Many viewers, including myself, found it hard to overlook Pixar's critically acclaimed previous film, Zootopia when anticipating their latest film, Elemental.
And it's not entirely the audience's fault, as the similarities between the two films are striking in various aspects. Both feature conflicting races as their main characters, such as water and fire, rabbits and foxes. Moreover, both films revolve around an imaginative city and have some connection to Disney. Naturally, the audience had expectations.
However, these two films are completely opposite in every aspect. To put it bluntly, "Elemental" is a reversed remake of "Zootopia," abandoning all the strengths, imagination, avant-garde expression, adult themes, and allegory of the latter. It also lacks the lingering essence of Pixar and is instead a poorly executed film that has been thoroughly diluted and made conservative. It serves as another proof of Pixar's imagination gradually "evaporating" since its acquisition by Disney.
"Elemental"
If we only consider the plot synopsis, it aligns closely with "Zootopia" – water and fire coexist in a fictional city of elemental residents with four distinct traits: wind, earth, water, and fire. The objective obstacle of water and fire clashing exists within the city, and a fire girl named Ember and a water boy named Wade meet due to a mysterious water leakage incident in the city.
In their quest to find the cause of the leakage and save their shops, Ember, forms an unlikely partnership with Wade. They embark on a journey to resolve the city's crisis and gradually develop feelings for each other.
At first glance, it may seem similar to the story of Nick and Judy from "Zootopia," but actually it is entirely different, which lies in the storytelling emphasis. "Zootopia" focuses on a suspenseful mystery and the depiction of a utopian city, with the ambiguous romantic undertone between the rabbit and the fox occupying only a small portion of the narrative. However, in "Elemental", the flashy setting in the beginning comprise less than 10% of the plot, while the remaining 90% is dedicated to the line, "they gradually develop feelings for each other and come together."
This film is essentially a romantic movie, akin to a tragedy-removed version of "Romeo and Juliet" without any antagonists. This could be considered its only minor advantage. It focuses on joyful moments, such as when an earthling emits flowers when infatuated, water beings dancing on water to create rainbows, and fire beings using their heat to melt sand into glass.
The film's delightful aesthetics, humorous scenes, and impressive visuals create a relaxing viewing experience, maintaining a romantic atmosphere throughout.
However, this still cannot hide the film's inverted focus on depicting love:
The emphasis in a love story should never lie solely on the obstacles between lovers. Yet, this film only remembers this maxim in its initial setup. As the story unfolds, it becomes a self-indulgent fanfiction.
For instance, the initial physical barrier of water and fire's incompatibility is presented on the film's poster, raising expectations that the writer would provide a reasonable solution to overcome this obstacle. This should have been a climactic moment in the film. However, the writer resorts to another contrived setup - true love naturally makes them compatible. In other words, using one forced setup to resolve another forced setup is nothing but arrogance.
The writer completely abandons the process of narrating the resolution of the dilemma with storytelling finesse. Without the existence of a predicament, if the obstacle is non-existent, the love story becomes like a heavy stone placed on a thin glass - it simply cannot hold.
The portrayal of the obstacle of clan and family is also terribly done. The class and clan divide have been an age-old theme in love stories, yet why do they still use it?
Because the writer intends to use it as a metaphor for current racial issues (even if it sacrifices the watchability of the story, once again inverting priorities).
Ember's parents moved from their hometown to Elemental City. When they first arrived, Elemental City was predominantly inhabited by water, earth, and wind elementals, who kept their distance from or even rejected fire elementals. However, through their hard work, Ember's parents eventually settled in Elemental City. As more fire elementals migrated to Elemental City, the community they formed became known as Fire Town.
Since birth, Ember has always assumed that she will take over the family business and has been taught that "water and fire are incompatible." Consequently, she has confined herself within the boundaries defined by her parents and never attempted to venture beyond. That is until she falls in love with a water elemental.
Whether it's Ember's upbringing or the film's inclusion of matchmaking or lines like "You can't get close unless you're married," these elements all refer to an Asian immigrant family.
Elemental City is primarily built around the water element, symbolizing flow and inclusiveness, which aligns with the values of freedom and diversity propagated in Western culture. Therefore, the identity of the water tribe is clearly understood as representing the Caucasian population in America.
Hence, the clan barrier between water and fire is essentially the same old bottle of Asian themes. Unfortunately, the wine inside this old bottle is also old and shallow, barely filling half of it.
Firstly, in portraying ethnic conflicts, the film merely presents the obvious notion of "water and fire are incompatible." While this setup conveys a sense of destiny, it makes the conflict too much of an "objective fact," lacking cultural reflection. Why are the two tribes incompatible? Does it involve geopolitics, values, or cultural clashes? The film does not mention any of these. The reason for the hostility between the two tribes is simply because their "skin" is different.
Furthermore, there is the intergenerational conflict within the original family. Ember possesses artistic glass-making talent but is unable to pursue her true passion due to her duty of inheriting the family business. However, the family dynamics depicted in the film are mostly harmonious. The father is portrayed as someone who dotes on his daughter, and the film does not delve into the communication barriers between father and daughter.
It seems like there are no issues at all, except for the daughter silently worrying her family problems in the context of love, without ever telling her father. Hence, the predicament remains unresolved.
This directly leads to a situation that they don’t know how to resolve the story. With no predicament to address, there is no room for imagination regarding the solution.
Consequently, the most bluntly uninteresting resolution appears - the sacrifice of one party and Wade has always been the sacrificial one.
He disregards the objective fact of "water and fire are incompatible" and continuously encourages Ember to overcome the ethnic barriers and pursue her dreams courageously. The two characters, one adaptable and one conservative, combined with the background of the story, essentially depict a love story between an Asian woman and a Caucasian man, commonly referred to as "WMAF" (White Male Asian Female) pairing.
Moreover, the scene where Ember is invited to Wade's home further emphasizes the affluence, openness, and inclusiveness of Wade's family, highlighting the conservatism and exclusivity of Ember's family.
Wade is the perfect savior figure, embodying the knightly spirit, even willing to sacrifice for true love. The characterization of Wade and Ember conforms to the stereotypical Cinderella archetype of love.
Finally, Wade's sacrifice leads to Ember's father accepting him, and the conflicts within the original family and between ethnicities are magically resolved. These two issues are somehow effortlessly resolved within the context of love.
Many argue that this is actually a coming-of-age film from the perspective of Ember. However, I would like to ask, although the film appropriates a culturally relevant background, it only focuses on love. Does Ember, as a second-generation immigrant and a woman exploring her self-awareness, truly experience a conscious awakening?
It seems not. She only becomes a little braver because of love.
Does Ember achieve a genuine understanding with her parents' generation?
It seems not. They only have one honest conversation.
Then what kind of coming-of-age story is this?
If even character growth is not established, doesn't that render it worthless?
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