Elemental. Adapted by Cynthea Liu. Illustrated by Giuseppe Di
Maio. Golden Books. $5.99.
Exploring
Element City! By Suzanne Francis.
Illustrated by the Disney Storybook Art Team. Random House. $5.99.
The Disney/Pixar film Elemental
may not burn quite as brightly as its creators hoped – audiences have not
flooded movie theaters to see it – but that does not mean that books based on
the story must go up in smoke or wash away. The movie and the books derived
from it are based on the old notion of “four elements,” those being air, earth,
fire and water – a concept long ago discredited as science, but still useful
for exploring different, umm, elements of everyday life and different sorts of
personalities. At heart a mild-enough-for-kids love story, Elemental has an “opposites attract” plot that plays neatly with
some of the characteristics of two of the “four elements,” those being fire
(represented by the girl element Ember) and water (the boy element Wade). The
other elements have subsidiary roles in the story, but the
impossible-but-it-has-to-happen mixing of fire and water is the heart of the
tale.
For young children who have seen and enjoyed the movie, there are ways
to re-live and re-enjoy both the whole thing and, err, elements of it. The
Cynthea Liu adaptation, simply called Elemental
to reflect the film’s title, goes through the entire plot in 24 pages,
discussing the personalities and family lives of Ember and Wade, showing the
adventures they have together as they grow closer to each other, and noting the
way Wade’s observational skills combine with Ember’s abilities in sculpting
(turning sand into glass) to save all of Element City. That city-saving is not
the end of the story, though, and the book glides along through later
difficulties, notably Ember’s need to make a very tough choice between doing
what her family wants and expects, on the one hand, or following her own heart
and wishes, on the other. This being a love story, “heart” (which is sort of an
element of its own) eventually wins out, but not before Wade makes the ultimate
sacrifice that turns out not to be “ultimate” after all – and that points Ember
in the direction she really wants to go. A simple trek through a not-very-complex
plot, this tie-in book will help young fans of Elemental remember the parts of the movie they liked best while
revisiting what may be the film’s most interesting part: Element City, where
the “four elements” improbably congregate and even more improbably interact
(although not often and usually within carefully defined boundaries).
Young fans of the film who want to focus on and remember more about the setting where the story takes place will enjoy Exploring Element City! Suzanne Francis’ adaptation assumes readers know the film: plot points abound in the book but are never really explored or made to fit together, since the focus here is more on the environment than on the characters. Of course, there are characters here: Ember and Wade alternate in narrating the book, and the pages show various elements going about their everyday lives. But the scenery is the star of this particular show, from the Fireplace (Ember’s family’s shop), to the airball stadium, to the Garden District, where earth elements live. The fun of this book lies in the way it gives fans of the film a chance to look closely at scenes that, in the movie, go by quickly and with more of a character emphasis. Here kids can spend all the time they wish looking at Ember and Wade on the beach, visiting Mineral Lake in the city’s center (where minerals give Ember varying colors and Wade sprays up a rainbow), and looking at Ember and Wade gazing down at Element City from a hot-air balloon. Whatever the eventual financial and artistic success of Elemental may turn out to be, these books drawn from the film will revive pleasant memories of the movie for kids who have seen it and have decided that their enjoyment is element-ary.
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