5 Lessons from Elemental – A Story of Love and Identity

Lessons from Elemental written by the Ent. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.

Know Before You Watch

Movie: Elemental
Rating: PG
Genre: Childrens, Comedy, Romance
Length: 1 hr. 42 mins.
Age suggested: 6 and up
Release Date: June 16th, 2023
Warnings: Some mild intimacy (kissing and very innocent illusions to sex)

Elemental Summary

Ember’s family moved from Fire Land to Element City right before Ember was born. They created a store which grew very popular in their suburb which created a Fire-Friendly suburb. When Ember is grown, she is expected to take over the store, but she can’t seem to control her anger around customers. Her anger then leads to an incident that lands her in water that she leaves her having to fight for her dad’s shop. Along with all of this, she starts falling for a water person after being told explicitly that “Elements don’t mix”.

Elemental Review

Elemental at it’s heart has two main storylines: the ownership of Ember’s dad shop and the romance between Ember and Wade. Both of the stories are well told with some good emotional crescendos, crashes, and uprisings. For the romance, seeing Wade and Ember’s growth from awkward enemies, hesitant friends, to connected partners was a fun journey. By the end of the film, you are excited to see Ember and Wade overcome what they’ve been through and truly find happiness.

There are a few parts of the movie that felt that it could have been fleshed out a bit more. The main one is Wade’s backstory with his father. There is an implied loss there, but is never really dived into except in a few conversations. For how emotional Wade and his family is, I feel there was a lot to mine there that was missed.

For me personally, I was more interested in the relationship between Ember and her father, Bernie, regarding the ownership of Bernie’s shop (The Fireplace). From the beginning, it is assumed that Ember would take over as owner when she was ready, but when her anger issues leave them in hot water, she is left questioning what she really wants.

The aspect of this plot that I really thought was fun and original for a kid’s movie is the idea that our emotions are giving our body signals for a good reason. Wade tries to help Ember see this (and eventually does). This culmination comes in the emotional climax and Bernie’s quote was absolutely heartwarming.

Visually, this movie is VERY fun. The world of Element City has so many little jokes that are hard to catch upon first view. When the whole world is based simply on the four elements, there is a lot of fun interaction that was quite clever and intriguing.

Is Elemental Appropriate?

There really is not a lot of inappropriate material in Elemental. As mentioned above, there are two very mild references to sex, but they are so innocent and simply used as a fun joke on the universe in which they live.

My main concern for younger viewers is simply the plot and pacing of the movie. It is your typical love story with some fun and humorous moments, but it is a relatively slow movie that may fail to keep the attention for kids 6 and under.

Continue reading for our Lessons from Elemental

Lessons from Elemental

Our Body and Emotions May Have Deeper Meanings

Ember learns that her anger is not something to be overcome, but rather something to listen to. When she does pause and listen, she learns a lot about herself that directly affects her entire life.

The Past Doesn’t Have to Dictate the Future

There is a lot of history within the movie. Although a lot of it is not broken out, there is a strong undercurrent of prejudice (particularly toward the Fire People). This never comes to the forefront of the story, but there are a lot of moments where you can see the growth and acceptance of the culture as a whole.

Prejudices Can be Overcome

The only prejudice that is shown blatantly is that of Ember’s father, Bernie, and his attitudes toward the Water People. This lasts pretty much throughout the entire film, but by the end, he is happily interacting with elements of all kind.

Open Communication is More Healthy

As in 99% of all movies, so much would be resolved through better, open communication. That’s one thing that I appreciate about this movie is that Ember doesn’t even realize there were issues until Wade help her work them out. Even after she did, it was so hard for her to grasp herself that it was also difficult to discuss.

We Are Better Together

This is the overarching through-line of the film. In a world in which Ember was raised believing “Elements don’t mix”, she struggled to relate to anyone, much less anyone of a different element. Throughout the film, there a re a plethora of examples of how the elements can in fact come together to produce things they simply couldn’t do alone.

Favorite Elemental Quotes

There is a reason we left Fire Land.

My dad’s retiring and I’ll be taking over…someday.

With my dad, we were like oil and water. I never got a chance to fix that.

The only way to repay a sacrifice so big is to sacrifice your life too.

Why does anyone tell you what you can do with your life?

Getting to “do what you want” is a luxury.

You don’t have forever to say what you need to say.

The shop was never the dream. You were the dream.

Elemental Quotes

Elemental Discussion Questions

Themes to Discuss: Immigration, Purpose, Meaning of Life,

1. If you could be an elemental person, which element would you like to be? (Clouds, Fire, Earth, Water)
2. Why was Ember losing her temper while running the shop?
3. Which character was your favorite and why?
4. Why did Ember’s family move to Element City?
5. What did Ember learn from Wade throughout the film? What did Wade learn from Ember?

Thanks for reading our Lessons from Elemental. Before you go, check out these:

-The Elemental Junior Novelization or Golden Book

-Our other Disney Pixar reviews:
–Turning Red
–Luca
–Onward
–Soul
–Coco

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