Starring: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Disney/Pixar animated comedy adventure directed by Peter Sohn. Set in Element City, where fire, water, land, and air residents live together. Elemental (2023) follows Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy, challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.
Where to Watch:
Best Quotes
Bernie: Our Blue Flame hold all our traditions and give us strength to burn bright.
Bernie: [to Ember] This shop is dream of our family. Someday it’ll all be yours.
Ember: [to water customers] You splash it, you buy it.
Bernie: Nobody waters down Fire!
Sparkler Customer: The sparklers are buy one, get one free?
Ember: That’s right.
Sparkler Customer: Great! I’ll just take the free one.
Ember: Oh, no. See, you need to buy one to get one free.
Sparkler Customer: But I just want the free one.
Ember: Sorry, that’s not how this works.
Sparkler Customer: But the customer is always right.
Ember: Not in this case.
Bernie: [to Ember] Sometimes customer can be tough. Just take breath and make connection. When you can do that, and not lose temper, then you will be ready to take over shop.
Bernie: [to the customer] Oh, please forgive my daughter. She burn bright, but sometimes too bright. Eh?
Flarry: Bernie, that cough is terrible!
Flarrietta: Almost as terrible as your cooking!
Ember: We are more than ready for you to actually buy something, if you’d ever get up off your lazy ash.
'Embrace the light while it burns because it won't always last forever.' - Ember (Elemental) Share on X
Cinder: Just a loveless, sad future of sadness. Ember, work with me. Your finding match was my mother’s dying wish.
Clod: Anyway, June Bloom is coming, and you just got to be my date. Because check it out. I’m all grown up. And I smell good.
Clod: [plucks the flower from under his arm and offers it to Ember] Ow! My queen!
Ember: [takes the flower and it ignites] Sorry, buddy. Elements don’t mix.
Clod: Go to the festival with me. You never leave this part of town.
Ember: That’s because everything I need is right here. Plus, the city isn’t made with Fire people in mind. Sorry, but it’d take an act of God to get me across that bridge.
Clod: An act of God? Or an act of Clod?
Ember: Winner, winner, charcoal dinner!
Ember: Who are you? What are you doing here?
Wade: I don’t know. I was searching for a leak on the other side of the river and got sucked in. This is bad, I can’t lose another job. I just can’t seem to find my flow.
'I don't think a temper is so bad. Sometimes when I lose my temper, I think it's just me trying to tell me something I'm not ready to hear.' - Wade (Elemental) Share on X
Wade: The pipe squished me all out of shape.
Ember: I sucked a city inspector into our pipes?
Wade: I know. Ironic, right?
Wade: First, I’m sucked into a pipe, and now I have to write citations that could get this place shut down. Oh, gosh. It’s just too much.
Ember: This shop is my dad’s dream. If I’m the reason it gets shut down, it will kill him. He will never trust me to take over.
Wade: Why didn’t you say that before?
Ember: Wait. Does that mean you’ll tear up the tickets?
Wade: I mean, I would, but I just sent them over to the processing department.
Wade: Hey! Fern. How are you doing?
Fern: Living the dream.
Wade: You know those citations I just gave you from Fire Town?
Fern: I was about to them to Mrs. Cumulus, then get sprayed for fungus rot.
'There are a million reasons why this can't work. A million nos. But there's also one yes. We touched.' - Wade (Elemental) Share on X
Bernie: Water, always trying to water us down.
Ember: He was a Water person, Dad, not just water.
Wade: Oh, sorry! You’re so hot.
Ember: Excuse me?
Wade: No! I mean, like you’re smoking. No, I didn’t mean it like that.
Ember: Are you done yet?
Wade: Yes, please.
Vendor: Toot Toot juice. Get your Toot Toot juice.
Gale: Break some wind!
'You don't have forever to say what you need to say.' - Wade (Elemental) Share on X
Gale: This is the playoffs. So, forgive me if I don’t want to hear a sob story about the problems of some little shop!
Ember: Well, that little shop matters way more than a bunch of overpaid cloud puffs blowing some ball around.
Gale: I dare you, say “cloud puffs” one more time.
Ember: Cloud puffs.
Gale: [to Ember and Wade] You’re lucky you’re a cute couple.
Earth Pruner #1: [as they’re picking each other’s fruit] Nothing weird going on here.
Earth Pruner #2: Just a little pruning!
Wade: It must be nice knowing what you’re going to do. After my dad passed, I got all, “What’s the point?” Now I just go from one job to the next.
Ember: How do you do that?
Wade: Do what?
Ember: Draw people in? You got a whole stadium to connect with you. I can’t even connect with one customer. My stupid temper always kicks in.
Wade: I guess I just say what I feel. And I don’t think a temper is so bad. Sometimes when I lose my temper, I think it’s just me trying to tell me something I’m not ready to hear.
Ember: That’s ridiculous.
Wade: Maybe.
Wade: Any chance you’re free tomorrow? To hang out with a Water guy?
Ember: With a Water guy? My dad would boil you alive.
Bernie: It’s you again.
Wade: Who? Me?
Bernie: You’re the guy who started all this.
Ember: No, Dad. Different guy. Not all Water looks alike.
Wade: I’m a food inspector. I’ve come to inspect your food.
Bernie: I think he’s lying through his feet.
Ember: Teeth.
Wade: Whatever.
Ember: Food inspector?
Wade: I panicked.
Wade: [referring to the hot coals] Yep! All looks good to me.
Bernie: No, no, no, no. Inspect with your mouth.
Ember: [after Wade swallows the hot coal and yells] You see? He likes it!
Wade: [referring to the hot food] See? It’s really tasty if you water it down a little.
Bernie: Water us down? Water us down? Where’s camera? We will never be watered down by you. Get out!
Bernie: Water want to water us down? Then Water no longer allowed in shop. He is panned.
Ember: Banned.
Bernie: Banned!
Wade: Look, I know it can be tough. I mean, with my dad, we were like oil and water. I never got a chance to fix that. But you guys are different. It might be time to tell him.
Ember: Yeah, right. And tell him what? That I got us shut down and destroyed his dream?
Ember: You have no idea how hard they’ve worked. Or what they’ve had to endure. Family they left behind. How do you repay a sacrifice that big? It all feels like a burden. How can I say that? I’m a bad daughter.
Wade: Hey, no. You’re doing your best.
Ember: I’m a mess.
Wade: No. I think you’re even more beautiful.
Ember: [to Wade] Maybe you’re right when you said my temper is me trying to tell me something.
Ember: Are you crying?
Wade: Yes. I’ve just never been punched in the face with beauty before.