Pixar doesn't really do romance films, meaning a film that is strictly about two people falling in romantic love with one another. This is Pixar's 27th feature and the only other Pixar film that deals with a romance would probably be Wall-E (2008). There are romantic sequences or romantic characters in a lot of their other narratives. The opening sequence in Up (2009) is one example. Arguably, part of Toy Story 4 (2019) is devoted to the romance between Woody and Bo Peep, but that romance wasn't the main focus, so this film is a bit of a rarity for them in that the focus is heavy on the romance.
It involves anthropomorphized elements, that of earth, fire, water and air. This means that all the characters are made of one of those four. The main character is a young woman named Ember, voiced by Chinese-American, Leah Lewis (Nancy Drew and The Half of It). Ember is made entirely of fire. She's basically a walking flame. She meets and starts having a relationship with a young man named Wade, voiced by African American, Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion and Uncorked). Wade is essentially a walking blob of water. They're the ultimate example of star-crossed lovers. How can someone made of fire and someone made of water be together? How do they kiss? How do they even touch?
Ember has the ability to manipulate her body to make herself burn brighter and higher in temperature. When she walks through the city, she has to avoid touching others like earth-people who grow branches and leaves off their bodies. She does so because they're easily flammable and we in fact see her burn all the foliage off various earth-people. By getting close to others who aren't also made of fire, she can cause anywhere from first to third-degree burns. Because this is a cartoon, and it's all silly and magical, characters get burned and apparently feel no pain and don't really care. When earth-people are burned and don't care, it establishes that the logistics that should keep Ember and Wade apart don't matter.
Director Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) doesn't want us thinking about logistics any further than the superficial. This film is in large part about family. Sohn is the son of Korean immigrants and Ember's parents are also immigrants. Sohn has admitted his personal experiences with his parents and his wife who isn't Korean were inspirations here. As a metaphor, for being the child of immigrants and being in an interracial or inter-cultural relationship, this film feels authentic and representational. Yet, the writing here is such that the metaphor falls apart.
In terms of the writing, my first question is how old are Ember and Wade? Wade works as a city inspector. Ember is trying to take over her parents' store. Both seem like adults, probably in mid 20's or older. Yet, at times, they act like teenagers who at times behave as if they've never dated before. Ember not dating makes sense, given the discrimination fire-people face. I'm not clear what her childhood was like, in terms of her having friends or liking boys. Ember as a character never feels fully fleshed out. As such, I couldn't connect with her and thus buy her romance. Therefore, her relationship with Wade stands as just this metaphor that I can embrace intellectually but not emotionally.
The film goes beyond interracial or intercultural romance though. It's something else. It's almost inter-species. Yet, The Shape of Water (2017) proved that those kinds of logistical hurdles can be overcome. However, if Ember and Wade were to start a family and have children, what would they be? How would you have a fire-water hybrid baby? Again, this is a cartoon, silly and magical, so I suppose that those kinds of questions don't matter, but that doesn't help for the emotional pay-offs.
I'm not against interracial dating, but the underlying point is that people of different races or ethnicities aren't far apart in terms of their biology to warrant the concern and bigotry that people of minority races or ethnicities face. Yet here, Ember and Wade's biology literally are far apart. It's also intimated that their biologies are such that one could hurt the other or one could not exist in an immersed environment of the other.
In films like The Little Mermaid (1989) or even the aforementioned The Shape of Water, one person in the romance had to transform, so that they could exist and be immersed in the environment of the other. Often times, it's the girl or the woman who has to change or be the one to bend. It's perhaps refreshing that here neither have to change, especially not the girl, but then the question becomes how do they merge their lives? For example, how would the characters in The Little Mermaid have merged their lives if Ariel hadn't become human and if Prince Eric didn't become a mermaid? How would that have worked?
A lot of the animation here reminded me of Zootopia (2016), but that Disney flick doesn't focus on an unlikely romance or even an impossible one that's depicted here. Its writing is sharper and better in its handling of its characters and how they operate in its world.
Rated PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 49 mins.
In theaters.
