sohn's family, like his father opening a grocery store similar to Bernie Lumen's shop in Firetown. Sohn's family was only the beginning of incorporating lived experiences, as the remarkably diverse staff of Pixar employees were also consulted in crafting the story.
As Sohn told me during an interview ahead of the film's premiere, "this little personal nugget that I had, as we brought more people on, they would all connect to it in different ways." Producer Denise Ream invited conversations from artists from all over the world, many of whom were first-generation or second-generation immigrants. "They all started resonating with it, but then also bringing their own personal lives to it," said Sohn. "That is almost like a little something that tells you that like, 'Oh, if it's resonating, it could have those possible connections.'"
In the societal push for more diverse representation in American cinema, an ugly trend emerged where characters and stories outside of the cis, straight, white, Christian, male "default" were tokenized and incorporated as a means to fill a quota. White filmmakers suddenly tried to address systemic issues outside of their wheelhouse — speaking for communities they aren't a part of — in an attempt at inclusivity. Unfortunately, the results are predictably littered with white savior tropes and two-dimensional representations of marginalized cultures.
With the "Elemental" creative team pulling from real-life people, the film never feels like a cookie-cutter "let's all get along despite our obvious differences" story, but a nuanced depiction speaking to a variety of lived experiences.
The absence of direct identity proxies is a good thing
Element City focuses on four main groups of denizens: earth, water, air, and fire. It's established early on that the fire type is the newest to immigrate to the area and inhabit a borough just outside of the main city because, as Ember points out, Element City wasn't designed with the fire folk in mind. Immediately following the film's trailer release, plenty of people speculated that the elements were meant to represent four of the major racial groups. But that's not the case. As Peter Sohn pointed out during his presentation at Pixar, "Once people started saying, or asking, 'Oh, are they Asian?' It's like, 'No, no. They're not meant to be Asian.' Or is, 'Air meant to be this culture?'" He continued, "Quickly I would realize, 'No, no, no, these have to be universal.' My biggest goal was to try to take the element itself and pull from there to make the culture."
A lack of direct identity proxy not only eliminates the risk of stereotyping identities under element umbrellas but allows people to see themselves in a variety of characters. Speaking to my own experience, I'm constantly struggling with obligatory pressures like Ember, I cry a lot like Wade, I'm endlessly corny like Clod the earth kid, and I'm loudly dominant like Gale the storm cloud. Being able to see little bits of myself in all of the characters regardless of the element type introduces an exercise for the audience to do the same. Roger Ebert famously said "films are like machines that generate empathy," and "Elemental" allows the audience to empathize with a variety of people and cultures by leaving space to recognize the similarities that exist despite the obvious differences.
The Zootopia comparisons are reductive
When "Elemental" was first announced (and especially following the release of the trailer), there were a lot of complaints that the film seemed to be following the same formula as Disney's "Zootopia." Hell, the review we published here on /Film even makes mention of the similarities. However, the similarities between "Elemental" and "Zootopia" start and end with the most obvious, surface-level comparisons.
Yes, they are both about bustling cities filled with anthropomorphic characters that tend to stick to their own "type" and sometimes have less-than-positive biases toward those different than their own and it's the unlikely pairing of two opposites that serve as the center of the story. But, uh, that's about it. And I'm not trying to sound like a jerk here by saying this, but if you think "Elemental" and "Zootopia" are one and the same, that's a skill issue on your part and you might have some unchecked biases of your own to interrogate.
"Zootopia" is about defying stereotypes and learning not to judge a person for their appearance wrapped in a buddy-cop comedy. "Elemental" is a love story about cultural sharing, the quest for equitable treatment, and how marginalized people often put pressure on themselves to appease their parents so their sacrifices don't feel like they were for nothing ... usually at the expense of their own happiness and passions.
Equating these two films feels reductive at best. While they both obviously use the Pixar gold standard of world-building to make these themes accessible even to the most privileged among us (because marginalized folks are already very well-versed in this way of living), they're both telling wildly different stories. And that's exactly the problem with offensively lumping them in together. We wouldn't say "Moonlight" and "But I'm a Cheerleader" are the same movie just because they focus on queer characters and we shouldn't do it with "Elemental" and "Zootopia," either.
A story to reflect our society
There were countless posts on social media and YouTube essays criticizing "Elemental" based on the teaser trailers before the film's release, with many making up their minds about what the film is about without actually having seen the film. Australian film critic David Lee pointed out after his viewing that he "loved it much more than expected," noting that what he watched was "a totally different movie than advertised." The folks at Pixar aren't stupid, and they know a family-friendly marketing campaign is their best bet against massive releases like "The Flash" and "Asteroid City." Unfortunately, that means the more mature themes took a back seat in the lead-up to the release, and there are many adult viewers convinced that this film isn't going to appeal to them.
And I'm here to tell them that they're wrong.
The true meaning of "Elemental" is that it's an immigrant story ... and a disability story ... and a queer story ... and ... and ... and. It's a story for anyone who has ever had to navigate a world that wasn't made with them in mind or who has felt lesser than by the systems in place meant to take care of us, and it's told without ever diminishing the unique differences that cause us all to be treated differently in a society. "Elemental" doesn't perpetuate the assimilative "melting pot" metaphor of Western civilization, instead operating under the more appropriate "salad bowl" theory, as we combine our cultures with one another, but still retain our own cultural identities. Or, as director Peter Sohn has pointed out from the very beginning — a periodic table of elements.
Elements can mix, actually
Sohn's periodic table of elements inspiration might be the most appropriate way to look at how our society operates because it takes into account the combative, incompatible combinations that also exist in addition to harmonious synergy. Hydrogen and oxygen beautifully combine to make water, but carbon and oxygen have the potential to make carbon monoxide. And yet, all of these elements live together on one table, like a little apartment building of strangers. Okay, yes, I will admit that the air folk being clouds — which is water vapor — complicates the metaphor just a little bit, but if we're suspending our disbelief for a film where apple tree people pick fruit as a form of foreplay (I said it was mature!), we can suspend our disbelief in this instance as well.
Early on in the film, there's a mindset shared by most of the citizens that "elements don't mix," even though characters like Clod the earth kid exclusively show interest in girls made of fire and Ember and Wade obviously fall in love. "Elemental" doesn't suffer under the weight of so-called "mixed metaphors" because it's a film that's not trying to be definitively representative of one specific experience, but rather, a reminder that we all have so much more in common than we realize, even if our differences are obvious and plentiful. Elements can mix, actually, and sometimes the chemical change can be beautiful. It's just a matter of finding one with compatibility.
"Elemental" is currently playing in theaters everywhere.