Being a kid in a Disney (or Pixar) cartoon is tough.  Instead of being encouraged to leave home and follow your passion, you’re expected to honor family traditions and go into the family business without complaint.  Incredibly, young people chafing at familial obligations also played a role in Frozen, Moana, Coco, Encanto, Strange World and now Elemental.  Just once I’d like to see a movie where the kid is completely gung-ho to stay home and take over their parents’ flower shop.  The twist would be the parents don’t want him to leave because they just want to sell the place and move to Portugal.  Conflict ensues because the kid just wants nothing more than to make pick-me-up bouquets for the rest of his life.  Then one day they meet a handsome delivery person who forces them to consider the world outside the shop.  Are you listening, Disney?  You can have my pitch for a song!

In Elemental, Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) is the daughter of Bernie and Cinder, who immigrated to Element City before she was born.  They are Fire people, all of whom live on the outskirts of the city because of their tendency to incinerate most of what they touch.  This suits the Fire people just fine because if it’s one thing they dislike–it’s Water people.  Those folks always want to water things down.  The notion of dealing with Water people sets Bernie’s temper aflame just at the thought of it.  (The movie is naturally full of element puns.  This review will follow suit.  You have been warned.)

Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) left their vaguely middle-eastern country to make his dream of running his own store come true.  The two took ownership of a little  run-down little place with leaky pipes and before long they had a successful grocery store.  (Bernie produces the coal treats he sells by crushing a block of wood with his bare hands.  If only they subsisted on baklava.)  Before long, Ember arrives and Bernie trains her to eventually take over the shop. Unfortunately, Ember is a hothead who is easily enraged by customers.  (For God sake, don’t ever make her flame turn purple!)  Ember really doesn’t want to take over the business, but she doesn’t want to let her ailing father down.  (He has a hacking cough from smoking too much.  HeHe.)

Into her life comes Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a city inspector and a Water person.  He was looking into a flooding issue at the docks when he was unexpectedly pulled into the Lumen family shop by their leaky pipes.  Ember blabs that her father fixed all of the plumbing himself without a permit, and Wade has no choice but to write the shop up.  This development would shut the shop down, so Ember follows Wade into the city to try to stop him from filing his report.  (This must be the first cinematic romance where the catalyst was government bureaucracy.  As you may recall, Pixar once crafted a love story out of a robot stockpiling garbage.)  Ember is unsuccessful at stopping Wade from filing his report, but he says that she can plead her case to his supervisor, Gayle (Wendi McLendon-Covey).

Gayle is a Wind person and a big fan of a sports team named the Wind Breakers.  (The team logo is a toot.  Earth kids would love to wear tee-shirts with that on them.)  Ember pleads her case and Gayle makes a deal with her: if Ember can help Wade determine the source of the flooding, Gayle will put a hold on the inspection infractions.  (You know you’re in an alternate universe when bureaucrats can be swayed by a heartfelt plea.)  Ember and Wade find where the flooding originates and she creates a glass seal that should hold.  Wade is fascinated by Ember’s fiery abilities and asks her if he can see her again.  Ember is also similarly attracted to Wade and accepts.  The movie shows the two slowly falling in love while out on dates, including one at a movie theater.  (See that, Disney?  Your own characters like going to the movies!  Stop dumping your best stuff on streaming!)

The story of two people from opposite sides falling in love is as old as time.  Elemental doesn’t have the tragic aspect that Romeo and Juliet does, but the fact that Ember’s parents are dead-set against her dating a Water person only makes the relationship that much more exciting to her.  Wade, on the other hand, is the wishy-washy type whose life was a series of ebbs and flows until Ember arrived to give it a spark.  Wade’s parents are all in favor of the two of them being a couple, especially his mother Brook (a reliably daft Catherine O’Hara).  Being Water people, they know there’s no sense in fighting the tide of love.

Every generation has its “two people from the different side of the tracks falling in love” movie.  For me, the combination of Ember’s middle-eastern ethnicity and Wade’s WASP-like family reminded me of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Elemental isn’t the first Pixar cartoon that focused on romance and courtship.  That would be Wall-E.  The difference between Wall-E and Elemental is how the romantic aspects are depicted, and what place the relationship has in the larger story.  Wall-E’s clumsy wooing was a ready source of laughs, a Little Tramp scurrying about on treads.  Later, Wall-E’s love of Eve provides the impetus for him to leave Earth and experience adventure.  While the love between the robots was undeniably moving, the story ultimately was bigger than the two of them.  With Elemental, the love between Ember and Wade is the primary focus of the story, to the point where the problem with the flooding is left unresolved by the end.  Even the movie’s acknowledgement of the Fire people’s cultural heritage and their immigrant experience takes a back seat to the two leads falling in love.  (I kept wondering about the blue flame the Fire people pray to.)

Elemental is an old-fashioned love story with few surprises, but it works because of the reliable Pixar mix of humor, exceptional animation and solid acting.  There were less puns than I was anticipating, but they all landed.  The animation is marvelous, especially the retro chic of the Fire and Water people.  I wished the Wind and Earth people had gotten more attention, but they were bit players in the story anyway.  (The only Earth character was Clod, who was very proud of his budding manhood.)  I marveled at how well flowing water was rendered in this movie.  (I haven’t seen Avatar: The Way of Water yet, so I can’t compare the two.)  What ultimately won me over was the sweetness and sincerity of Ember and Wade, a classic “opposites attract” couple that create something special when they’re together.  Elemental may have a very familiar story to tell, but it does it as only Pixar can–with beauty and feeling. Recommended.

The movie’s love song, “Steal the Show”, is a bonefide earworm. Check it out below.