By: Andrew Wing

Elemental is a 2023 American computer-animated romantic comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) and produced by Denise Ream, it was written by Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh with Pete Docter serving as executive producer. The overall 27th feature film produced by the studio, the film features the voices of Leah Lewis (The Half of It), Mamoudou Athie (Underwater, Jurassic World Dominion), Ronnie del Carmen (Inside Out, Soul), Shila Ommi (Charlie Wilson’s War), Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar), and Catherine O'Hara (Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek).

Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows fire element Ember Lumen (Lewis) and water element Wade Ripple (Athie), who meet and fall in love after Wade is summoned by a plumbing accident at a convenience store owned by Ember's father, Bernie (Del Carmen).

Following the release of The Good Dinosaur (2015), Sohn began working on the project when the idea first started. He pitched the concept to Pixar to develop Elemental based on the idea of whether fire and water could ever connect or not. Elemental draws inspiration from Sohn's youth, growing up as the son of immigrants in New York City during the 1970s, highlighting the city's distinct cultural and ethnic diversity while the story is inspired by romantic films like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Moonstruck (1987), and Amélie (2001). For research, the production team spent many hours watching point-of-view city tours on YouTube like Venice and Amsterdam for inspiration. The animation tools were utilized to design the visual effects and appearance of each character, particularly Ember and Wade. Production on Elemental lasted for seven years, both in the studio and at the filmmakers' homes with the story being finished remotely. Thomas Newman composed and conducted the film's original score, marking his fourth collaboration with Pixar after Finding Nemo (2003), WALL-E (2008), and Finding Dory (2016).

Elemental debuted out of competition as the closing film at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 27, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 16 in RealD 3D, 4DX, and Dolby Cinema formats. The film has grossed $255 million to date against its $200 million budget.

THE GOOD

I will never not be excited about a Pixar movie. Sure, everyone will tell you they are in a slump, but I was one of the few people who liked both of the movies they put out last year in Turning Red (see my full review here) and Lightyear (see my full review here). Maybe those films didn’t hit the same levels of say a Toy Story, or one of my personal favorites, WALL-E, but they are still pretty damn reliable. And with Elemental, a movie that premiered at the damn Cannes Film Festival for crying out loud, I was pretty damn excited to check it out despite the early mixed reviews. So was this another win for Pixar, or were the Cannes critics who were negative towards the film right? Keep reading to find out!

It is with deep sadness that I say it was the latter. Trust me when I say I will get to the bad parts later, but for now, let’s talk about the good stuff. For starters, the animation is once again really good. That shouldn’t come as a surprise considering it is Pixar, but I just thought that the animation was pretty impressive considering what the movie was about and how all of the characters looked. More specifically, I found all of the water and glass stuff in the film to look pretty good as it contrasted nicely with the characters, and the world-building was solid too as it allowed the city to feel truly alive.

Aside from the animation, the next best thing was the music. There is an original song from the American singer Lauv, called “Steal the Show” which I really enjoyed, and as for the score which was done by Thomas Newman, who also scored Finding Nemo and WALL-E, it is just what you’d expect from Newman. Like the movie itself, the music felt very different from other Pixar entries, but I think it worked. Other than that, I, unfortunately, don’t have many more great things to say about Elemental, but I will say that despite the many problems I had with it that you are about to dive into, there are still a lot of cute parts that both kids and the adults will enjoy so there’s that.

THE BAD

Alright, time for me to be the bad guy that craps on a Pixar film, but there is just no other way to say it, I just did not like this movie. I watched the movie over two weeks ago and have been thinking about why I didn’t like it and the main thing is just the story. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know what it is, but the movie is about fire falling in love with water even though it’s basically forbidden. And I don’t know what else to say, but the story was just so underwhelming in my opinion. It was straightforward and redundant, and despite the fact that it was trying to be this romantic comedy, I still found the story to be uninteresting to put it bluntly.

Continuing with the rom-com point, the romance was bad, and the reason it was bad was that it didn’t work because the characters just weren’t likable if you ask me. Yes, they were these blobs, but Pixar has made me feel emotionally connected to a rat before, so I don’t want to hear it. The characters were just dull and I did not feel any sort of emotional connection to any of the characters. Other than just despising the character of Wade, I think it ultimately doesn’t work because the presentation of the story felt rushed. There are these two stories going on at the same time, and while I don’t want to give anything away, it felt like they only got to halfway for both stories, and even though I thought the ending was decent, it just felt lazy and it was not the Pixar we are accustomed to.

THE VERDICT

Thanks to an underwhelming story, Elemental is bottom-of-the-barrel Pixar if you ask me. Sure, there are some cute parts here, the animation is good, and Thomas Newman delivers once again, but at the end of the day, it really just felt like a throwaway lazy parody of another Pixar film, so needless to say, I was disappointed.

Lastly, and I have to say this, just be prepared for the bad short feature film, Carl’s Date, beforehand that just made me ask why Pixar continues to do that. Does anyone like those? Because I don’t!