★★★☆☆

Pixar’s latest, dazzlingly rendered animation is a moving, star-crossed love story directed by The Good Dinosaur’s Peter Sohn. Starting with the idea that elements don’t mix, it’s a story that riffs on racism and the immigrant experience, a simple but effective tale that will resonate far and wide.   

Events unfold in and around Element City, where imaginative manifestations of fire, earth, air and water live in their own separate communities. Fiery protagonist Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis from The Half Of It) is the daughter of Ronnie del Carmen’s set-in-his-ways immigrant Bernie, who reluctantly left his homeland following environmental devastation. Bernie now runs a convenience store in Fire Town which Ember is being trained to take over, with little thought for her own desires. 

Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion) lends his voice to Ember’s water-element love interest, Wade, a goofy city inspector who is sucked into the Lumens’ store during a water leak, leading to him writing Ember up for several building code violations. However, when the pair work together to prevent further flooding to the area, it results in romantic sparks. Wade is from an affluent and artistic family of flamboyant weepers, led by matriarch Brook (the inimitable Catherine O’Hara) who encourages Ember to explore her creative side, while Bernie’s resistance to Ember and Wade’s burgeoning romance proves a major obstacle.

The animation can be astonishing and is worth savouring on the big screen while the film combines its own elements enjoyably, boasting a textural diversity that sees flatter yet constantly fluctuating protagonists (who feel full of life as they flicker, splosh and bubble before our eyes) inhabit more rounded and realistic environs. A contrasting depiction of the earth and air characters (including Wendi McLendon-Covey’s puffed-up sports fan Gale and Joe Pera’s scruffy, overgrown bureaucrat Fern) adds further visual variety. Taken together, it really is a sight to behold. 

Playing the endearing couple at Elemental’s centre, Lewis and Athie are easy to root for, but the film might have benefitted from a few other interesting characters. And it does feel familiar, with the pressure one generation puts on the next, and the importance of ploughing your own path already well-explored across Pixar’s canon (most recently in Turning Red). Plus, there are shades of Disney’s Zootropolis here too, which shone due to a smarter, funnier script.  

If Elemental’s take on racial divisions is hardly subtle and it lacks the narrative ingenuity of, say, Inside Out, the sincerity of its sentiment results in some genuinely stirring scenes. Vintage Pixar this ain’t, but it’s still a valiant attempt at reaching across boundaries and touching young hearts and minds.

Elemental is in cinemas from Friday 7 July.