- “Opposites react.”
- ―Tagline
Elemental is a 2023 American computer-animated romantic comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. It is Pixar's 27th animated feature and was theatrically released on June 16, 2023.
Synopsis[]
In a city where water, earth, fire, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.
Plot[]
Bùrdì and Síddèr, a fire couple from Fireland arrive at Element City, a large metropolis that houses people composed of the four basic elements: Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. Upon arrival, the couple are given the names Bernie and Cinder Lumen and try to look for a new home, but they are turned away due to their fiery appearances and abilities. They eventually find an abandoned abode in Firetown and make it their home and café, calling it The Fireplace. Bernie and Cinder have a daughter named Ember and raise her to help run the store for other fire people. As time passes by, more fire people move to Firetown. Bernie immediately grows to dislike other elements, especially water people most of all, as he and Cinder face a lot of discrimination from water people when they first arrived in Element City.
Several years later, Ember is still working at the Fireplace, but Bernie does not trust her to run it just yet as she has a literal, fiery temper that makes it difficult for her to connect with other people. Bernie hopes to give the store to Ember so that she can keep their legacy alive, something which is personified by a blue flame that is tied to their culture. The only person outside of fire people that gives Ember the time of day is a young earth boy named Clod, who has an open crush on her, but she turns him down multiple times. Ember occasionally makes deliveries around town for Bernie as he has developed occasional coughs from tiring himself too much from running the Fireplace at his old age, while Cinder makes love fortunes for people by smelling the smoke from incense wicks they light and cannot get a love fortune from Ember, upsetting her.
One morning, Bernie decides to let Ember run the store while he is out for their "Red Dot Sale" and she excitedly accepts. The day turns out to be tough with Ember having to deal with inept customers. She runs down to the basement and lets out a fiery burst of energy that damages the pipes and causes water to flood the room. Using her fire powers, she reseals the pipes, but a water man named Wade Ripple suddenly comes out of them. Wade, who is overly emotional, turns out to be a city inspector and immediately finds several problems with the Fireplace, made even worse when he discovers Bernie rebuilt it without a permit. Not wanting to lose "another job", Wade takes down his notes and leaves with Ember chasing him. Bernie looks out the window and sees Ember chasing Wade to the Firetown Wetro station, fearing the worst.
Ember chases Wade deep into the city, her first time leaving Firetown, and follows him to City Hall. Despite her best efforts, Wade sends his notes, only to hear Ember's story about her father and why he built the store to begin with. Wade is touched, but admits that it is too late, so he takes her to bureaucrat Fern Grouchwood in an effort to stop the notes from leaving, but when Wade asks Ember to tell Fern her story, she is too reluctant to explain it and causes her temper to burn most of everything in Fern's office, including his hair and mustache, after Wade almost finishes telling the story himself, failing to retrieve the notes. Ember goes home defeated and finds Bernie and Cinder in the basement trying to stop the leaks. Bernie is convinced that Wade is the reason why the place flooded and Ember once again feels guilty for what happened.
Knowing that she only has a week until the store is condemned, Ember goes back to City Hall to confront Wade. He reveals that she can still appeal to his boss, Gale Cumulus, to have the notes revoked, but she is currently at an airball game. Wade, just so happening to have two tickets, invites Ember to come with him to the Cyclone Stadium where the airball games take place so she can talk to Gale. Ember and Gale get into an argument, the latter's stormy temper being the result of a bad game from a player on her favorite team, the Windbreakers. Wade, knowing that the Windbreaker player Lutz is suffering due to his ill mother, coaxes the entire crowd to chant for him and perform a Mexican wave, turning the game around and winning for the team.
Afterwards, Gale is informed about what happened and admits that the water towards Firetown was supposed to be shut off for the benefit of the people there. She tells Ember and Wade that if they can find out what caused the leak to begin with, she can reconsider the tickets. While they're examining the pipes, Ember rushes Wade out so they can continue finding the source of the leak.
Wade tells Ember that he was inspecting the waterway when he noticed a damaged dam that was supposed to protect Firetown from overflows coming from arriving ships. He was hit with a splash and got swooped away through a vent where he ended up in Ember's place thanks to her temper. Ember makes a makeshift hot air balloon for her and Wade to ride in and they set off to locate the leak. During this time, Ember reveals to Wade that she is envious of how he connects with other people. She also recalls how she wanted to see a tree of Vivisteria, beautiful flowers that grow in any element including fire, at Garden Central Station with her father during her childhood, but they were denied entry due to their fire heritage. Then the building flooded years later, thus preventing Ember from ever seeing the Vivisteria. Wade tells her about his father, who had a hard relationship with him and passed away sometime ago.
Ember and Wade find a crack in the dam. With Ember's help, Wade decides to use sand bags to block off the crack. He thanks her before asking her if they want to hang out sometime afterwards and she reluctantly agrees. The two of them proceed to spend time together and start dating, happily sharing their experiences and abilities with one another. In the process, Ember gets better at satisfying customers at the store (or working around it) without losing her temper; however, she hides her relationship with Wade from her parents. Soon, she and Wade learn that the sand bags are not holding up, and the city crew are unable to repair it due to Wade accidentally turning the water workers rock solid. When they try to collect more sand from the beach, Bernie catches Wade and he is forced by Ember to pretend to be a food inspector. This causes Wade to eat fire food for the first time. He likes it, but when he suggests watering it down, Bernie is outraged and has him banned from the Fireplace. Ember collapses from getting stressed by the situation with the Fireplace and accidentally heats the sand to make glass. This impresses Wade enough that she makes a glass orb with a Vivisteria flower in it. Inspired, Ember instead uses her fire powers to turn the sand into a structured glass patch to seal the dam again, averting the disaster.
Hoping the glass patch is enough, Wade invites Ember to meet the rest of his family. Cinder, who can literally smell love, follows Ember to a luxury apartment owned by Wade's mother Brook, but gets stopped by the doorman. Ember is amused by Wade's family and they in turn immediately love Ember due to her talented skills in glass making when she uses it to fix a broken glass pitcher. Everyone plays a game of crying, where they try to get the other person to cry with emotional words and imagery. When it was Ember and Wade's turn, Ember boasts that she has never cried. Wade begins with simple imagery before admitting that he wants to spend his life with her, causing her to make her first fire tear. Shortly afterwards, Wade gets a call from Gale, who tells him that the glass patch worked and will revoke the tickets, saving the store.
As Wade and Ember leave, Brook offers her an internship at a friend's glass making company, which intrigues her, but it also causes her to get moody as she realizes her temper is caused by her not wanting to run the Fireplace. She and Wade head back to the store with Cinder catching up to them. Eventually Wade and Ember stop with Wade questioning what's wrong, Ember admits that she has only ever had one life made for her, running the store and that what she really wanted didn't matter because no one has ever asked her. Cinder catches up to them having smelled their love surprising Ember. She brings them inside to have their love fortune being told, insisting that elements like water and fire cannot mix, primarily because Wade has no way to light his incense wick. However, Wade quickly disproves this by using Ember as a light source and himself as a looking glass to successfully light the wick, causing Cinder to see in the wicks' smoke that Ember and Wade are meant for each other. Ember and Cinder quickly shoo Wade out when Bernie arrives to tell Ember that he is retiring and will be giving the Fireplace to her. He tells her that when he and Cinder left Fire Land, he was not treated with honor by his own father, who did not return a traditional bow of honor his son gave him, and wants to ensure that the same would not happen to him and Ember.
In an effort to win Ember back, Wade takes her to the flooded Garden Central Station where Gale creates an air bubble for Ember to travel in so she can see the Vivisteria underwater. The moment is perfect, but Wade soon rushes Ember out when the bubble begins to shrink. Ember reveals that she was excited over the daring escapade and this convinces Wade to suggest that the two of them touch hands for the first time. To their surprise, Wade and Ember are able to touch and hold one another with no conflict. They dance together, but when Wade tells Ember that he is "so lucky", this reminds her of hearing the same thing from her father. Ember pushes Wade away and breaks up with him, saying that no matter what happens, she still needs to take over the store. This disappoints Wade, as he calls her out for not opening up her true feelings.
Bernie holds a traditional ceremony to announce his retirement and Ember's inheritance of the Fireplace, but Wade interrupts and opens up to Ember about his love for her, only to accidentally reveal that it was her that damaged the pipes. Not wanting to disappoint her father and angered with the truth being heard by everyone, an enraged Ember rejects Wade and orders him to leave. Bernie, already upset by the truth of Ember damaging the pipes in the store's basement, revokes everything and announces his intent to continue running the Fireplace. Ember runs away to be alone with anger and sadness over everything that happened to her. Unbeknownst to everyone, the glass structure at the dam begins to crack as the dam proceeds to overflow, causing a large rush of water to suddenly break through and head straight to Firetown.
Ember sees the damage unfolding and heads toward Firetown to warn everyone. Wade was going to leave to travel the world prior to Ember's rejection, but when he sees Firetown about to get flooded, he rushes there to help Ember without hesitation. They make it back to the store and they try to protect the Lumen family's Blue Flame from being doused. The two manage to save it, but are blocked off in the store's back alcove with the steam pipe also getting blocked off. Wade reveals that due to the enclosed heat from Ember, he is turning into steam. She declares that she loves him and they hug as Wade evaporates.
After the flood dies down, the rest of Firetown find Ember holding the Blue Flame and crying over the loss of Wade. She apologizes to her father for nearly ruining the family legacy and finally admits that she does not want to run the Fireplace because it was his dream, not hers. Bernie assures her that the shop was never his dream, but having her as his daughter was always his dream. The Lumens and the other fire people suddenly hear Wade crying and Ember finds Wade's moisture on the stone ceiling of the alcove. Remembering the Ripples' crying game, she plays it to make Wade cry, with Cinder accepting his and Ember's genuine love as a perfect match and Bernie unbanning him from the Fireplace, and he drips out of the ceiling and reforms. Ember and Wade resume their relationship with a romantic kiss.
Several months later, Firetown has been rebuilt and is now much more open to the rest of Element City, and Fireplace is now open to other elements besides fire. Bernie has started his retirement plan, but has given the store to two of his neighbors, Flarrietta and Flarry, who constantly poke fun at his cooking. Clod finds a fire girl his age that he starts to flirt with while Gale discovers that Fern is a fan of the Windbreakers and begins to romantically pursue him. Ember has accepted the internship of the glass making company that is located in another city and will be leaving with Wade joining her. The couple say their goodbyes to their respective parents, with Ember and Bernie giving each other an honorable bow before parting.
During the end credits, Bernie enjoys his time with Cinder during his retirement, Ember makes Wade a glass sculpture of himself with a big muscular body, Cinder reads Gale and Fern's love fortune, Clod dates the fire girl, a water woman and an earth man kiss, the Lumen couple and the Ripples become close friends, Lutz and the other Windbreakers play another airball game Gale, Fern, Cinder, and Bernie attend, and Ember and Wade eventually return to Element City after a long time of traveling together.
Cast[]
Principal/Secondary Cast[]
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Additional voices[]
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Music[]
- Main article: Elemental (soundtrack)
On February 7, 2023, Thomas Newman was confirmed to compose and conduct the original score for Elemental. It marks Newman's fourth collaboration with the studio after Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Finding Dory, as well as his first Pixar film not to be directed by Andrew Stanton.[1] Ari "Lauv" Leff collaborated with Newman to create the original song called "Steal the Show" being released on June 5, 2023 as a single.[2]
Release[]
The film premiered on May 27, 2023, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, in an out-of-competition screening.[3] After the film festival, Elemental was released in theaters in the United States on June 16, 2023 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
A short animated film, titled Carl's Date, accompanies Elemental in its theatrical release.
Promotional footage of the film was shown at the Disney D23 on September 9, 2022.[4]
The first thirty minutes footage of the film were shown during an early press event on March 28, 2023. It was positively received by critics for its worldbuilding, animation, and characters.[5]
The teaser trailer for the film was released on November 17, 2022.
The official trailer for the film was released on March 28, 2023.
Home media[]
- Main article: Elemental (video)
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Elemental for digital download on August 15, 2023, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on September 26, 2023.[6]
Reception[]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 260 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The website's consensus reads: "Elemental may not satisfy as fully as the greatest Pixar pictures, but it remains a solid story told with dazzling visual flair."[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2024 Oscars but lost to The Boy and the Heron.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first Pixar movie to not receive Funko figures.
- It is also the first Pixar movie since Turning Red to not receive LEGO sets.
- This is the first Pixar movie since Monsters University to have a teaser that depicts a scene that is meant to act as a short film of sorts rather than utilize preexisting scenes from the movie.
- The movie features Lake Ripple, Pixar's first non-binary character.
- This is the second Pixar film to be released on June 16, after Cars 3 and to be directed by Peter Sohn, after The Good Dinosaur.
- This is the first Disney animated film to be released in China since Encanto (2021), after Turning Red, Lightyear, and Strange World from 2022 were not released in the country due to unknown reasons for the former and LGBT themes for the latter two.
- This is the first Pixar film to be released in China since Luca (2021).
- Wade makes a cameo appearance in Lightyear on the label of a bottled drink called "Wade Water".
- The movie was released with the Up short film Carl's Date in front of it, making it the first Pixar film to have a Pixar short film in front of it since Incredibles 2.
- This is the first Pixar film to use Disney's 100th-anniversary logo.
- It is also the first Pixar film to use the new 2022 Walt Disney Pictures logo.
- This is the sixth Pixar film to have a female protagonist after Brave, Inside Out, Finding Dory, Incredibles 2, and Turning Red, as well as the first original movie to have a female protagonist with a love interest.
- The film was supposed to come out in the UK and Ireland on the same day, but it got delayed to July 7, 2023, for unknown reasons unless being re-released in the future (probably for its anniversary on June 16, 2024).
- This is the third Pixar film of the 2020s to be produced in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio after Luca and Turning Red.
- It is also the fourth Disney animated film of the 2020s to be produced in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio, after Luca, Encanto, and Turning Red.
- Thus, it is the first Disney theatrical film produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio to use the 2022 Disney logo.
- This is the sixth Pixar film of the 2020s to be rated PG by the MPA after Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, and Lightyear.
- This is the sixth Pixar film not to have humans in it, following A Bug's Life, the Cars trilogy, and Onward. It is also the second PG-rated Pixar film not to have humans in it.
- During production of the film, effects artists Angelo Stanco, Christian Olan-Geddes, Ilani Gabai, and Ivan Wang left the project after they started working on Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks.
- This is the fifth Pixar film that doesn't feature John Ratzenberger, after Soul, Luca, Turning Red, and Lightyear.
- The air elementals in this film resemble the cloud characters from Partly Cloudy, a short film Peter Sohn directed.
- This is the third romantic Pixar movie; the first being WALL-E and the second being Toy Story 4.
- The is the third Pixar movie of the 2020s to not have a post-credits scene, after Onward and Soul. It is also the second to not have any sort of post-credits scene before or after the closing logos.
- This is the second Pixar film of the 2020s to have the normal music and/or sounds for both of the opening logos, after Turning Red. It is also the first in this case to not have any musical or sound alterations to either logo at any given point whatsoever.
- This is the fourth Pixar film to be composed by Thomas Newman after Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Finding Dory.
- It is also Newman's first Pixar film not to be directed by Andrew Stanton.
- This is the second Pixar film to have Ronnie del Carmen to voice a character since Soul.
- For the language of the fire people, David Peterson from Game of Thrones created this as "Firish" based on fire sounds that are part of Ember's family.[9]
- Following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2023 and Bob Iger's reorganizing plan, Elemental expanded the theatrical windows in hopes of bringing families back to theaters before being released on PVOD and Disney+.
- According to some sources, this plan was also caused by the failure of Lightyear and Strange World.
- In a Japanese trailer (and in the film itself), posters of the films The Good Element and Partly Cloudy can be seen at the Alkali movie theater (one of the locations in the film), with the former being a resemblance to (and a parody of) The Good Dinosaur, while the latter is based on the short film of the same name.[10]
- This is the second Pixar trailer or TV spot to use the song "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry after Inside Out.[11]
- This is the first time that Pixar had the clips from their previous films in a trailer for a new film since Inside Out.
- Element City takes a bit of inspiration from New York City, Amsterdam, and several cities in China. In order for Element City to feel less like an alien version of real-world cities, Production designer Don Shank and his team brainstormed the evolution of elemental beings and their civilization.[12]
- The making of Elemental resulted in Pixar having to upgrade and buy more computers. This film used over 151,000 cores (the brains of a computer), a massive jump compared to Toy Story with 294 cores, Monsters Inc. with 672 cores, and Finding Nemo with 923 cores.[13]
- This is the ninth Pixar film to begin with a flashback after Finding Nemo, Up, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Coco, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4.
- During the end credits, the film was initially going to depict Ember and Wade returning home with the reveal that they had a baby made out of steam. It was ultimately scrapped as the writers wanted the audience to settle with the characters first before such an idea would take hold.[14]
- This Pixar film holds the record for being dedicated to the most amount of people who passed away during its production, with 6 in total. The names listed include:
- Ralph Eggleston [animator] (1965-2022)
- Thomas Gonzales [assistant editor] (1978-2022)
- Amber Martorelli [animator, lighting technical director] (1978-2022)
- J. Garett Sheldrew [storyboard artist] (1964-2022)
- Yung Tahk Sohn [Peter Sohn's father] (1945-2017)
- Hea Ja Sohn [Peter Sohn's mother] (1946-2021)
- This is the first Pixar film to use the full 2022 Disney opening logo as a closing logo.
- This is also the second Disney theatrical animated film to feature the full 2022 Disney opening logo as a closing logo after Strange World.
- This is the fourth Pixar film with no main antagonist nor any antagonists after Inside Out, Finding Dory, and Turning Red.
- This is the second Pixar film to show the real-life images after WALL-E.
- This film, A Bug's Life, Cars, Cars 2, Cars 3, and Onward are the only Pixar films with no human characters.
- Following the announcement of Disney shifting physical media to Sony Pictures Entertainment, this is the last Pixar film to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on physical media in the United States and Canada.
- Given that Turning Red has Ming Lee being treated like its main antagonist, especially during its climax, this would technically make Elemental the sixth Pixar film to not have any specific main antagonist, after Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Finding Dory, Onward, and Soul.
- Certain viewers thought that this film has influences to Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, but director Peter Sohn denied such claims, although he did appreciated such comparisons between each media.[15]
Easter eggs and references[]
- Gale's office number is A113.
- A113 also appears on a transit sign in the film's teaser trailer. It is listed there as "A H Al". The symbols H and Al refer to Hydrogen and Aluminum, which are respectively numbered 1 and 13 on the Periodic Table of Elements.
- Movie posters for The Good Dinosaur (listed here as The Good Element) and Partly Cloudy appear outside the Alkali Theater.
- Wade's popcorn container bears the logo for Pixar Popcorn, which also carries the Luxo Ball's design.
- An Earth-version of Dug appears during the "Steal the Show" montage.
- The Pizza Planet Truck (in a boat-like form) floats through the canal as Cinder approaches Wade's building.
- During Wade's "sponge" flashback, a blue "science club" poster behind him depicts a major location in Elio.[16]
- Brand names and products are parodied in the form of element-themed puns. These include "Treeyota" (Toyota), "Twig" (Twix), "Juicy Flame" (Juicy Fruit), "Frosted Flames" (Frosted Flakes), "Sparkburst" (Starburst), "Best Fry" (Best Buy), and "Kolgate" (Colgate). These are visible in the Lumen family's shop, around Element City, and in the film's end credits.[17]
- The movie that Ember and Wade supposedly see (as possibly evidenced by the theater's marquee) is a movie entitled Tide and Prejudice, which is a parody of Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice.
- The Ripples' apartment building is number 212. In Fahrenheit, water boils at 212 degrees.
- Wade's sibling Lake has a girlfriend named Ghibli, who is named for Studio Ghibli.[17]
- Harold's painting seen during the Ripples' dinner includes the colors of the Emotions: red (Anger), yellow (Joy), green (Disgust), blue (Sadness), and purple (Fear), and adds orange (Anxiety), cyan (Envy), indigo (Ennui), and pink (Embarrassment) as a sneak peek of the next Pixar film Inside Out 2.
References[]
External links[]
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