movie review - Elemental
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I watched this on a flight to Fukuoka today - the flight was barely long enough, and there were irritating pauses near the end, but I think I still pull off a review. So here goes!
This is an animated flick set in a world where the humanoids are elementals of water, earth, fire, and so on. Each lives in their own part of town, and each avoids the pitfalls of other areas. For instance, our heroine is a plucky fire girl, and she has to contend with not only plenty of water in the city but also a bumbling water inspector who is, naturally, a water elemental. Our girl is the child of immigrants who sacrificed everything to make a life in this new land, and who have been slaving in a store selling needful things to their community. Will the fire girl take her place in the store, or will she follow her talent for glassware? Can she and the water guy overcome the physical/societal barriers and .. make steam? Will the city fix its goddamn plumbing?
I liked this more than I expected to. The story was good, the characters were fun, the Greco-Iranian-Indian nature of the fire people's old-world culture was a nice touch.
Recommended. About as good as it gets on an airplane.