Disney and Pixar's new animated movie Elemental spoke to me in so many ways. Yes, the animation is spectacular, with intense and gorgeous colors, and the characters are, as in so many great Disney Pixar classics, truly unique and unforgettable. It's a movie that needs to be experienced on the big screen in order to take in the full spectrum of colors and the magic that is Pixar. But it was the underlying theme of immigration and sacrifice that made me feel seen.
Elemental tells the story of Ember and Wade, two literal opposites living in a world where different elements — fire, water, earth, and air — have learned to coexist. Ember is fire, in the true meaning of the word, fierce, independent, and focused on what she wants. And Wade is water, easy-going, fluid, and transparent. Together they form an unlikely friendship, even though the ongoing mantra in their world is that elements don't mix—and we see a few times throughout the movie that when they do, the results are … well, sort of disastrous. In Ember and Wade's case, however, their unlikely relationship challenges their views of themselves and of the world they live in.