Elemental

Since Pixar Animation Studios released their first feature film, "Toy Story" in 1995, they have achieved, what other film companies dream of, a plethora of money. They could do no wrong, they were creative and were purely entertaining. Well, with "Lightyear", their last film released last year which flopped due to their political agenda, now they have released "Elemental", which has only grossed in their first weekend 29.5 million, again due to their political agenda. Will this company, and others for that matter, ever learn?

This story is set in Element City, where fire, water, land and air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) challenges her beliefs about the world they live in. They, being fire and water, without the ability to entertain a relationship, strains to find a way this could happen. Meanwhile, Ember is striving to save her father, Bernie's (Ronnie Del Carmen) fire shop due to building inspection issues simply adds to her woes and makes it even more difficult to make her and Wade's relationship to work, especially since Bernie doesn't like Wade, him being water. 

Others to round out the cast are Shila Ommi as Cinder, Bernie's wife, Wendi McLendon Covey as Gale, Catherine O'Hara as Brook, Mason Wertheimer as Clod, Robobir Lahiri as Harold, Wilma Bonet as Flarrietta, Joe Pera as Fern, Matt Yang King as Alan and Clara Lin Ding as little kid Ember.

This was directed with wit and heart by Peter Sohn ("The Good Dinosaur" '15) plus shorts and a video. His pacing and staging of this film was amazing and flawless. It was colorful, photographed and animated with such perfection. Hey, it is Pixar. It was written by three writers who have virtually no feature film experience, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh, which is based on a story by Peter Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh. Considering  their lack of experience, film wise, they were still able to produce an amazing script. It was taught, concise and definitely showcased heart. I'm sure their vast amount of TV experience only helped in the creation of this film. As with "Lightyear", the only aspect I had an issue with was the fact that this is rated PG, is animated, so the audience are mostly children, I believe they should've kept the aspect of the two lesbian characters being girlfriends, left out. They were only in the film for a number of seconds, but since the two were not a part of the storyline, it definitely  wasn't necessary since they weren't part of the story at all, and since this idea didn't work for "Lightyear", what caused them to imagine that it would work in this film. Because these two characters had absolutely no connection with the story, this was obviously a political stunt. How much profit does Pixar or Disney have to lose before they get the hint. Leave your politics home and just entertain us. Period! 

Certainly, if you like Pixar films, you'll like this, just beware if you decide to bring the kids, because of these two specific characters. Otherwise, it was witty, fun while all representing heart. It's like Pixar is going back to what they do best, just leave out the non-binary characters it being geared toward children. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                             Rated: PG                                               107mins including a small 7min short "Carl's Day"