Pixar's Elemental was a disappointing rom com that tried to make a bad story work.

Pixar's Elemental was a miss for me. I think this is the first time that I've written those words. I've seen just about every Pixar film, and I've been a fan of the studio for many years. Up until Elemental, the only Pixar movie that I didn't like was Cars 2. I'm going to tell you what I didn't like about Elemental, but first a Spoiler Warning.

Let's get the good parts out of the way first. Elemental is a stunning visual spectacle. Pixar's animation (as always) looks so good on a big screen and Elemental doesn't disappoint in any way regarding these things. However, that's just about the only good thing I can think of that comes from this film, which seems like a forced (if not completely contrived) romantic comedy that tries to thread the needle between kid's movie and adult situations. Maybe it's just Pixar pushing their woke agenda! (Just kidding...but I see this a lot on my social media feeds regarding just about everything).

The story centers around the fire elementals, who live in a district in Element City, and they kind of self-segregate because no one really likes to associate with fire (unless you're a weirdo). Why? Because fire is very destructive. That being said, the elementals in the movie are immigrants from a place that experienced a really bad storm. Rather than rebuild, they decided to move to Element City and start completely anew. However, the majority of their family stays behind presumably living in the community at the base of a big volcano. And the case for this one family deciding to move to Element City seems weak. They take an ocean voyage to get there, which would be like one of us choosing to sail across a sea of poison (as water kills fire), and none of their choices regarding this really make sense.

And this, I think, is where the film really fails. The writers try and think of things that living elements would do if they had a society, and then they try to come up with ways for you to be able to relate to these elements who are just trying to find some connection in a city where the population is so different from person to person. So you have these scenes where the fire element is making food out of wood by turning it into coals, but in the next you also see them bookkeeping and you wonder why none of the books catch on fire (at least I wonder why). The water and cloud elements seem to have the most in common since clouds are just a state of water that has become airborne. And then you see some earth elementals plucking fruit off each other in what must be passing for voyeuristic intimacy, and I'm not sure how I should feel about that scene at all. 

One of the most beautiful things about the movie happens when the fire element demonstrates that she can create tempered glass from sand. However, this never really sells it for me as I know the process to do that is so much more than just applying heat. They also try to patch a dam with glass. I said to my friend (who saw the movie with me), "That shouldn't work as the water weight would just crush the glass." And sure enough, it doesn't work and causes a catastrophe. But it takes a while for that dam to break when it should have just broken instantly. And don't get me started on furniture. How would anything wooden just not burn if a fire elemental were sitting on it, or how would any iron not become white hot over time as it absorbed the heat from an elemental that stood on it? These questions are never addressed. What you do get is the fire elemental turning different colors when standing upon crystals containing different elements, and a water elemental skating on a pond and creating a rainbow with the mist.

Elemental is simply put...a weird movie. Pixar movies aren't supposed to be this weird. The romantic side of it happens when water and fire try to have a relationship, and it feels ultra forced. And most of that is simply because the mother of the fire elemental wants her daughter to fall in love. She also has this weird power to be able to "smell love" when it happens by sniffing in the air. I don't think I ever understood that, and I just put it in my "whatever" box. Plus, the way in which the two meet is when the water guy ends up in the basement of the Fireplace and decides to write them up on their bad pipes (he's a city inspector). Dating the owner of the Fireplace's daughter just seems really awkward after that, and that part never goes away other than as a reason for the father to really object to the water guy getting with his fiery daughter. And there are a few puns that get thrown (naturally) which seem dumb. "You look so hot!!! You're smokin' today!" Ugh...just...no. I'm not sure why the folks at Pixar thought this movie was a good idea.

Anyway, I give Elemental two stars out of five. It's a pretty film to look at, but the writing and the story are not particularly compelling unless you really enjoy stories of "impossible love." However, if that is your kind of jam, I think there are a lot better ways to tell that kind of story than one with animated elements living in a city with hostile architecture.