They get off a ship at the port of Element City - a not-so-disguised Ellis Island - and find doors slammed in their faces when trying to find jobs and homes. Elemental is set in a world of anthropomorphic elements of nature, and the story begins with a Fire couple, Bernie and Cinder Lumen (admittedly a little on the nose), making the painful decision to leave their home in the wake of a disaster that makes it impossible to earn a living and raise their infant daughter, Ember. Which is probably why the central characters' cultures in Elemental are more amalgams than distinct - and that's fine. According to the end credits, it was something of a collaborative production, as writers, artists and actors all chipped in with their own immigrant family stories. Korean-American director Peter Sohn, a Pixar veteran, was inspired by his own immigrant parents' lives in co-creating the story, which amplifies the little details he didn't appreciate about their struggle when he was younger. But it is an engaging, gorgeously rendered immigration allegory that remains, sadly, relevant. Sure, Elemental (which is prefaced by a charming short, Carl's Date, a "sequel" to Up) isn't exactly cutting edge by Pixar's own incredibly high standards. The shrieking raises the question of whether any of these commenters have seen the dreck that was The Sea Beast (2022) or this year's Super Mario Bros. But it certainly does not, as early press has shrieked, represent a crisis for Pixar. It doesn't have Up's (2009) sense of loss, or Wall-E's (2008) urgent environmentalism, nor the crushing pre-teen apprehension of Inside Out (2015) - or even the fundamental realness of the underrated and underseen Turning Red (2022), which went straight to Disney+. It doesn't come close to capturing the essential truths, anxieties, recognizable dilemmas, growing pains, sorrows and pleasures of the now-venerable animation studio's very best.
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