I think this might be a word of mouth film. So, I’m here to tell you that Disney and Pixar are gonna “burn” up the box office with Elemental over the summer.

The written review is below (originally posted on Medium). However, if you’d like to watch the review, here’s my YouTube review of Elemental:

Elemental is a romantic action adventure that features some truly wonderful animation that brings the story and the characters to life.

Elemental is the star-crossed lovers story set in Element City where people made of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air live. It’s not quite Romeo & Juliet set on fire, but you get the picture. The story delves into family and societal issues about people from other cultures who are really different, like fundamentally different, and who are thought to not be able to mix safely.

But there are other storylines, too. We meet Ember of the fire people, who feels obligated to take over her father’s store, and Wade of the water people, who is just kind of drifting through life after his father’s death. They meet in a comical and spectacular way that sets off a chain of events that keeps bringing them together as they learn that they aren’t as different as they thought. (A nice lesson for us all.)

It’s a charming and sweet movie that is also exciting and beautiful to watch. It’s a movie that will cheer you up and remind you that the world is a big and complicated place, filled with lots of wonderful people who are different from you, but who are also basically good and want the same kinds of things in life as you.

I cannot tell you have beautiful the film is to watch. If you have ever watched a glass maker spin glass, pulling color and light out of red-hot fiery glass, you will have a sense of what it’s like to watch this film. It’s lovely and dazzling.

Props to the director Peter Sohn for pulling together such a great story and figuring out how to put it on the big screen in a way that it deserves. Also, kudos to Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie for breathing such brightness into the personalities of Ember and Wade. They did a fantastic job.

I think the one problem with Elemental is that it really isn’t clear if it’s a kids film or an adults film … and the truth is that it’s both. It’s a film for everyone. If you are looking for a movie for the kids and the family, this is it. If you’re looking for a film to see with friends, Elemental has got you covered. If you’re like me, and you go to films alone, this one works for that, too! It’s a good time.

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