We’re all familiar with Pixar’s tendency to personify everything. What if toys had emotions? What if animals had emotions? What if souls had emotions? What if emotions had emotions? It could be endless. This brings us to the latest question: What if the elements had emotions? Is this a recipe for another hit or will it burn as quickly as it ignites?
A familiar story, but with elements
In a world where there are beings of fire, water, air and earth, Iskra Lumen is the element of fire, the daughter of immigrants from Palinesia, a place inspired by the countries of the East. Iskra’s parents emigrated to the City of the Elements to start a new life after the catastrophe in their country, without abandoning their traditions and culture. They set up a shop, Kominek, which becomes a kind of unofficial center of Fajerki – a district inhabited only by fiery ones. They have to deal with prejudice from the rest of the elements and systemic segregation, as the City of the Elements is not made for them. Iskra’s father hopes that his daughter will inherit the shop from him, but she has temper problems and often explodes. One such episode leads to a broken pipe in the Kominek’s basement, which attracts the city inspector Wodek Potocki, which is the element of water. He finds many faults with fireplace pipes, reports them to the town hall, and this could potentially lead to the closure of the store. When Wodek finds out about Iskra’s situation, he decides to help her save the fireplace and discover the cause of the water leak in the city. Thus begins the charming story of Iskra, a feisty, passionate, almost fiery girl, and Wodek, an emotional, sensitive boy from a rich district. This is a classic example of history where opposites attract.
An excerpt from the trailer for Walt Disney’s Elemental
Problems of immigrants dressed in the elements
The story of Iskra is inspired by real life, specifically the experiences of director and filmmaker Peter Sohn, who grew up as the son of Korean immigrants in New York in the 1970s. It was these experiences that shaped him and inspired the film. There are many more or less subtle allusions and references to the problems of immigrants. Changing names to make them easier to pronounce, twisting phrases and sayings by Spark’s father, eating fiery as the equivalent of spicy cooking, or remarking that Iskra has a talent for languages as she is fluent in the language of Elemental City, even though that’s where she was born and raised. The City of the Elements is seemingly adapted to everyone, but it is immediately obvious that it is more accessible to the elements of earth, water and air, and the fiery ones are pushed to the background, Elemental is a film that sympathetically but bluntly points to social inequalities that might otherwise have escaped us.
A feast for the eyes
Elemental is a real blaze of colors. The spark glows all over, its fire is constantly in motion, while the Vodka gurgles and reflects its light. The scene in the cinema, when Iskra lights up the room despite the hood, beautifully illustrates the sense of the whole film. Similarly, the phenomenal scene with crystals and a rainbow is breathtaking. You have to give Pixar that they can still breathe magic into their productions.
We would like to thank the Cinema City cinema network for the opportunity to watch the film !