I'm going to start by say that I really liked this movie and it surprised me.
I don't know what I really expected from this movie. I guess a quirky love story between a fire elemental and a water elemental... and I got that. I also got some serious and meaningful commentary on immigration, inequality and racism - especially institutional racism (a world "not built for Fire People" ... where the basic infrastructure is water-based and thus dangerous to them). Add in a quirky interracial romance and the struggle of a child to assert their own identity in the face of well-meaning parental influences.
Mild Spoiler
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It's worth noting, many of the deeper problems of racism and inequality in the movie aren't solved or even directly challenged. They simply exist. The world doesn't get changed in the end. Individuals get changed but the world remains.
In the end, for its fantastical world, Elemental is a surprisingly grounded story... one of love, growing up and being who you are in a world that is both subtly and overtly hostile. The fantastical exists to allow us (by us, I mean middle-class, white Americans) to share in parts of the real world that we don't experience.
I highly recommend it.
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