Cartoon film spoilers. To anyone who has seen the Pixar film Elemental, I was curious what your take is on the main male character who is love interest to the protagonist.

Wade intrigues me. He is extremely emotional. He comes from a family of criers who are closeknit and play games centered on making each other cry - not in a meanspirited way but in an emotion/catharsis way. This is embodied, of course, by literally being made of water. Wade cries all the time.

But there are two significant aspects of this: 1) he never seems to cry over himself or his own situation. He's probably crying about your problems. He's crying about the sad thing you just said, and wondering outloud what can be done to change it. He is absolutely empathetic in his crying.

The other aspect is 2) he actively solves problems. As he bawls out crocodile tears over the situation of you or another loved one, he is getting up and doing things that the other characters aren't willing to (or haven't thought of).

It's an interesting combination. Here's another aspect of it: he looks very frumpy and pathetic most of the time. But occasionally, because he's made of water, his body physically reshapes and becomes less frumpy. The female protagonist first notices an attraction to him when he is knocked out of his "normal" shape and appears more muscular than he generally is.

The film did make me think of communities like these, with discussions on masculinity and what traits are appealing. I could be biased, but I got the impression that Wade's constant crying was a slight turn-off for the protagonist (even on an allegory level because she is made of fire, so his crying is an actual hazard to her), but that it was overturned by his physical attractiveness to her as well a his effectiveness at helping solve her and other people's problems. And then, after his other attractive qualities were factored in, THEN his high level of overt emotion seemed to enhance the attraction he already had?

Of course cartoons are hyperbole, but I'm not sure I've seen that particular combination of overt emotion mixed with "getting the job done". I kind of doubt a real person can have the SHEER ENERGY for that combinaton of traits.

Did you guys and gals have any thoughts?

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Wade_Ripple