Elemental (2023)

‘Elemental’ is Pixar in technically inventive but emotionally less rich territory. ‘The Good Dinosaur’s Peter Sohn directs this latest entry from the Emeryville team, which has a couple of decent core messages but doesn’t feel as inventive from a narrative perspective.

In theaters on June 16th, ‘Elemental’ is the 27th feature film produced by the Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios, and while it has its charms, it comes across more as a technically accomplished animated effort than a truly satisfying all-round night at the movies. Pixar could really use a big theatrical hit. After Disney shoved the otherwise excellent ‘Soul’ and ‘Turning Red’ either entirely on to Disney+ or in the case of the latter, on limited cinematic release where it lost money despite positive reviews before going to streaming, the company’s much-vaunted return to big screens was last year’s ‘Lightyear’.