Pixar Animation Studios announced their latest upcoming film last May. Titled Elemental, it takes place in a world populated by creatures attuned to one of four types: water, air, earth or fire. Today the studio released the first teaser, and revealed what that all looks like.
There are some good gags here. A water woman is putting on lipstick, but when the subway hits a bump, she not only smears it across her face but gets the stick stuck inside her face. A plant man is growing bald, but after a water man sneezes on him, his grass hair returns to him again. Someone else is carrying multiple pots, and we don’t see the reason until they instantly “hatch” into crying plant babies.
There’s some creativity here, but overall their designs look a LOT like the emotion people from Inside Out, or the spirit people from Soul. You can see why some social media squawkers are calling this movie derivative and evidence of Pixar growing stale, but the thing’s not even out yet. Who knows anything?
The film’s director, Peter Sohn, has been given a second chance to make a Pixar hit since his first effort, The Good Dinosaur, turned out the most dismal results of anything the studio’s produced. Helping him with this task is producer Denise Ream, who has one Pixar movie on her resume and it’s Cars 2. Uh, can we get a third person in here?
“My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx,” Sohn told the press. “We were among many families who ventured to a new land with hopes and dreams—all of us mixing into one big salad bowl of cultures, languages and beautiful little neighborhoods. That’s what led me to Elemental.”
Pixar’s Elemental will be released in theaters June 16, 2023.
