Brief Story Line
Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis - Nancy Drew TV series etc) was the daughter of Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) of fire element who had been living in Elemental city where there were other elements of water, wind and earth. Bernie opened up a convenience store and wanted to pass the store to Ember once she was ready. As time passed, Ember was looking forward to take over but there was always something that made Bernie decided not to.
Things became problematic when Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie - Jurassic World: Dominion, Underwater etc), of water element came into their life and made a real mess. Especially when it also threatened the livelihood of the store. As Ember interacted more with Wade, unexpectedly they became close to each other which would make things more complicated as water and fire could not mix and Bernie really dislike the water elements.
So what would happen to Ember and Wade? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, I already had a picture in my mind of what this movie would be, which is the seemingly impossible love story between two people who obviously could not be together. But the opening part of the movie immediately changed my views as it had something deeper about immigrant family struggling to fit in a new place. And this certainly made the movie did not feel light. However, as soon as Wade showed up, we instantly felt the story became lighter as he was such a warm and gentle character that made us easily liked him.
After that moment, the movie was focusing on how Ember and Wade slowly connected and grew close, which was fun to watch but probably not going to be appreciated by the young audience. Not to mention when the story became heavier once they faced the harsh reality. So even though the movie was classified for all ages, but I think its story was aimed more for adults or at least teenagers who would understand it better.
The animation was what you would expect from Pixar studio with great imagination and really bright & colorful (likely to keep the children on their seats). Its focus on the love story was interesting and even though we would have guessed what the ending would be, but the journey was worth the time. And there were plenty of emotional moments here that I am quite sure would touch even the strong hearted people. Both of us, and I think some audience were affected by some of those scenes, especially that very hard felt moment towards the end.
The voice actors I think did wonderful job in making this movie enjoyable. To my surprise I did not recognize the lead cast voice even though I had seen them several times in other films/series. Aside from the names I mentioned, there were additional support cast too such as Wendi McLendon-Covey (Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, What Men Want etc) as Wade's supervisor Gale, Catherine O'Hara (Home Alone, Schitt's Creek etc) as Wade's mother Brook, Mason Wertheimer as my wife's favorite character Clod and many others. The movie itself was directed by Peter Sohn (director of The Good Dinosaur and voice of Sox in Lightyear). Peter had vast experience in animation as he was part of Creative team of Pixar's films like Inside Out, Cars 3, Coco and many more. I read that the story was actually inspired by Peter's own experience when his parents move to USA from Korea and opened up convenience store.
Before the start of the movie, there was a short film titled Carl's Date which was in continuation of the beloved Up that focused on Carl (voiced by the late Ed Asner) and his dog Dug (Bob Peterson). It was such a beautiful story that would shed tears, especially for those who had known and adored his character. So better not be late to the theater in order to watch this one. Btw there was no mid or post end credit scene here. However the closing credits did have some funny 2D animations in the first few minutes.
Overall this film was indeed fun, interesting and romantic. The love story was engaging and not so simple as it was combined with adapting to new environment and self finding journey. The animation was wonderful as always and there were plenty of moments that were heart warming as well as heart breaking. It might not be the most appreciated and praised movie from Pixar but I think it still retained their qualities of making movies with deep story than just the normal kids friendly animation films. So if you are into this kind of attributes, I think you would like this one just like my wife and I did. But if your plan is to entertain your kids, especially if they are very young, you might need to prepare yourself if they are not that enthusiastic.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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