Initially, I heard people were either hot or cold in this movie. So, going in I didn’t know what to expect. Even now, I am seeing some mixed things on this movie, but I really liked it.
This is the newest film by Disney Pixar and takes place in Element City where anthropomorphized elements all live together. Ember’s family immigrates there to start a new life. The movie follows her many years later as she is set to take over her father’s business but the movie deals with her coming to terms if that is what she really wants. Along with a budding romance between elements this movie does a lot.
The thing about the elements is they can affect each other. Water can make the earth grow and fire can burn the earth. So would a romance between fire and water even work? That’s what we get to see transpire in the film.
Even with that short summary, there are a few more things the movie deals with and although that may sound like quite a bit I thought it was done fairly well. All of the plot threads made sense and connected with each other and kept me engaged the entire time.
Although no movie is without its faults. There were some overdone tropes for example, there is a little earth boy that tries to ask out Ember who is much older than him. She then turns him down and although we have seen this done many times before it hasn’t gotten better.
Aside from that, I thought that the romance between the two main characters had a good build-up and felt deserved by the end. I am always a sucker for a good romance and this one roped me in. The way they deal with emotions was very interesting. In the movie, water tended to be sad and flowing whereas fire was very hot and angry. Although they played into the elemental nature of it, the characters also talked through their emotions and were able to overcome issues.
This movie isn’t all serious though, there are quite a few comedic moments as well. If kids and adults are laughing in the theatre I feel like they did something right.
Of course, I have to also talk about how the movie looks. It is a Disney Pixar film so the animation looks so good. All of the elements have different looks and textures to them which are really cool on the big screen. The look of the world is also really interesting and each area that the elements lived had a unique feel and look to it. It added even more to the overall worldbuilding by even just looking at the buildings that contain elements lived in.
Another small critique I have of the movie is I would have liked to explore more of the elemental world. We only get to see some of it but because our main focus is on our protagonists it is more focused on their story. What we do see is very interesting.
Preceding the movie we get a Disney Short featuring Carl Fredrickson and Dug from the 2009 movie UP. It was a fun little story bout Carl getting ready for a date. Although I was a bit confused as to why it was shown here. Does Disney have something in the works maybe? Besides that, I thought it was a weird choice to have in front of this film that has now come out years after Up.
Overall I would recommend checking out this movie! I really enjoyed it and if you want to see more you can check out the trailer below!
-Jared Gomes
