Title – Elemental (2023) 

Director – Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) 

Cast – (voice of) Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Catherine O’Hara

Plot – In a city where the elements fire, water, land and air all live together, fire based Ember (Lewis) and the water based Wade (Athie) start up a friendship and quickly begin to realise they have much in common despite being complete opposites. 

“Nothing weird going on here! Just some pruning!”

Review by Eddie on 11/09/2023

Too be brutally honest, the once impeccable reputation Pixar held amongst the film fraternity has been steadily waning in the last decade, with every Inside Out or Coco surrounded by the likes of Luca, Cars 3, Onward or Monsters University, tarnishing an at one time almost perfect record for the studio that constantly delivered fresh, inventive and heartfelt animated movies that did the impossible and appeased the young as much as the old. 

At one stage a film that looked destined to become Pixar’s greatest box office misfire before enacting out an unpredicted rally that has seen it become one of the years most surprising financial survivors to the tune of over $450 million at the global box office, even managing to beat out critical darling and audience favourite Across the Spider-verse in the international stakes, Pixar’s latest original offering Elemental appears to on paper have all the elements of a classic Pixar tale at its disposal but with a lack of memorable characters, a rather dull story and a waste of a world that seems ripe to explore, Peter Sohn’s well intentioned offering is an instantly forgettable feature that fails to inspire much in the way of magic or emotions. 

Set in a colourful world that is wondrously animated and bought to life by Pixar’s behind the scenes workforce, making this one of Pixar’s most visually impressive outings in years, Elemental is set in a universe where all the key elements live together in not so cooperative harmony as the determined Ember (fire) and nervous Wade (water) find themselves connecting and showing themselves and others that sometimes opposites can attract and that we all should learn to live peacefully with one another. 

Inspired by Sohn’s own personal family experiences, the messaging at the core of Elemental is not at all subtle and is undoubtedly important for a variety of reasons but as well-meaning as the film is it doesn’t help cover up the fact Elemental’s characters, script, delivery and overall vibe is all found wanting making us constantly feel like it’s a film ready to break free of its shackles only to remain throughout visually appeasing but entirely dull and unremarkable. 

It would be wrong to expect every single Pixar film to be a new Toy Story, Finding Nemo or Up but with the brand name attached so comes the expectation of something a little more than the usual and Elemental is never able to find that magic and missing ingredient with it becoming an increasingly run of the mill affair that fails to ever feel like it’s a film that’s going to keep the youngsters entertained or the older viewers engaged on a deeper level, making it a missed opportunity for Pixar to once more gift us something special and memorable. 

Final Say – 

Another unfortunate miss for Pixar, Elemental may have delivered one of the great box office recoveries of 2023 but it’s unlikely that this curiously dull and lacking feature will be spoken of in the years too come, paling in comparison to its makers most accomplished products.   

2 pruning sessions out of 5