Earth, wind and fire

Elemental is not Pixar's best work. It doesn't come close to capturing the essential truths, anxieties, recognizable dilemmas, growing pains, sorrows and pleasures of the now-venerable animation studio's very best. It doesn't have Up's (2009) sense of loss, or Wall-E's (2008) urgent environmentalism, nor the crushing pre-teen apprehension of Inside Out (2015) - or even the fundamental realness of the underrated and underseen Turning Red (2022), which went straight to Disney+. But it certainly does not, as early press has shrieked, represent a crisis for Pixar. The shrieking raises the question of whether any of these commenters have seen the dreck that was The Sea Beast (2022) or this year's Super Mario Bros.

Sure, Elemental (which is prefaced by a charming short, Carl's Date, a "sequel" to Up) isn't exactly cutting edge by Pixar's own incredibly high standards. But it is an engaging, gorgeously rendered immigration allegory that remains, sadly, relevant. Korean-American director Peter Sohn, a Pixar veteran, was inspired by his own immigrant parents' lives in co-creating the story, which amplifies the little details he didn't appreciate about their struggle when he was younger. According to the end credits, it was something of a collaborative production, as writers, artists and actors all chipped in with their own immigrant family stories.

Which is probably why the central characters' cultures in Elemental are more amalgams than distinct - and that's fine. The point stands. Elemental is set in a world of anthropomorphic elements of nature, and the story begins with a Fire couple, Bernie and Cinder Lumen (admittedly a little on the nose), making the painful decision to leave their home in the wake of a disaster that makes it impossible to earn a living and raise their infant daughter, Ember. They get off a ship at the port of Element City - a not-so-disguised Ellis Island - and find doors slammed in their faces when trying to find jobs and homes. They wind up in a slightly shady part of the city that eventually becomes Firetown, where they raise Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis of the Nancy Drew TV series). Bernie is grooming her to take over the family business, a store dedicated to all things fiery for the city's immigrant residents, when a basement pipe springs a leak. It's how she meets Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie, 2022's Jurassic World Dominion), a Water person and city inspector.

Their adventure to stop Firetown from flooding (obviously crucial) and their budding friendship, then romance, is the main narrative. However, the film is really about the marginalization of entire groups, the systemic disenfranchisement of them by withholding public services, citizenship-based class systems, discrimination and white privilege. Ember is coded as Indian - the sitars, tablas and bansuris on the score drop a huge hint to that - and Wade is the entitled rich kid who can "afford" to tell his family he wants to follow his dreams and not lose them forever. Hence, white. That's for parents to chew on. But amid the social commentary are reliably bright, colorful images and mesmerizing artwork that remain second to none. Pixar animators somehow manage to make water and fire hold hands - and when the third-act tragedy struck, a 7-year-old three rows back burst into loud tears. Clearly, Elemental is speaking to its core demographic.

Is Pixar running on fumes? Hard to say, but what's undeniable is that since it's been rolled into the Disney family, its corporate overlords seem increasingly gun-shy, amid the current American political landscape, about admitting they have a cross-cultural romance as well as an immigration allegory to show off. Maybe the House of Mouse doesn't want to appear too "woke". More than repeating the same story again and again though, not letting Pixar lean into itself is the real problem.