A fiery immigration narrative and a rom-com collide in Pixar's 'Elemental'

Throughout its storied history, Pixar has whisked us away to many fantastical worlds — think the vast blue plains of Soul's Great Before, or the bright lights and towering homes of Coco's Land of the Dead. The setting of Pixar's latest film, Elemental, joins their ranks as one of the animation giant's most beautiful, immersive, and technically impressive worlds yet.

The setting in question is Element City, a major metropolis inhabited by water-people, earth-people, fire-people, and air-people. Here, anthropomorphized clouds and water droplets share subways, sidewalks, and sports arenas with walking clods of earth and fireballs.

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Among these fireballs is Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis), a hot-tempered young woman working at her family's shop. When a nasty leak threatens to close them down, she'll have to team up with watery City Inspector Wade Ripple (voiced by Mamoudou Athie) to save her family's livelihood. Traditionally, water and fire don't mix, but as Ember and Wade get to know each other, sparks fly. The result is a sweet love story wrapped in a larger immigration narrative. While Elemental's many moving parts don't always come together, the film's animation and main pairing are delightful in their own right.

First and foremost, Elemental is a film about immigration.

Ember rides through Fire Town. Credit: Pixar

From its very first frame, Elemental positions itself as a movie about the immigrant experience, immediately setting itself apart from the criticism that it's "Zootopia, but with elements." We watch as Ember's parents arrive in Element City's equivalent of Ellis Island, where it takes no time at all for a customs agent to anglicize (or "Element-alize") their Firish names to Bernie (voiced by Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder Lumen (voiced by Shila Ommi).

Bernie and Cinder are among the first wave of fire-people to arrive in Element City, where water-, earth-, and air-people have co-existed for much longer. Even as this fiery couple attempts to join Element City's great melting pot, they're met with hostility and open scorn. Plus, there's the very real problem that much of Element City's infrastructure — including its subway system — is water-centric. The city is quite literally not built for fire-people.

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Throughout its opening montage, Elemental sees Bernie and Cinder settle down in what will soon become Fire Town, an older neighborhood set apart from the rest of Element City. There, they start a thriving business. It's an effective start to the film that sets up Bernie and Cinder's distrust of water-people in particular, as well as their close-knit community and why their fire-centric shop (aptly named "The Fireplace") is so important to them. Where Elemental sometimes falters is in its exploration of the fire-people's culture, which draws from a variety of real-world cultures that, when coupled with the older fire-people's accented voice performances and occasionally broken dialogue, can threaten to fall into caricature. By contrast, the cultures of water-, earth-, and air-citizens are less defined, perhaps as a result of greater homogenization and the fact that the story revolves less around them

Luckily, Elemental soon shifts its focus to Ember, and to her own story as a child of migrant parents. She stands to run the Fireplace when her aging father retires, but as her frequent bursts of purple-flamed rage suggest, her inheritance may be a greater source of anxiety than she may know. Director Peter Sohn drew on his own experience as a child of immigrants for the film, and it's in Ember's own personal dilemmas — in turn helped along by her budding relationship with Wade — that Elemental finds its heart.

Elemental's love story is absolutely adorable.

Ember and Wade 4ever! Credit: Pixar

To get Ember and Wade together, Elemental builds up a whole plot about a water pipe leak in the Fireplace. The storyline plays out in an unfortunately compulsory manner, from an arbitrary deadline the duo must meet to the way the leak returns in order for the film to have an action-packed climax. But it's the interactions between Ember and Wade outside of their quest that make Elemental tick.

Thanks to the pairing of Ember and Wade, Elemental becomes Pixar's first fully fledged rom-com. The two go on dates to movies like Tide and Prejudice (one of many element-themed puns the movie has to offer), have awkward encounters with parents, and learn major life lessons from one another. And for the most part, it works exceptionally well.

For starters, Ember and Wade are an "opposites attract" pairing in the truest sense of the word. He could extinguish her, while she could boil him into steam — their budding romance spells mutually assured destruction for all involved. Yet there's more to their opposition than just their chemical makeup. Ember is short-tempered and intense, with a deep connection to her family and their expectations of her. Wade is a nervous pen-pusher from a wealthy Element City family who prefers to go with the flow. His knacks for empathy and sentimentality don't just clash with Ember's passion and drive, they complement it (and vice versa). Lewis and Athie bring Ember and Wade's initially clashing personalities to life with striking vocal chemistry, to the point that I was basically kicking my feet and giggling during their every scene together.

Elemental is a visual treat.

Wade and Ember's first official date. Credit: Pixar

Adding to the appeal of Ember and Wade's romance is the fact that Elemental's animation perfectly translates Lewis and Athie's chemistry to the screen. Yes, Element City is a big visual draw here, with its watery walkways, soaring tree towers, and endlessly inventive ways for the elemental citizens to live together in this colorful space. But it's in the exchanges between Ember and Wade where you can really appreciate the technical achievements of Elemental.

Both Ember and Wade are constantly in motion. She's always a-flicker, and his watery hair tumbles around like little waves. The two squash and stretch with each movement to create the illusion of moving fire and water, resulting in a photorealistic effect contained in an animated, unreal world. And the animation magic doesn't stop with Wade and Ember's individual designs. Every time the two cross paths, we see the interplay between the light Ember gives off and Wade's reflective surface — Ember literally lights Wade up! It's an astounding technical feat and a cute-as-heck visual metaphor for their relationship. Best of all, the physics of the fire and water dynamic actually end up impacting the plot in a meaningful way, lending even more weight to the great animation work on display here.

Do I wish that Elemental's plot lived up to its impressive visuals? Yes. The romance, the immigration metaphors, and the leak arc stringing it all together risk crowding each other out, all the way up to the movie's perhaps too-neat conclusion. But the overall film remains a charming journey to a new world, grounded by a love story you can't help but root for.

Elemental hits theaters June 16.