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Elemental
In a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy will discover something elemental: how much they have in common.
2023 · Directed by Peter Sohn · 102 min · Animation · Comedy · Family · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 13 frames
Tagline
Opposites react.
Plot
Fire elements Bernie and Cinder Lumen immigrate from Fire Land to Element City where they face racism from other classical elements. After the birth of their daughter Ember Lumen, they set up their Blue Flame which represents their traditions and start their own convenience store called the Fireplace. Several years later, Bernie intends to retire and give the store to Ember once she can control her fiery temper. When Bernie allows Ember to run the store on her own during the day of a sale, she becomes overwhelmed by the customers and rushes to the basement. Her fiery outburst breaks a water pipe, flooding the basement and summoning Wade Ripple, an emotional water element and city inspector, who notes the faulty plumbing. Despite Ember's attempts to stop him, Wade travels to City Hall and reluctantly files a report of his findings with his air element boss, Gale Cumulus, who will have the Fireplace shut down. Ember keeps this a secret from her parents, and does not tell them that she is the reason why the pipe burst.
Wade brings Ember to Cyclone Stadium to persuade Gale to reconsider the shutdown of her father's store. Wade mentions to Ember that he was searching for a leak in the city's canals before ending up at the Fireplace, and suggests to Gale that he and Ember can track the source of the leak from the store. Gale offers to forgive the violations as long as they find and seal the leak by the end of the week. While searching the canals, Ember and Wade discover a hole in a dam that allows wave runoff from ships to flood the city's plumbing, so they close the hole with sandbags. The two spend time together in the city and learn more about each other. Meanwhile, Cinder suspects that Ember is seeing someone. The sandbags eventually fail, so Ember melts the sand into glass to form a sturdier seal. Ember visits Wade's family at a luxury apartment, where she uses her fire to fix a broken glass pitcher, impressing Wade's mother Brook, who recommends her for a glass-making internship. While playing "the Crying Game", Wade makes Ember cry by admitting he has feelings for her. Gale calls Wade and approves Ember's glass seal, thus saving the Fireplace from closure. Ember then realizes that she does not want to take over the store.
Bernie announces to Ember and Cinder his intention to retire and hand the Fireplace to Ember. The next evening, Wade takes Ember to Garden Central Station to see Vivisteria flowers, a species that can thrive in any environment, which she and Bernie were denied seeing in her childhood. With the station now flooded, Gale provides Ember with an air bubble for safety while Wade pushes her underwater through the station. Afterward, Ember and Wade realize that they are able to touch without harming each other and share a slow dance, but Ember remembers her duty to the Fireplace and her family's prejudice against water elements, and breaks up with Wade. While Ember is about to take over the Fireplace during a party, Wade appears and declares his love for her, while also accidentally revealing that she caused the broken pipe. Ember rejects Wade, though Cinder senses genuine love. Angry and disappointed, Bernie refuses to give Ember the store and calls off his retirement.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: John Hoberg, Brenda Hsueh, Kat Likkel
- Cinematography: Jean-Claude Kalache, David Juan Bianchi
- Edited by: Stephen Schaffer
- Music: Thomas Newman
- Production design: Don Shank
- Produced by: Denise Ream
Cast
- Leah Lewis as Ember (voice)
- Mamoudou Athie as Wade (voice)
- Ronnie del Carmen as Bernie (voice)
- Shila Ommi as Cinder (voice)
- Wendi McLendon-Covey as Gale (voice)
- Catherine O'Hara as Brook (voice)
- Mason Wertheimer as Clod (voice)
- Ronobir Lahiri as Harold (voice)
- Wilma Bonet as Flarrietta (voice)
- Joe Pera as Fern (voice)
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Pixar
- Budget: $200,000,000
- Box office: $496,444,308
- Themes: fire, earth, computer animation, duringcreditsstinger, elements, water, 3d animation, city, lighthearted, whimsical
More by Peter Sohn
On this film
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