He falls in love with Ember almost immediately – and I couldn’t tell you why. (We’ll learn this is due to sublimating some generation-gap resentments she doesn’t want to run The Fireplace.) Worse, though, is Wade, voiced by Mamoudou Athie as an annoying twerp who can’t stop sobbing all the time. ![]() Ember, voiced by Leah Lewis, has one note: she’s angry all the time. The biggest problem is that both of these characters are super annoying. Both of these characters are super annoying. In time, Ember is able to convince Wade to help her fight city hall and keep The Fireplace open, and their scheming builds to an unlikely friendship and, eventually, love. When disaster strikes she encounters the sniveling bureaucrat Wade Ripple, and for a stretch this becomes the most anti-regulatory family-friendly movie since our pals the Ghostbusters took on the EPA. Our young heroine is Ember Lumen, whose proud Firish immigrant parents built a convenience store (cleverly named The Fireplace!) from the ground up. Living volumes of water gush and blob around, an occasional extinguishing hazard to the fire people (who are quick to cause problems for any trees that get too close). The opening moves at a brisk pace, with a montage showing the nifty visual splendor of the world. This is a none-too-subtle metaphor for immigration to a Western city. ![]() ![]() But Elemental is definitely the first version of the tale to include sentient puffs of cloud playing their own version of Quidditch. This is not exactly new ground – in fact, the first feature-length “talkie,” 1927’s The Jazz Singer, deals with many of the same issues. This is a none-too-subtle metaphor for immigration to a Western city, with the twin specters of prejudice and assimilation looming over the younger generation’s head. The newest group to arrive on its shores are the Firish, who tend to stick together in their own little Fire Town ghetto. Elemental is set in a world where different anthropomorphized elements – water, fire, air, and earth (in the form mostly of trees and shrubs) – do their best to coexist in the bustling metropolis of Element City.
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