christian movie review of elemental

Elemental (Christian Movie Review)

Verdict: A charming, beautifully crafted tale containing enough classic elements to remind audiences why they fell in love with Pixar and a few of the problematic tendencies that have recently strained that relationship.

About The Movie

Do opposites attract? That question may be left to the relationship gurus to determine. More pressing to Pixar Studios is whether its cherished movie magic can attract family audiences back to theaters, which has proven to be difficult in recent years.

True to its name, Elemental possesses many of the familiar Pixar elements, for better or worse. There is beautiful animation, artful direction, an emotionally deep story, and the expected exploration of mature “adult” themes. There are also plenty of familiar tropes, such as an anthropomorphized world, and some scattered elements reminiscent of the more controversial recent films (LGBTQ representation and potentially questionable language).

Elemental is a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance. Ember (a fire element) and Wade (a water element) unexpectedly fall in love. The budding romance poses obvious problems, such as their inability to physically touch and the societal expectations that “elements don’t mix.” The movie isn’t slow, but it isn’t action packed either. The movie focuses almost exclusively on the romantic storyline, with the subplot about saving Ember’s family’s business from closing functioning mostly as an excuse to bring the characters together. There are touching moments aplenty, although my 8-year-old twins got a bit restless at times.

Tonally, the movie is fairly serious. It contains humor—some of it quite funny—but the movie lacks a classic goofy side-character to produce laughs. Rather than gags, the film leans into the emotional side of the story. There are some visually striking scenes and some chewy thematic material. There is no “villain.” The struggles are mostly internal, although influenced by the impact of larger cultural factors and prejudices. The story probes the experiences of an immigrant child and the difficulty of balancing personal dreams with family and societal expectations.

These themes are wholesome and redemptive, if occasionally heavy-handed (lectures about privilege come across a bit preachy in a film that otherwise leans more toward subtlety). If all this sounds like a lot for a child audience, it probably is. Even the romantic storyline, while not uncommon in animated films, is likely to resonate more with adults that pre-pubescent child viewers.

The pre-movie short film is a charming story featuring Carl and Doug from UP , and it serves as a reminder of the soaring heights Pixar once traveled. Elemental is not on par with those earlier classics, but it is a return to form after a string of uninspiring duds. The inclusion of some questionable or suggestive material may be enough to keep some Christian audiences away, but there is plenty of redemptive value to appreciate. Overall, Elemental is a charming, beautifully crafted, and skillfully told tale with enough classic elements to remind audiences why they fell in love with Pixar and several problematic elements that affirm why the relationship has become strained.

For Consideration

Language: No overt swears, but there are several substitutes. One flame character tells another to “Get off your lazy ash.” Characters also use words like “flame” as in-world profanities. There is one use of “dang.”

Violence: None. Several water characters get “boiled” by going too close to fire characters, but no lasting harm is done.

Sexuality: The story is a romance, with a strong emphasis on the feelings developing between the two main characters. There is also some LGBTQ representation. Some instances are clear (to parents, if not to younger children), while others are more ambiguous due to the characters’ non-human appearances. There is a scene in which two tree-like Earth elements are spotted picking apples off each other. They become bashful and awkwardly claim they are “just pruning,” which seems to be a clear sexual innuendo. Later, another character jokingly asks if there will be “pruning” on their date. Ember’s parents declare that their new life situation will allow them more time for “hanky panky.” A water element tells a fire element that she is “hot” and “smoking,” using the words literally, but they are received as unwanted flirtation.

Other: Spirituality plays a role throughout. One character alludes to “an act of God,” implying that there is some form of supernatural belief in the fantastical world. The fire people pray to a blue flame that serves as their spiritual connection. Ember’s mother is also a sort of “love psychic,” who does mystical “readings” to discover if couples are truly in love (the couple lights incense sticks, which allows her to “smell” love or not). These scenes are not necessarily depicted in an overtly spiritual or pagan sense, although they are clearly inspired by real-world psychic readings.

Engage The Film

Individualism & family ties.

Elementals strikes an interesting balance between modern individualism and traditional family ties. On the one hand, the movie champions individualism. Ember has dreams but feels pressured to conform to her family’s expectations. Wade encourages her to essentially “follow her heart” rather than her family’s wishes (and in the context of the story, he’s right). On the other hand, Ember’s struggle is evidence of her deep love for her family and her crippling fear of being a “bad daughter.” Unlike Turning Red , another recent Pixar film, in which the daughter aggressively flaunts her independence, Ember’s struggle comes across as far more mature. Some parents may feel uneasy about the theme of a child challenging her parents’ wishes (although, while Ember’s age is not stated, she appears to be a young adult rather than a child), but the film handles the theme in a way that both empowers the child and respects the parent.

Immigration and Racism

Prejudice and racism seemingly exist in all universes. Although set in a fantastical world, the movie clearly channels real-life experiences. Elemental is an immigration tale, with Ember’s family immigrating to Elemental City. Once there, the fire elements are largely consigned to Firetown and treated with disrespect from other elements.

The relationship between Ember and Wade begins as a necessary partnership but slowly morphs into something romantic as the characters from two different worlds come to see the beauty in each other, even as others—particularly Ember’s father—are blinded by stereotypes and unable to accept it. The movie does a good job of tracing Ember’s parents’ journey, sympathizing with their mistreatment and understandable resentment without endorsing it. Wade’s family is in many ways the typical “privileged class,” yet they are also depicted as fundamentally good characters. For the most part, the film handles the themes delicately and allows the characters’ experiences to speak for themselves, although it does occasionally become preachy. Even so, I was able to have a positive conversation with my children on the way home from the theater about immigration and the challenges some people face.

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Hanky Panky hahahaha

Positive Elements

The names of the characters in this film are clever and creative. Ember Lumen is the main character, and she is made entirely of fire, as are her loving mother and father and all their friends, who are frequent customers at her father’s store.

Like Ember, Wade Ripple is also aptly named. He is composed completely of water, and so are his kind and compassionate mother and father and large extended family.

Both main characters come from loving homes with moms and dads who want what’s best for them. They both care about their families and want to please their parents.

When issues arise for Ember, Wade helps out as best he can, even to the extent of potentially allowing harm to come to himself. He is very self-sacrificing. It’s very important to him to help Ember realize her full potential, which is awesome to see. Wade really cares about the growth of Ember as a person and seeing her achieve her hopes and dreams in life.

Ember’s anger problem is addressed by her father, and he does not agree to let her take over his store until she learns how to control her outburts. It’s good to show children that it’s okay to be angry, but that we need to learn to control our anger and express it in healthy ways. Ecclesiastes 7:9 says,

“Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.”

James 1:19-20 declares,

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

Learning to control one’s anger is important, and this film highlights that, which is commendable.

Of course the movie leaves out something very important, which is that in order to be self-controlled, one must walk by the Spirit . “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh .” It is when we are not staying in step with the Holy Spirit that we are prone to let our “flesh” or sin nature reign. However, “Elemental” does show that angry outburts are not okay, and that there are consequences for not having self-control.

Although lying and deception are a part of the storyline, apologies are given, and the film does show that the actions of the characters do have consequences. Parents will need to discuss these plot points with their children and use discretion.

Expectations of parents is another prominent issue that comes up in the movie. Ember believes that her father’s dream in life is to see her take over his shop, and in time she realizes that she might have other talents that she wants to explore instead. Ember’s relationship with her father grows and evolves as she learns to respect and appreciate his sacrifices for her, while also acknowledging her own newly found abilities and aspirations.

Negative Elements

The phrase “lazy ash” is used once, and parents will understand the euphemism. Older kids may pick up on it as well. When something goes wrong and Ember gets upset, she yells “Flame!” as she leaves the shop, using it as a curse word. Ember mentions trying to fix a problem before her father notices.

Ember makes the decision to deceive her father and go against his wishes by spending time with Wade, even though she knows her father wouldn’t approve. The comment is made that, “He doesn’t have to know.” This hearkens back to other children in Disney movies who chose to lie and deceive their parents.

In “ The Little Mermaid ,” Ariel is forbidden from going to the shipwreck to learn any more about the human world. Her father tells her in no uncertain terms of his displeasure with her curiosity regarding the two-legged creatures above the ocean’s surface. Nevertheless, she rebels, bringing severe consequences upon herself and her family as a result.

In “The Lion King,” Simba’s father Mufasa tells him never to go to the shadowy area of the land, where there’s no light . But Simba ignores his father’s wisdom , much to the peril of Mufasa.

Rebellion is also portrayed in the 2015 film “ Inside Out .” When the main character, Riley, is heartbroken over her family’s move from the midwest to San Francisco, she gets on a bus and runs away from home.

The aforementioned Disney films showcase just a few examples of deception and rebellion of children towards their parents. This obviously isn’t anything new coming from Disney.

However, even when reading the Bible we can find examples of children deceiving their parents. Jacob deceived his father into thinking he was his brother Esau so that he could steal his father’s blessing ( Genesis 27 ). Of course, the Bible also tells children to honor and obey their parents.

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” — Colossians 3:20

The Bible does include true accounts of the actions of real humans, and these people did not always make righteous choices. So too, characters in films and books may not always act as they should, but if there are consequences to their actions, then hopefully that imparts an important lesson onto the viewer (for example, lying can get you in trouble with your parents, ruin your relationship with them, cause other negative events to transpire, and so on).

Wade asks the question, “Why does anyone get to tell you what you get to do in your life?” The rhetorical answer is that no one should be able to. According to society and culture, you should do as you please. But we know that children are commanded in the Bible to obey their parents. Ephesians 6:1 says,

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord , for this is right .”

Even as adults, we answer to a higher authority than ourselves. Yes, we are to obey the laws of the land, but even more than that, we should obey God and do His will. From a biblical standpoint, someone does get to tell us what to do, even as adults. As Christians, we believe in following in Jesus’ footsteps and doing the Lord’s will as He did. Jesus’ prayed for His Father’s will do be done. Jesus said in John 6:38,

“For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.”

He also taught His disciples to pray ,

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come . Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” — Matthew 6:9-10 ( more information )

We need to pray for God’s will and do what pleases Him because He is Holy , He is the Creator and Savior , and He is worthy of our obedience. We can also trust that He knows what’s best for us and has a better plan for our lives than we have for ourselves. Jeremiah 29:11 states,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Spiritual Aspects

A character mentions praying to fire . The family seeks to protect the blue flame that they pray to. Two characters are shown bowing down to each other to show respect and reverence. In another scene, a character mentions that it will take “an act of God” to be able to do something. Ember’s mother mentions something about doing a “reading” on her daughter and Wade, suggesting that she has some sort of fortune-telling abilities . Ember’s mother “reads” the smoke that emanates from wooden sticks lit by couples, and this is a sort of fortune telling process to see if their love will last. She tells Ember that she can “smell love” on her daughter.

Sexual Innuendos

In one scene, the two main characters go on a hot air balloon ride of sorts. As they float up in the night sky, two other characters, who are land people (apple trees) can be seen picking apples off of each other through an open window. When they are spotted, they laugh and giggle and say that nothing is going on “just a little pruning”. Later, this phrase is referred back to in order to ask if there will “be any pruning” allowed on a date. This will likely go over kids’ heads, but also didn’t need to be included.

At one point, Ember misunderstands a comment made to her. She is told, “You’re so hot,” and clearly thinks it is meant to speak of her attractiveness, rather than the fact that she’s literally made of fire. A follow-up comment of “You’re smokin” is made afterwards. Again, these grown-up “jokes” will likely go over many kids’ heads, but are nevertheless something to be mindful of. The two main characters do hold hands and dance together as a test to see whether anything negative will happen, because of the warning that was continually touted, “Fire and Water don’t mix.” The two are seen kissing towards the end of the film.

Wade has a younger sibling, Lake, who is briefly introduced to Ember amongst many other family members. Lake goes by “they/them” pronouns, but the introduction is so subtle that adult viewers may not even notice, much less children. I didn’t even notice it myself, but read about it in an article after viewing the film. This is the first time a “non-binary” character has been introduced in a Disney/Pixar film.

Gay characters sit side-by-side as they are introduced to Ember, but once again, it is very subtle and the characters are composed of water, so it’s not very apparent what their gender is supposed to be. It’s so subtle that adults may not even realize what the scene is portraying, so children will likely not notice either. I also read about it online and did not catch it during the actual scene in the film, because of how large Wade’s family is and the fact that the gay characters don’t speak any lines of dialog or take up more than a couple of minutes (or less) of screen time. That particular scene is more focused on Ember and her burgeoning talents and abilities, and not so much on the orientation of any family members who are present. In fact, more attention seemed to be placed on Wade’s nephews, Marco and Polo, who were swimming around happily, and were also very creatively named.

Other Considerations

Ember’s mother and father are immigrants, and outcasts in a society where the fire people don’t fit in with everyone else and aren’t received as well as the other elements (air, water, and land) seem to be. In a flashback, we learn the reason why Ember’s father has so much hatred towards the water people. Themes of prejudice, anger towards other people groups, and assimilation into culture are explored. Being prejudiced against others is portrayed as a negative thing.

There are a couple of scenes where characters are in peril for a brief period of time, but it is not portrayed in a very frightening manner. In that sense, the movie is suitable for kids, as the action scenes are very mild.

I took my four young children to see “Elemental.” We all greatly enjoyed the film. While it wasn’t as visually stunning as the classic movies Disney/Pixar has brought us in the past, such as “ Toy Story ,” “ Finding Nemo ,” and “ Cars ,” “Elemental” had a good storyline, intriguing characters, some meaningful life lessons, and a fun, upbeat song that had us dancing in our seats in the movie theater. It had a few tearjerker moments and was more of a heartwarming film than a laugh-out-loud comedy, although there were a couple of funny parts. It would have been nice to see more scenes with the other elements in this imaginary world, such as air and land. Although they are briefly touched upon, the main focus is on the two elements of fire and water.

Parents will need to be aware that this movie has a romantic aspect to it, and is rated PG, so guidance will be needed. Children may need certain phrases or scenes discussed or explained to them later, and it may open up dialog about certain themes such as why lying and deception are wrong , why one must learn to control one’s anger , racism/prejudice , etc. Older or very astute children may notice the references to identifying oneself as gay, non-binary, etc., so parents will need to be cautious. Parents may also need to explain that any sort of fortune-telling is wrong, and that as Christians we only pray to God, not flames or any other substance that is merely part of the creation, and not the Creator Himself. Overall, I would recommend “Elemental” as a movie that parents can watch with their children, with the awareness that it may bring up some points for discussion and instruction.

Wokeism: Mild
Violence: Minor
Profane language: Minor—also “dang” and one “ holy dewdrop.”
Vulgar/Crude language: Minor—also “What the …?”
Drugs/Alcohol: Minor
Occult: Minor
Nudity: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

Non-viewer comments

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

Imagine all the people living in peace

Fire, Water, Earth, and Air live together in harmony. We hear messages of opposites attracting. But we are to marry someone with a similar background! We hear conflicting messages all the time about who we should marry, and what type of relationships work best. In this Pixar Elemental Christian Movie Review & Parent Guide, we explore these topics and give you the information you need to make informed viewing decisions with your children.

Imagine Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner meets Zootopia, and you have Element City. However, there may be content that concerns you as a parent, and I will detail that for you. You went searching for Elemental Christian Reviews, and you will find the information you need below.

Disney Pixar Elemental Social Media Post

Pixar Elemental Christian Review

Synopsis from studio:.

Set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together, Elemental introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.

My Synopsis:

Sometimes, we have our lives all planned out for ourselves, and then things happen to thwart those plans. We meet someone, stumble onto a different path, or shock ourselves with the things that light us up.

Ember Lumen is a 20-something, first-generation fire woman. Her immigrant parents came to Element City before she was born, but they have held onto the blue flame that they brought with them and the other traditions handed down.

Ember is all set to take over her father’s convenience store until she meets Wade Ripple. That meeting sets a path in motion that Ember couldn’t ever imagine. Will Ember take over the family business, or will love change the course of her life?

Ember, a fire women, and Wade a water man standing with plants in front of them.

Pixar Elemental Review: What Parents Want to Know

In this parent’s guide, I give you the information you need before making viewing decisions with your children. Be aware that this is a romance, and this makes Elemental Pixar’s first rom-com. Therefore, most of the content surrounds the budding relationship between Fire and Water.

While there is no foul language, there are some sayings and phrases to be aware of – you know what they are implying with the phrases.

Lazy ash is said, as well as “fluffin leak.”

Dang is uttered.

There is minimal violence. Ember loses her temper often and explodes causing havoc. There are several scenes where things explode or break. There is a flood that destroys everything in its path.

The phrase act of god is said twice.

There is a smoke-reading matchmaker. The ritual that is done will tell the couple if the person they are with is their true love. The matchmaker says she can “smell true love.”

A reference is made about praying to the blue flame. The blue flame was brought to Elemental City from their homeland by Ember’s parents. The blue flame is protected at all costs.

Sexual Content:

Some sexual innuendos or phrases were cringy.

There is a scene where two apple trees were picking apples off each other. The one tree says, “Nothing weird here. Just a little pruning.” But the scene was intended to be weird.

One character says, “I just didn’t know she would be so smoky.” Another says, “You’re so hot,” and “You’re smoking.”

When Ember is leaving, her dad says, “We will have more time for hanky panky.”

The main couple has a “steamy” scene where they touch. The implications as fire woman touches water guy, making it boil, giving off sexual energy. My older son just said it felt creepy.

During the end credits, there are clips of couples at a ball game with a Kiss Cam. They kiss, and the phrase Too Hot flashes.

LGBTQ+ content: There is an extremely brief encounter over family dinner with a lesbian couple – one character introduces his sister and her girlfriend. While it appears they are a same-sex couple, the person who plays the sister has said she is non-binary.

Positive Elements:

Ember wants to respect and honor her parents. She wants their approval, and this is why she lies to them.

Ember and Wade work several times to try to save Bernie’s shop.

Overall, the graphics and imagery are beautiful. The way water and fire move throughout the movie is spectacular. Additionally, the background scenes in Element City are very pretty, with great colors.

Disney Pixar Elemental Christian Movie Review Ember and Wade - Fire and Water

Teachable Moments & Homeschool-Worthy Content:

The blessing: In this movie, Bernie’s dad refused to give his blessing. In the Jewish or Christian faith, a father giving a blessing to a child is a big deal. To have your father speak God’s word over you acknowledges the gift of the blessing. Praying and speaking life over your children is fantastic for you and them.

The Ancient Greeks believed there were four elements . These Elements of Matter were Earth, Water, Air & Fire.

Later, Aristotle added a fifth element, aether.

Talk about how we now know the states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

Start to go over the different elements in the periodic table. Talk to your children about how “science” has expanded and changed to fit what we learn, but how the Bible is unchanging.

Discuss the fire elements people and water elements people. What is anthropomorphism? According to Wikipedia, anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Why do movies use inanimate objects as human characters? What other movies have main characters that have human qualities? Examples: the toys in Toy Story, the sea life in Finding Nemo, or the dinosaurs in The Good Dinosaur.

For older children, compare the star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet with Ember and Wade. How are these characters similar and how are they different?

Finally, talk about racial issues with your children at home. Why is there a racial divide , and why is it worse in some areas?

Pixar Elemental Movie Christian Review: Viewing Recommendations

While many are calling this movie a rom-com, it is not a comedy in any sense of the word. I don’t remember laughing at anything. In fact, I kept waiting for something funny to be said, and toward the end thought, “Who called this a comedy?” However, it definitely has moments of romance and is a love story.

Others have talked about the puns and sight gags, but I really didn’t see the humor in it.

Furthermore, on a scale of Finding Dory to Turning Red (both rated PG), Elemental sits right in the center as far as objectionable content and scariness factor.

The visuals are great, and this Pixar film really made the elements of fire and water come to life. However, overall the storyline is just so-so. I don’t see this movie being a blockbuster, but children will like it. My viewing recommendations are for ages six and up.

About the Movie:

Rating: PG Thematic Elements/Some Peril/Brief Language

Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Release Date: June 16, 2023

Genre: Kids & Family/Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Animation

Director: Peter Sohn

Producer: Denise Ream

Writer John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh

Soundtrack: Thomas Newman (cousin of Randy Newman)

Cast of Pixar Elemental:

Ember Lumen voiced by Leah Lewis

Wade Rippled voiced by Mamoudou Athie

Clod voiced by Mason Wertheimer

Gale Cumulus voiced by Wendi McLendon-Covey

Brook Ripple voiced by Catherine O’Hara

Alan Ripple voiced by Matthew Yang King

Cinder Lumen voiced by Shila Ommi

Fern Grouchwood voiced by Joe Pera

Bernie Lumen voiced by Ronnie del Carmen

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is there an end-credit scene or a mid-credit scene in pixar elemental.

While there is not an end-credit scene or mid-credit scene, there are images that are mixed in with the credits. Additionally, at the end of the credits, there are “in memory of” and photos of the director’s parents.

Is There a Non-Binary Character in Elemental?

When we watched the movie, our family was certain Wade said, “This is my sister and her girlfriend.” However, according to the actress who plays the sister, this is the non-binary character. Also, people are reporting that books introduce this character as non-binary.

When Can I Watch Elemental at home?

Elemental is available for digital download starting on August 15, 2023. Furthermore, the date for Blu-Ray and DVD is September 26, 2023.

Is Pixar Elemental streaming on Netflix, Disney+ or other streaming platforms?

Pixar Elemental was released into movie theaters on June 16, 2023. It was announced that it would begin streaming on September 13, 2023, on Disney Plus.

When will Pixar Elemental be streaming?

Disney Pixar Elemental will begin streaming September 13, 2023. This is 89 days after the theatrical release. It will be released to Disney+. Additionally, expect it to stream with additional fees on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube.

What is the overall message of this movie?

The message of Pixar Elemental involves racism and immigrants. The director, Peter Sohn, said the storyline is based on his relationship with his wife. He is Korean, and she is Italian-American. He kept the relationship from his parents because they expected him to marry a Korean woman.

Is there a short before Pixar Elemental?

Yes, the short is entitled Carl’s Date. It is based on Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner) from Pixar Up and involves getting ready for a date.

Ed Asner passed away in 2021.

When was the last short before a Pixar movie?

The last short was shown before The Incredibles 2 in 2018 and it was entitled Bao. Bao is based on a boy and a dumpling.

The last short before a Pixar movie was before Onward in 2020, but it was not a Pixar short. It was based on the Simpsons and was entitled Playdate with Destiny.

Is Disney Pixar Elemental rated PG-13?

No. Elemental’s rating from the Motion Picture Association rating is PG.

How old is Ember in Elemental?

In the movie, they say Ember is twenty-something. However, she is said to be 22 in Elemental fandom. Furthermore, the actress that plays Ember is 26.

Are Wade and Ember dating?

Ember and Wade begin dating at the end of Elemental and are an official couple.

Who is Ember’s boyfriend in the movie Elemental?

Wade, who is a water element, is Ember’s boyfriend.

What is Wade Ripple’s job?

Wade is a city inspector. He enters the Fireplace shop through broken water pipes in the store’s basement, and then he reports the violations in the fireplace shop. Ember tries to get to City Hall to stop Wade from turning in the tickets, and they two end up teaming up together to try to save Ember’s family business.

What have critics and audiences thought of Pixar Elemental?

First, this movie received a lukewarm reception at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2023.

Next, it currently has a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 74% which is not bad, but it isn’t the score Pixar was hoping it would received. However, the audience score is 93%, but it does appear to have a low number of ratings from the audience. In fact, only Cars 2 and Cars 3 have a lower critic RT score. (Is this because people have given up on the Disney /Pixar animated film?)

Finally, the IMDb score is a 7.0.

Have you watched this romantic comedy yet? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

Disney Pixar Elemental Christian Movie Review. Movie release poster

Reviewing movies for parents from a Christian perspective since 2005. Know Before You Go!

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Schooling with disney’s pinocchio movie plus review, 13 thoughts on “pixar elemental christian movie review”.

I think I noticed a satanic star when the Mother was making the smoke reading ritual

While I did not notice it, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Thank you for the review! My son was invited by friends to go see it without me & I knew to check here first. We’ll watch it as a family instead, when it streams.

My last favorite Pixar movie was Coco. I feel like it’s been downhill since.

I think its impossible for evil to make a Christian movie! There are so many good and Christian movies out there and true stories that lift up character..why do we feel the need for the gray area especially for our children!!

I do think it is important to know about the culture that we are living in. There are also people who read my reviews who may not be Christian but want to know the content before taking their children.

I guess this is how the enemy slowly makes us lower our guard to accept worldly ideas. They now sneak things into children’s movies. There is no positive message in this film at all if it contains “hidden” sex, or immorality. I did not watch the whole movie, but I don’t think it’s a children’s movie at all. To bad parents are still tricked that just because it is Disney, it has to be good. Good is not the same as correct.

Did you pick up on the non-binary Lake character? Was it obvious? Or did Disney just sneak it in so they could say they did it? Thanks!

I did not pick up on that. I also had someone mention to me that there were a couple of bushes that they thought were same-sex couple, but the scene was brief. It was not in any production notes, but that is how Disney/Pixar has opted to do things. They allow the community to divulge content instead of it being released by the studio.

That’s what I read-that Disney didn’t announce it but the voice actor announced how proud she was to have been the first non-binary character. I wondered then if it was obvious within the film. I’m just so sad at what Disney has become. Thank you for all your reviews and insights.

The conservative social channels are really emphasizing the non-binary subject. That’s why I paused to read her review before allowing my son to see it without me.

I used to let Disney Jr play for background noise at home. He picked up on two moms in “Fire Buds” and recognizes LGBTQ content more than I realized.

Sadly, we no longer let Disney Jr play. I record only the shows I approve now 😩

I am reading Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why written in the 90s. In it he states that you can let your children watch Disney because they are known for family values. Sadly that is not the case anymore and it breaks my heart.

Thank you for your reviews! I really wanted to take my daughter because she was excited about it , but after your review I think I should watch it first on DVD. It is really frustrating how they always stick adult humor in kids movies- no need! And always slipping in the LGBT propaganda.

How old is your daughter? I know that much of the comments will go over the heads of little ones. However, I did feel it was over the top.

Movie Review: Elemental

Pixar’s latest tells the colorful story of two very different characters—one fire, one water—who fall in love but struggle to navigate their obvious differences. Redemptive themes mingle with some hot-button cultural concerns that parents will want to consider carefully.

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"Positive Themes Marred by Light Identity Politics and Brief Woke Content"

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Prejudice occurs between four different kinds of fantasy creatures but this is mostly gently rebuked, despite some indications of identity politics, and some tension develops between the father and daughter, but it’s resolved positively in the emotional ending.

More Detail:

ELEMENTAL is an animated fantasy from Pixar and Disney about a young adult female fire creature who becomes romantically involved with the young adult male water creature and city inspector who tries to help her stop the city from closing down her father’s shop. Set in a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, ELEMENTAL tells a fun, heartwarming story about family and overcoming prejudice, but the movie sometimes veers into identity politics and woke memes, including a same-sex couple that appears in one important scene, but there are five other couples who are heterosexual, with three of them being married.

Most of the story takes place in Element City where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, but not always peacefully. Years ago, a fire couple came to the city after their village was decimated by a storm. The immigration official couldn’t pronounce their names, so he named them Bernie and Cinder. Bernie started a business of fire candy, toys and doodads called The Fireplace. He hopes that, one day, he can retire and his daughter, Ember, can take over the business.

However, there’s a problem. Ember has a terrible temper. So, Bernie has postponed his retirement until she can control her temper. Sadly, though, running the business is beginning to take a toll on his health. So, when it comes time to have their annual Red Dot Sale, Bernie is too sick to run the shop, and he lets Ember take over for the day.

However, dealing with all the demanding customers becomes too tense for Ember. She runs down to the basement to vent her anger and causes a small explosion. The explosion bursts one of the water pipes. She tries to fix it by welding the hole with her fire, but pressure builds up and causes more pipes to burst. From one of the burst pipes comes a city building inspector, a conscientious water creature named Wade. He was following a mysterious leak in the city’s water transportation system when he was led to the store’s basement. When he looks around the basement, he notices all sorts of code violations. He also finds out that Ember’s father never got the necessary permits to fix up the building to start his store. Because of all these violations, the city will have to close down her father’s shop.

Ember desperately tries to convince Wade to tear up the tickets. However, he’s already sent them to his boss, a no-nonsense female bureaucrat. However, Ember appeals to Wade’s compassion, saying that closing down the shop will kill her father. Wade agrees to help her plead her case.

This leads to some unexpected consequences, not the least of which is that Wade and Ember are falling in love. Can they find a way to make that work, since Wade’s water can extinguish Ember’s fire and Ember’s hot flames can cause Wade to totally evaporate?

ELEMENTAL tells a funny, charming, ultimately heartwarming story. It displays Pixar’s usual knack for creating and building an amazing world with surprising, funny situations. The movie contains a main theme about overcoming prejudice. As such, it seems to learn toward a traditional Pro-American message that we live in a melting pot where diverse groups of people share a common culture with common values. ELEMENTAL also tells a strong father-daughter story at its core. It also has strong pro-capitalist leanings where the creatures build small businesses, including family-run businesses, and also use their talents to serve the community and specific people within the community. The movie also has a reference to acts of God and an emotional situation where a symbolic sacrifice, death and resurrection occur.

Sadly, these positive things are marred by some politically correct identity politics and a woke meme. Thus, ELEMENTAL not only argues for overcoming prejudice; it also argues for diversity among the four kinds of creatures that exist in the world. Also, when Ember visits Wade’s family for dinner, his parents are two heterosexual water people, his brother is married to a female water person, but his sister has a girlfriend. The two lesbian characters don’t do or say much, but they’re clearly a politically correct nod to tyrannical woke politics. In addition, at least one crowd scene during the movie shows one same-sex couple. Finally, Ember’s mother is a psychic who runs a personal fortune telling business that concentrates on using occult means to be a matchmaking service for people in Element City.

The woke, occult content in ELEMENTAL is gratuitous. It adds nothing to the story and will annoy many family moviegoers who don’t want their children exposed to such content. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Animation , Comedy

Content Caution

In Theaters

June 15, 2023
Leah Lewis as Ember Lumen; Mamoudou Athie as Wade Ripple; Ronnie Del Carmen as Bernie Lumen; Shila Ommi as Cinder Lumen; Wendi McLendon-Covey as Gale; Catherine O’Hara as Brook Ripple; Mason Wertheimer as Clod; Joe Pera as Fern; Matthew Yang King as Alan Ripple; Innocent Ekakitie as Marco and Polo Ripple

Home Release Date

August 15, 2023

Distributor

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Disney+

Movie Review

Element City: Families come here to build new lives, raise their children, fulfill their wildest dreams. It’s the one place where every element peacefully coexists in harmony.

Except fire, that is. And Ember Lumen is sick of it.

Ember’s parents were the first Fire people to migrate to Element City. Since then, they’ve helped establish an entire community, providing food, toys and wisdom through their shop, the Fireplace.

Bernie, Ember’s dad, wants to retire and give the shop to Ember. But he won’t do it until she can control her purple-hot temper.

Only, that’s really hard when there’s so much to be upset about. Element City wasn’t designed with Fire people in mind. So Ember can’t even leave Firetown without accidentally burning the leaves off Earth people or boiling Water people to the point of evaporation. And even in her own neighborhood, she has to carry around an umbrella to protect her from water spilling over from Element City’s transportation canals.

Still, Ember’s determined to prove she can keep her cool and run the shop.

But when Wade Ripple, a Water person who works for the city’s building code office, accidentally bursts through the Fireplace’s pipes, elements clash.

Wade immediately cites the Fireplace for a number of code violations—not that he wants to, mind you, it’s just his job. But after seeing Ember’s fiery passion, he agrees to help her save the Fireplace from being shut down by the city.

Pretty soon, Wade shows Ember all that Element City has to offer. And she realizes that despite prejudices held by even her own parents, there just might be a way for elements to mix.

Positive Elements

Ember is incredibly loyal to her family and her community. She’s grateful to her parents for leaving their home in order to build a better life for her in the city. And she considers it an honor to sacrifice her own desires for the needs of her family.

Unfortunately, this loyalty makes Ember feel guilty when she begins to fall for Wade. She’s been told her entire life that “elements don’t mix.” And she worries that if she pursues a future with Wade (or a future outside her family’s shop), it’ll break her father’s heart.

However, as the film progresses, Wade helps Ember to embrace the idea that she should be honest with her parents instead of suffering in silence. Ember’s parents came to Element City for her , not for the shop. And while they would love for her to stay with them and run the shop, what they really want is for Ember to be happy.

Wade and his family just might be the most sympathetic people ever. They constantly shed tears of sorrow and joy for the misfortunes and jubilations of others. They’re also incredibly kind, constantly helping others. (Wade uses his empathic abilities to rally an entire stadium of angry sports fans into cheering for a slumping player whose mother is sick.)

That said, Wade still struggles to understand why Ember feels guilty pursuing her own dreams. But when the time comes, Wade chooses to make a sacrifice of his own, proving that he does understand the value of what Ember’s parents have done for her.

At several critical points in the story, we see characters risk their lives to help others.

Apart from individual characters’ redemptive moments, the story clearly hopes to be a catalyst for a deeper examination of the intertwined subjects of racism and immigration. We see classic immigration tropes, such as an official at an Ellis Island-like receiving station who is unable to spell Bernie and Cinder’s real names, and who then unilaterally changes them. We also see Bernie and Cinder struggle to find housing, with folks slamming doors in their faces without even speaking to them.

Throughout the early part of the film, especially, we see how racial prejudice is at work against the Fire people. For instance, someone assumes Ember grew up speaking the Fire language and inadvertently insults her when he says how well she speaks the common tongue (not realizing she grew up speaking it just like him).

Those aren’t positive things, obviously. The racism that Ember and her family experience is a hard thing for them. But the film itself obviously strives to spotlight how poorly immigrants are sometimes treated and the prejudice they must overcome, which is a redemptive theme.

Spiritual Elements

Ember’s family protects a mystical Blue Flame that Bernie brought with them from Fireland, where he was born. He tells Ember that it holds “all their traditions” and helps them to “burn bright.” And their family often prays to it.

Cinder, Ember’s mom, acts as a sort of fortune teller for romance. She makes couples light wooden sticks and then “reads” the smoke to find out if they’re destined to be. She also appears to be able to smell love on a person.

Ember mentions an “act of God.”

Sexual Content

Wade’s sister (who is reported to identify as nonbinary) is gay and sits next to her girlfriend at a family dinner. There appear to be other same-sex couples in some scenes who dance and kiss, but it’s difficult to say for certain since these aren’t human characters and because their screen time is typically very brief.

Two Earth people (who look like apple trees) pick each other’s fruit. When someone spots them through an open window, they get embarrassed and say they’re just “pruning.” Later, a couple jokes about whether there will be any “pruning” on their date. A married couple talks about “hanky panky.”

Several couples smooch. Ember is irritated when a guy calls her “hot,” not realizing he meant her temperature, not her appearance.

As mentioned, Ember and Wade gradually kindle an unlikely romance and learn to navigate their “elemental” differences.

Violent Content

Several Water people are accidentally boiled by the heat of a Fire person. One Water guy actually evaporates (though he’s later able to recondense, reviving him). A few Earth people have their leaves burned off by fire, as well. Two Water boys try to make a Fire girl fall into water, asking if she’ll die if she does. (Though it doesn’t appear the boys would have succeeded, their father stops them and embarrassedly apologizes.)

Many Fire people are injured when water hits their various limbs. (Though a few chomps of a fire stick restore their flames.) The entire Fire community flees a flash flood, though it appears none are permanently harmed.

A storm causes significant damage to an island community. An elderly Fire woman passes away in a poof of smoke. People talk about a butterfly getting crushed by a windshield wiper. Ember causes substantial property damage in a few scenes when she literally explodes after losing her temper.

An Earth boy who grows flowers from his armpits often picks these blooms (to his own pain) to gift to girls. A boy hits his uncle with a bat. A man’s hand is accidentally slammed in a door.

Crude or Profane Language

None, but the words “ash” and “fluffing” are substituted for profanities in two scenes. Someone utters the incomplete phrase, “What the—?” We also hear a few uses of “dang” and one “holy dewdrop.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

None, but clips in the credits show Ember’s mom with a cocktail.

Other Negative Elements

As noted above, racism in the context of immigration is a big theme here, and we definitely see various characters treated poorly because of their race. Sometimes, they hurl element-based insults at each other.

And those prejudices go both directions, too. Bernie, for example, makes it very clear how much he hates Water people, even going as far as saying they all look alike (yet another racist trope). And when Ember’s grandmother dies, she makes Ember promise to marry a Fire person.

Some Water kids purposely ruin objects for sale in the Fireplace. A Fire customer repeatedly tries to exploit a “Buy one, get one free” sale. Ember loses her temper with multiple customers at the Fireplace. Characters lie. Sports fans insult players and the referee when a game doesn’t go their way. (And the team involved is called the Windbreakers, with their team slogan being “Toot, toot!”) A woman repeatedly tries to sneak past a security guard.

We hear that Bernie’s dad didn’t give Bernie his blessing when Bernie and Cinder went to Element City to build a new life. Wade says he clashed with his dad and never got the chance to make things right before his dad died.

Pixar has long been touted as a company that makes children’s films. However, recent years have shown a drift towards more grown-up themes and storylines. Elemental flows in that stream.

Ember is a Fire girl who always thought she’d grow up to run her family’s shop in Firetown. But after she meets Wade, she realizes she has other dreams and ambitions.

The couple has more than just familial expectations to overcome. “Elements don’t mix,” they’re told. And as a Water guy, Wade represents everything that Ember’s dad hates about Element City’s prejudice against Fire people.

But through empathy, determination, perseverance and love, the couple finds a way not only to save Ember’s family’s store, but to build a new Element City—one that nurtures healthy elemental relations and fosters a thriving community.

Those are terrific, redemptive messages that potentially give families a lot to discuss.

But as we’ve seen so regularly from Disney and Pixar the last few years, families also have visual and verbal references to same-sex couples to contend with as well. And while there’s no crude language, we do hear a couple of substitutions for harsher profanities and some innuendo as well.

These elements, plus the film’s romcom plot, might make Elemental too mature for younger viewers. But the themes we see here are still in line with what Pixar’s been doing for a while now, both in positive ways and in ways that may give some families pause.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Heartfelt, romantic fable about immigrant experience.

Elemental Movie Poster: Ember and Wade look at each other, against a black background

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Even though it's a fantasy, the movie serves as an

Focuses on importance of compassion, empathy, and

Ember is a loyal, loving daughter to devoted paren

Diverse voice cast includes Chinese American actor

Many explosive bursts of fire, especially when Emb

A married couple hold hands and embrace. Lots of r

"Dang," "what the...," and a couple of curse-word

Nothing on-screen, but plenty of off-screen mercha

Educational Value

Even though it's a fantasy, the movie serves as an allegory to teach viewers about the immigrant experience, discrimination, segregation, and cross-cultural relationships.

Positive Messages

Focuses on importance of compassion, empathy, and perseverance. Encourages honest communication between parents and children, as well as romantic partners. Following your dreams while remaining loyal to your family and honoring your parents is a major theme, as is idea that people should be sensitive to others' cultural/racial background, upbringing, and class. Explores the tension between privilege and duty.

Positive Role Models

Ember is a loyal, loving daughter to devoted parents who believe her dream is to take over the family business. She struggles with her temper, but she uses mindfulness techniques to control it (with mixed results). She isn't particularly open-minded at first but learns to appreciate the rest of the elements and how the Fire folks can learn to collaborate and coexist with them. Wade is sensitive, emotional, and kind. He and his family cry easily and are more open with one another. He comes from a position of privilege but is open-minded (and open-hearted). Ember's parents have sacrificed a lot for her, and they want her to have a successful, happy life.

Diverse Representations

Diverse voice cast includes Chinese American actor Leah Lewis; Mamoudou Athie, who's Black; Filipino actor Ronnie del Carmen; Iranian-born actor Shila Ommi. Both director Peter Sohn and writer Brenda Hsueh are Asian American. The elements (fire, water, earth, air) are essentially stand-ins for human racial/ethnic immigrant and refugee groups in a caste system (with fire, whose cultural markers seem meant to suggest those of Middle Eastern countries, seemingly the outcasts). Characters use unwelcoming phrases that have parallels with racist/classist statements -- e.g., "elements don't mix," "go back to Fireland," "Fire doesn't belong here," etc. Ember's parents are given new names by officials who can't pronounce their real names when they first arrive in Element City, and a water character says "you speak so well and clearly" to Ember, who clearly considers it a microaggression, since she grew up speaking the same language as the water family. (The water character looks embarrassed by his comment.) Wade has a queer relative whose girlfriend is introduced to Ember at a family dinner.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Many explosive bursts of fire, especially when Ember loses her temper. A couple of upsetting scenes show how a natural disaster involving water destroyed a lot of Fireland's homes and endangered its people. Rushing water/large waves also put characters in danger, nearly destroy the fire community in Element City, and seem to kill one character ( spoiler alert : they aren't dead!). In general, fire characters can cause damage to other elements if they get too close, and water characters can snuff out (usually temporarily, but occasionally for good) fire characters. A dying grandmother's wish is recalled (she seems to disintegrate into ash when her time is up). Yelling, arguments.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A married couple hold hands and embrace. Lots of romantic moments between main characters Ember and Wade. They spend a lot of time together; a few pivotal scenes of them trying to touch and then successfully touching, dancing, embracing. They kiss briefly. Two trees who are spotted plucking fruit from each other realize they've been caught and say it's "just a little pruning," which is repeated later in a jokey way. A few other couples are spotted on dates holding hands, hugging and even kissing (including in the end-credit sequence). A character says "you're so hot" and "you're smoking," but he means it literally, not in the suggestive way the fire character initially believes. A young tree character flirts with Ember and later another girl.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Dang," "what the...," and a couple of curse-word stand-ins, like "ash" ("lazy ash") and "fluffing," etc. Also "stupid," "crazy," "jerk," "dang," "oh gosh," "holy dewdrop," "God" (as an exclamation), "hanky panky," and element-based insults like "fireball" and "cloudpuffs." Language that makes it clear that other elements discriminate against fire people -- like "you don't have an accent," "go back to Fireland," and "you don't belong here."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Nothing on-screen, but plenty of off-screen merchandise tie-ins include apparel, toys, figurines, games, books, and household goods.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Pixar's Elemental is a beautifully animated fable about the immigrant experience. It's set in Element City, where fire, earth, water, and air people coexist, but fire people are mistreated and discriminated against. That makes it hard for fiery Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis ) to trust watery Wade ( Mamoudou Athie ), but as they work together to save her family's store, Ember starts to open her mind to the idea of cross-element friendship (and more!) while also teaching Wade about the injustices the fire folks have faced. There's more romance here than in non-princess Disney Pixar films, but Ember and Wade are young adults, not kids or teens. Characters hold hands, flirt, embrace, dance, touch, and kiss briefly. Language includes discriminatory comments said to fire folks (such as "go back to Fireland"), as well as insults like "stupid" and "jerk" and swearing stand-ins (e.g., "lazy ash"). Diversity and immigration are major themes of the story, as are prejudice; the importance of communication, empathy, and compassion; and the unique challenges faced by the children of immigrants and refugees. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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cartoon character made of fire wears a concerned expression on face

Community Reviews

Parents say (52)
Kids say (47)

Based on 52 parent reviews

Fun film that's not really for sub 13 y/os

What's the story.

ELEMENTAL is set in Element City, where water, earth, air, and fire people live together -- but the fire folks have been discriminated against and mostly live separately from the other elements, in their own community. The movie opens with a fire couple arriving at an Ellis Island-like processing center, where they're dubbed Cinder (voiced by Shila Ommi) and Bernie ( Ronnie del Carmen ) Lumen because the agent who helps them can't understand their actual names. They eventually have a baby girl named Ember and buy a rundown building that they fix up to be both their home and their livelihood: a thriving convenience store that becomes a neighborhood hub. Ember grows up knowing that she'll eventually run the shop, although she has trouble tamping down her temper with difficult customers. As a young adult, Ember ( Leah Lewis ) is on the cusp of proving that she's ready to manage the store, but one of her hotheaded outbursts causes Wade Ripple ( Mamoudou Athie ), an emotional water guy, to get pulled in through the pipes. Wade turns out to be a government inspector, who feels duty bound to file a pile of citations, which will close the shop if they go through. Determined to keep the crisis a secret from her aging parents, Ember teams up with Wade to find a way to save the store. During their time together, they encourage each other and start to wonder whether different elements can mix, despite what they've always been taught.

Is It Any Good?

Director Peter Sohn 's beautifully animated allegory is a simple but sweet story that brings the immigrant journey and the first-generation experience to vibrant life. While the film's plot isn't quite as robust as those of Disney Pixar's most famous adventures, Elemental does touchingly delve into the challenges and triumphs of being the child of refugees and growing up immersed in a culturally homogenous community. It shows both the comfort and strength of being around your own people and the fact that wider society can be prejudiced. Ember's dilemma -- whether to sacrifice her own feelings in order to honor her parents or to follow her own desires but risk hurting those who raised her -- is authentic, if oversimplified. The nuances are right: Ember wants to be a "good daughter," to fulfill her duty, to take up the mantle from her stressed and tired father. But as she explores Element City, gets to know Wade, and discovers her more artistic side (she's a talented glass blower), she must figure out whether her future contains more possibilities than she imagined.

Lewis and Athie are both well cast, embodying two opposing examples of young adulthood -- one focused on pleasing their parents by pursuing a specific goal and the other willing to flit from job to job until they find "their thing." The parents' voices -- including Wade's widowed mom, voiced by the inimitable Catherine O'Hara -- are also expressive and humorous. And the movie's dating aspects are tender, if a little obvious. Wade and Ember's opposites-attract chemistry is funny until it's clear that Ember really is concerned that her family will disown her if she dates a "water guy." Wade's family, by contrast, is immediately Team Ember, heartily welcoming her (albeit a bit awkwardly, thanks to the clueless old uncle who makes a mildly racist comment). The main characters' slow-burn (pun intended) relationship aside, Elemental has astonishingly gorgeous and detailed animation. The various element folks are vividly colorful, with visceral textures and fantastic (and fantastical) landscapes and movements. The glass-making scenes are especially memorable, and the water-based disasters devastating. While the littlest viewers may not pick up on all of the story's nuances, they'll still understand the importance of inclusion, family, and love.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what Elemental has to say about the immigrant experience. How does Ember's situation embody what life can be like for immigrants' children?

Some of the movie's scenes are sad or scary. Is it OK for a kids' movie to not be cheerful and silly all the time? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?

The characters learn and demonstrate character strengths like compassion , perseverance , and empathy . Why are these important?

Discuss the quality of the animation in the movie. How do the details of the elements stand out?

How are race and discrimination addressed in the movie? What parallels can you see to our real life?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 16, 2023
On DVD or streaming : September 26, 2023
Cast : Leah Lewis , Mamoudou Athie , Ronnie Del Carmen
Director : Peter Sohn
Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Female actors, Black actors, Female writers, Asian writers
Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Friendship
Character Strengths : Communication , Compassion , Empathy , Perseverance
Run time : 103 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : some peril, thematic elements and brief language
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : October 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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At its best, Pixar is unbeatable, making clever, charming, and brightly original films to touch the heart and spark the imagination. And so it’s been dispiriting to see the animation studio behind such emotive triumphs as “ Toy Story ,” “ Ratatouille ,” “ Up ,” and “ Inside Out ”—among the best films of their respective years, bar none—recently fall short of its past standard of excellence.

It’s not just that modern-day Pixar has focused on reprising its greatest hits with a parade of sequels (“ Toy Story 4 ,” “ Incredibles 2 ,” “ Lightyear ”), or that the studio’s slate of recent originals (“ Soul ,” “ Luca ,” “ Turning Red ”) have all, oddly enough, centered on characters transforming into animals (a revealing trope for its prevalence in films about feeling different, whose initially diverse protagonists invariably spend most of the runtime covered in fur or scales). Also absent lately at Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney since 2006, is the mastery of execution that had distinguished the studio, a brilliance for establishing high-concept premises and effortlessly navigating their particulars.

“Elemental,” Disney and Pixar’s latest, feels emblematic of the studio’s struggle to recapture its original magic, making a mess of its world-building in service of a conventional story that fails the talent of the animators involved. Set in a world where natural elements—earth, fire, water, air—coexist in a New York-style metropolis, each representing different social classes, the film—directed by Peter Sohn , from a screenplay by John Hoberh, Kat Likkel , and Brenda Hsueh —aims high with that central metaphor but is set immediately off-balance by its unwieldiness as racial allegory, an issue compounded by haphazard pacing and writing so flatly predictable it suggests a Pixar film authored by an AI algorithm. At times bordering on the nonsensical, the film feels under-developed rather than universal, a colorful missed opportunity.

Presented as the closing-night selection of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, ahead of its stateside release in mid-June, “Elemental” envisions a densely populated urban sprawl similar to that of Disney’s anthrozoomorphic “ Zootopia ,” in which ideas of racial discrimination were uneasily reduced to “predator and prey” dynamics to allow for a story that focused more on dismantling personal prejudices than systemic racism. In Element City, a similarly ill-advised simplification is at work (though Sohn has explained that his Korean heritage and desire to make a film about assimilation fueled some of the creative decisions), and there’s even a similar eyebrow to raise with regard to the legitimate danger that these contrasting elements, like foxes to rabbits, pose to one another.

In “Elemental,” socially privileged water people flow back and forth through slickly designed high-rises and have no issue splashing down the city’s grand canals and monorails, which were designed for their gelatinous-blob bods, whereas fire folk are sequestered to Firetown, where their tight-knit community reflects East Asian, Middle Eastern, and European traditions—and accents run the gamut from Italian to Jamaican, Iranian, and West Indian, in a way that uncomfortably positions fire as representative as all immigrants and water as representative of the white upper-class. Earth and air, meanwhile, barely register; we see earth people who sprout daisies from their dirt-brown armpits, and cotton candy-esque cloud puffs playing “airball” in Cyclone Stadium, but the film is surprisingly non-committal in imagining the chemistry of inner-city elements interacting. Background sight gags abound, such as the “hot logs” that fire folk chow down on, but the actual ins and outs of Element City are explored only superficially, such as the revelation that all these elements take advantage of the same public transit. Replete with computer-generated inhabitants and generic modernist structures, its milieu feels more like concept art, to be further detailed at some point in the animation process, than a fully thought-through, lived-in environment.

“Elemental” centers on hot-tempered Ember Lumen ( Leah Lewis , of “ The Half of It ”), a second-generation immigrant who works as an assistant in her father’s bodega shop. Fire people who emigrated from Fireland, from whence they brought spicy food and rigid cultural traditions of honor and lineage, Ember and her father Útrí dár ì Bùrdì ( Ronnie del Carmen )—though he and his wife Fâsh ì Síddèr ( Shila Ommi ) had their names Anglicized to Bernie and Cinder at the “Elemental” equivalent of Ellis Island—have a close relationship as he readies her to take over the family business. Ember, though, is questioning whether or not she truly wants to inherit the store, as her beloved “ashfa” says he expects, or whether her gifts—such as the ability to heat a hot-air balloon and mold glass with her hands—might lead her in another direction.

Unable to control her emotions, which can take her from red-hot into a more ominous purple shade, Ember one day ruptures a pipe in her father’s shop, at which point city inspector Wade ( Mamoudou Athie ) gushes in. Wade’s been investigating the city’s dilapidated canal system, searching for the source of a leak that keeps flooding Ember’s basement but imperils all of Firetown. Determined to keep her father’s business from going under, Ember pursues and then quickly joins forces with Wade. As romance sparks between the two, they make for a particularly odd couple given one of the film’s less-than-convincing rules: that “elements don’t mix,” for reasons both practical and parochial, in Element City. Ember might extinguish Wade, while he could douse her flame, but their inevitably steamy romance is moreso forbidden because her father would never approve, setting up “Elemental” as an interracial love story, the kind Pixar hasn’t yet told with human characters.

From there, the film works like a checklist of Pixar storytelling clichés, its two opposites at first getting on one another’s last nerve but gradually forming a close bond, before separating over what amounts to a basic misunderstanding, which is resolved in climactic fashion as the two rescue one another from a looming threat and rekindle their love. Still, as the plot’s frantically paced chain reaction of events keeps Ember and Wade together, their relationship becomes the film’s slight but endearing center, a welcome respite from the mixed metaphors and misshapen conceptual mechanics that often threaten to break the story’s inner reality. (Why, for example, is what will happen if Ember and Wade touch such a mystery to them both, in a city whose ceramic and terracotta glass structures point to other elements interacting?)

Lewis voices Ember with a playful warmth that nicely complements the bubbling affability that Athie brings to Wade, while the animation of both their bodies—hers flickering then suddenly ablaze with emotion, heat wafting upward; his fluid and transparent, prone to collapsing into a puddle on the ground—is always exciting to look at, emphasizing malleability and dabbling in abstraction.

But even the film’s promising use of color, form, and movement feels hemmed in by the unimaginative storytelling. Only a few standout sequences—a visit to an underwater garden of Vivisteria flowers, a detour into hand-drawn animation that tells a love story in minimal, swirling lines—separate “Elemental” from any other Pixar film in which the characters are phosphorescent little blobs traveling through realistically animated cityscapes, and as rapidly as the film progresses it never goes anywhere unexpected.

There’s similarly nothing in “Elemental” to recall the wondrous aesthetic imagination of modern Pixar classics like “ Finding Nemo ” and “ Wall-E ,” with the exception of a rich score by composer Thomas Newman that takes its cues from a potpourri of global musical traditions and presents a more fully formed vision of cross-cultural exchange than the film’s muddled depiction of immigrant communities. Perhaps fittingly for a film that would have more accurately been titled “When Fire Met Water…,” “Elemental” is combustible enough from minute to minute, but it evaporates from memory the second you leave the theater.

This review was filed from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. "Elemental" is now playing in theaters.

Isaac Feldberg

Isaac Feldberg is an entertainment journalist currently based in Chicago, who’s been writing professionally for nine years and hopes to stay at it for a few more.

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Film credits.

Elemental (2023)

Rated PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language.

102 minutes

Leah Lewis as Ember Lumen (voice)

Mamoudou Athie as Wade Ripple (voice)

Ronnie del Carmen as Bernie Lumen (voice)

Shila Ommi as Cinder Lumen (voice)

Wendi McLendon-Covey as Gale (voice)

Catherine O'Hara as Brook Ripple (voice)

Mason Wertheimer as Clod (voice)

Ronobir Lahiri as Harold (voice)

Wilma Bonet as Flarrietta (voice)

Joe Pera as Fern (voice)

Matthew Yang King as Alan / Lutz / Earth Pruner (voice)

Clara Lin Ding as Little Kid Ember (voice)

Reagan To as Big Kid Ember (voice)

Writer (story)

John Hoberg
Brenda Hsueh

Cinematographer

David Juan Bianchi
Jean-Claude Kalache
Stephen Schaffer
Thomas Newman

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Elemental (2023)

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Movie Review: ‘Elemental’

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Thanks to its rich blend of ethnicities, the United States has long been referred to as a melting pot. In the animated romantic comedy “Elemental” (Disney), director Peter Sohn substitutes for that metaphor a fable featuring embodiments of the four elements, using the dynamics of their imaginary world to explore the immigrant experience.

The film’s primary setting, Element City, is the New York of this milieu. Although ostensibly a meeting place for all, the metropolis is nonetheless divided into distinct neighborhoods in one of which, Firetown, dwells Ember Lumen (voice of Leah Lewis).

The 20-something daughter of migrants from far-off Fireland, Ember is not one to suffer fools gladly or indulge the sometimes annoying customers of her parents’ corner shop. In fact, Ember has a literally explosive temper that constantly gets her into trouble.

As a result, her loving dad Bernie (voice of Ronnie del Carmen) — who sees Ember as his heir — keeps delaying the day when he’ll retire and turn the operation over to her. But Bernie is ailing and Ember knows that continuing to work is not his best option.

Ember’s difficulties only increase when she falls for water youth Wade Ripple (voice of Mamoudou Athie). He’s not only an outsider to her world but a government inspector whose negative report on the family store could shut the establishment down — thus ruining Bernie’s dream of success.

Add to this personal dilemma a leak in the city’s plumbing system that threatens to flood Firetown and things reach a crisis point. As Ember and Wade try to establish a relationship while scrambling to avert disaster, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh’s script explores familiar Hollywood themes of tolerance and individual self-fulfillment.

With gender issues currently to the fore, it’s perhaps no accident that Ember is a thoroughly forceful character while Wade is pliant and anxious to please. In fact, their story is initially unengaging due to the fact that this is taken to extremes so that she registers as petulant while he – although rich in empathy for others – projects a lachrymose, wimpy demeanor.

As the movie progresses, it develops that all H2O types are much given to weeping and this becomes a running joke. The recurring gag is part of the overall spot-on humor that eventually rescues the proceedings and enhances viewer interest in this kindly intended, mostly family friendly production.

While the screenplay steers clear of anything really off-color, however, it does include material that could be confusing for impressionable youngsters. Thus Bernie and his clan maintain a sacred blue flame in a large brazier in their home and go to great lengths to prevent it from ever being extinguished.

We’re shown that Bernie transported the fire in a lantern while journeying to his new homeland. So teens and their elders may see it as a symbol of the need to preserve one’s cultural heritage rather than as anything specifically religious.

Still, it’s a motif requiring a certain level of maturity. Together with a few other moments that might jar on the nerves of those accompanied by small fry, it indicates that “Elemental” is appropriate for a wide but not universal audience.

The film contains nonscriptural beliefs and practices, characters in peril, fleeting mature word play and a very vague sexual reference. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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‘Elemental’: How Director Peter Sohn’s Experience on ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Informed His New Pixar Film

The long-awaited movie will premiere at Cannes later this month and open in June

“Elemental,” the new Pixar feature where the elements (earth, air, water and fire) are andromorphic characters living in a vast, technologically advanced city, is nearly here. It’ll premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month and you can buy your tickets now for the stateside debut on June 16. And for director Peter Sohn, it serves as the culmination of seven – yes, seven – years of hard work on his sophomore film and the culmination of a journey that began at the end of his first feature, “The Good Dinosaur.”

TheWrap spoke with Sohn and producer Denise Ream at Pixar Animation Studios about the unlikely origins of the film and why it took so long.

“So much of the time was figuring out the pipeline,” Sohn explained. “Because none of this had been done before. We were pulling people together for these experimental runs. There was a lot of happened in seven years for us.”

The lengthy production was actually something he knew he needed, from experience.

Sohn recalled making his short film “Partly Cloudy,” which was released in 2009 and attached theatrically to Pete Docter’s “Up.” At the time, making a character out of clouds was super difficult; the technical team asked if he wanted to push back the project a couple of years so they could noodle with the technology. Sohn refused. “But the film, in terms of the look, you can see the places where it suffers that choice,” Sohn admits now. This helped him inform his decision to push for a longer time on “Elemental.”

“I understood that moving down the deadline was going to be very helpful for us,” Sohn said.

Ream said that they maybe could have made the movie in five years, but even that would have been pushing it.

Time has never been on Sohn’s side. And “Elemental” feels like Sohn’s first true movie, especially after he was given “The Good Dinosaur” after the original director was removed and the storyline heavily reworked (for a while the movie had no director, with several filmmakers at Pixar contributing to the project). He had a truncated schedule and a movie that had to be reworked, almost from the ground up. And after that big crush the film was met with a decidedly muted response.

“I definitely remember feeling that the film wasn’t connecting, and how hard it was. I’m feeling very proud of the film that we have done in such a short amount of time,” Sohn said. “But I it did do one thing for me that was really interesting was it mirrored the journey, meaning the story making of itself, I didn’t see it at the time until after it was all done, did I see like holy cow that’s really parallel to what I went through – Arlo was thrown into this wilderness, that I was also thrown into this job that I had never done before.”

“I was really sad. I was heartbroken,” said Ream, who also produced “The Good Dinosaur.” “It represented the hard work so many people. It was really hard to do a whole movie in such a short amount of time. I felt really badly for our team and for Pixar.”

Sohn new that his next film had to be deeply personal. “I had only had heard stories, that there’s a danger that when you do something personal, you’re going to start to lock down and you won’t let it evolve,” Sohn said. “There are moments of the film where it was like that for me. I lost my dad early on in the development and I started getting really like tight about things. I didn’t know consciously what was going on. There was just processing,” Sohn said.

In fact, the beginnings of “Elemental” are actually connected to something from “The Good Dinosaur.” When “The Good Dinosaur” was opening, Sohn would talk about how he was from the Bronx. That led to an opportunity for Sohn to do a speech in the Bronx about what it was like growing up there. His parents came and got dressed up and when Sohn was standing in front of the crowd, he threw away the note cards he had (which were scribbled with notes). He says that, now, he doesn’t remember what he said but he was so moved to be there and to be able to thank his parents for all the things that he appreciated now that he didn’t appreciate as a kid.

When he got back to Pixar, after “The Good Dinosaur” underperformed and he had done this engagement, he told this story. And Pixar brass said (according to Sohn), “Pete that’s your next film. That’s the film you have to do.” Sohn said that was when the idea “began forming.” “It was from this hard experience that turned into something that has been very positive in different ways,” Sohn said.

The resulting film, which centers on an immigrant family of fire characters and their impetuous daughter Ember (Leah Lewis), who has to navigate a world that was, quite literally, not built for her, feels warm and relatable and imaginative. It’s the kind of movie that Sohn was always meant to make and one that he finally has. His father would have been very proud.

“Elemental” debuts in theaters June 16.

Peter Docter poses in the winners room at the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016 in London, England.

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Review: ‘Elemental’ is Bright, Bold, & One of Pixar’s Best

by Mike Bastoli
June 11, 2023 June 10, 2023

Pixar’s “Elemental” arrives on the big screen in less than a week, an original comedy built on the premise that no two people are too different to fall in love—not even if they happen to literally be fire and water.

Unconventional leads Ember and Wade, wonderfully voiced by Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie, embody the many differences that can break or make a romantic relationship.

Drawing on director Peter Sohn’s own experience as the child of Korean immigrants and marrying a non-Korean wife, the film’s imaginative lens goes far beyond a simple ‘elements don’t mix’ storyline.

There are a lot of ideas in the film, some of which will fly over kids’ heads, but this complexity is generally an asset rather than hindrance for the adults watching.

The result is a movie that immigrants, second generation folks, and couples will connect with and thoroughly enjoy.

Spontaneous audience reaction is a truer indicator of a film’s quality than any assessment afterwards. On this point, the screening my wife and I attended was punctuated by the right emotions—uproarious laughter, knowing chortles, pin-drop silence—at the right moments.

As absorbing as the story of “Elemental” is, so are the visuals, with character and set design bolder and brighter than anything Pixar has done before.

(After Sohn’s hyping of the stereoscopic 3D as Pixar’s most adventurous yet, though, Disney inexplicably screened the movie in 2D.)

Though not perfect—among other things, there are a couple of instances of poorly-paced dialogue—I would count “Elemental” among Pixar’s best.

It’s a far more remarkable and relatable movie than Sohn’s 2013 feature debut “The Good Dinosaur”, and more fun than last summer’s “Lightyear”.

“Elemental” is preceded by “Carl’s Date”, a new short starring Carl Fredricksen and Dug from “Up”.

About Pixar’s Elemental

“Elemental” is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where Fire-, Water-, Earth- and Air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in. Directed by Peter Sohn, produced by Denise Ream, p.g.a., and executive produced by Pete Docter, “Elemental” features a screenplay by John Hoberg & Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh with story by Sohn, Hoberg & Likkel and Hsueh. The film’s original score was composed and conducted by Thomas Newman.

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Movie review: Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ won’t set the world on fire, but it holds water

This image released by Disney/Pixar Studios shows Ember, voiced by Leah Lewis, in a scene from the animated film “Elemental.” (Disney/Pixar via AP)

This image released by Disney/Pixar Studios shows Clod, voiced by Mason Wertheimer, left, and Ember, voiced by Leah Lewis, in a scene from the animated film “Elemental.” (Disney/Pixar via AP)

This image released by Disney/Pixar Studios shows Ember, voiced by Leah Lewis, left, and Wade, voiced by Mamoudou Athie in a scene from the animated film “Elemental.” (Disney/Pixar via AP)

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Pixar’s “Elemental” conjures a diverse metropolis where the elements — fire, water, earth and air — live like ethnicities mostly ghettoized from one other. For fire and water, especially, mingling can be combustible. A bad splash could consume fire; a strong flame could evaporate water. This is the rare kids’ movie where subway rides are actually more fraught with danger than in the real world.

“Elemental” is the 27th Pixar feature and the second from longtime studio veteran Peter Sohn (“The Good Dinosaur”). But in many ways, it feels like a spiritual sequel to the Disney Animation release “Zootopia,” a likewise gleaming urban tower of anthropomorphized racial metaphors with occasional interactions with municipal bureaucracy.

In “Elemental,” Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) is the daughter of immigrants from Fireland: Ernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Omni), both of whom were handed English names while passing through an Ellis Island-like customs entry.

Like countless real-life immigrants before them, Ernie and Cinder have scraped together a thriving life and business, a bodega of literally hot foods that Ember is expected to inherit. Her temper is a problem. Ember, a red-haired flame capable of going “full purple,” can resemble Lewis Black’s Anger of “Inside Out.” But her more pressing issue is a basement leak out of which flows Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a water person and building inspector who immediately spots a few dozen code violations that would shut the place down.

This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Joanna Arnow, left, and Scott Cohen in a scene from "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed." (Magnolia Pictures via AP)

“Elemental” may not be anywhere near top-tier Pixar, but, with water and fire hazards everywhere, it’s certainly an insurance man’s dream.

So where does it slide into the Pixar canon? Probably in the lower half. But “Elemental” — sincere and clever, with a splash of dazzle — comes closer to rekindling some of the old Pixar magic than some recent entries.

Yet the marriage of elemental high concept with a classical immigrant tale never quite achieves alchemy. Aside from a beautiful elevated subway that splashes water below whenever a train glides through, Element City doesn’t come across a fully fleshed-out world. Despite basing the movie in the building blocks of life, there’s little feel for the natural world.

Opening on the heels of raging wildfires, “Elemental” manages to be a movie about fire and water without even a passing reference to today’s climate realities. Missed opportunities abound. Earth and air are relegated to bit players. Not a soul sings “The Eternal Flame.” Earth Wind and Fire go cameo-less.

But if the comic potential of “Elemental” goes untapped, its central story is more convincing and tenderly drawn. Ember, who travels the city with a stylish cloak to keep from igniting things in her path, is one of Pixar’s strongest protagonists. The sacrifice and burden of being a first-generation immigrant daughter is movingly rendered in her.

“Elemental’s” strongest scenes are with Ember and her father as they navigate a familiar crossroads. As responsible as Ember feels to her family, she’s pulled in another direction. Her real talent is glassmaking, which she can exquisitely do in a moment, with a few quick puffs. She’d be a runaway champ on “Blown Away.”

Ember, I think, would have been enough to build a movie around. But that’s not “Elemental,” my dear. Instead, Sohn’s film, scripted by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh, is too much given over to a “West Side Story”-esque romance between her and Wade as they rush around an Element City that, like “Chinatown,” has a water problem.

As they hurry to plug a mysterious leak, Wade is soon carrying a torch for Ember. The puns fly. “You’re so hot,” he says. “Excuse me?” she replies. “No,” he strutters. “Like smoking.”

It’s a seemingly impossible love story; they fear even touching each other. And they come from much different worlds. Wade, who sort of resembles a watery Colin Jost, lives with his family in a doorman building. But as a match for Ember, he’s a bit of a drip. He gushes tears at the mere mention of butterflies and speaks wide-eyed about “embracing the light.” “Elemental” begins to push against a here-to-unknown threshold: There may be only so far you can take a romance when your leading man is a translucent blob named Wade.

An extra word, though, on the short that precedes “Elemental.” “Carl’s Date” picks back up with Carl Fredricksen and the squirrel-chasing Doug. Here, Carl nervously prepares for his first date since the death of his beloved Ellie. Doug’s advice: “Bring a toy.” It’s both a fitting companion to “Elemental” (the boy from “Up,” Russell, was loosely inspired by Sohn) and poignant swan song for Ed Asner, who recorded his dialogue prior to his death in 2021.

“Elemental,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for Rated PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language. Running time: 103 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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‘Elemental’ Review: A Hothead and a Water-Boy Fall for One Another in Pixar’s Overcomplicated Rom-Com

Trying to bring the high-concept charm of 'Inside Out' to the world of incompatible natural elements, 'The Good Dinosaur' director Peter Sohn's opposites-attract movie is a bit of a misfire.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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I reckon there are more ideas per second of screentime in “ Elemental ” than any other Pixar movie to date. So why does this imagination-teasing opposites-attract rom-com feel like a misfire?

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Naturally, fear of either option poses a problem for lava girl Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) and her aquatic new acquaintance, Wade (Mamoudou Athie), who meet when a pipe bursts in the basement of her father’s shop. Conventional wisdom says they can’t be together, further complicated by the expectations of Ember’s immigrant parents, Ernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi), who expect their daughter to take over the family business. As Pixar premises go, this one might read, “What if Fire and Water had feelings … for one another?”

By far the most volatile of the elements, Fire — flickering hot-heads who incinerate practically everything they touch — stays sequestered in the ghetto, where these highly combustible characters can smolder safely. Water tends to prefer the posh high-rises, flowing wherever it pleases. Those characters tend to be more sensitive, crying jets of tears at the slightest provocation. We see less of Earth and Air, who have almost nothing to do. The former look like dung-beetle balls, with stone noses and greenery sprouting from all parts of their brown-dirt bodies. Air people are shaped like cotton-candy clouds and dissipate on contact — close cousins with fluffy gray Gus from Sohn’s 2009 short “Partly Cloudy.”

Best known to Pixar fans as the employee who inspired the Russell character in “Up,” Sohn has a very particular aesthetic, different from the studio’s other directors, that plays funny tricks with characters’ proportions — which is doubly weird when they’re made of fluid, flame or puffs of smoke. It’s often said that Pixar doesn’t have a house style, but there’s a signature touch, evident from the care put into individualizing every background character, that makes “Elemental” instantly recognizable as coming from the studio that made “Inside Out” (where human emotions were the heroes) and “Soul” (in which death was just the beginning).

The project follows in the same abstract conceptual vein as those two films — standouts not only in the Pixar oeuvre, but 21st-century animation overall — though “Elemental” lacks the intuitive story logic that made them such original toons. Maybe it’s because no one thinks of the world in terms of “elements” (any more than they do the body’s “four humors”), the outdated nature of which seems at odds with the cutting-edge city and its computer-generated inhabitants.

For the longest time, Pixar’s formula involved letting directors pick a part of the world that interested them — à la Mexico in “Coco” or France for “Ratatouille” — and then appropriating as much culture as they could into the finished product. That was back when only the original “brain trust” (all white men) got to make features. To balance that out, Pixar has been grooming new voices through its shorts program, encouraging artists of different backgrounds to explore their heritage (as in “Sanjay’s Super Team” and “Bao”).

That mentality extends to the latest wave of Pixar originals (one-offs like “Luca” and “Turning Red,” breaking up a slate thick with sequels), in which the studio wisely encourages those same directors to get personal. This movie is no exception, drawing from Sohn’s second-generation immigrant status. Much of what works about the film is informed by his experience, and that of other Pixar employees.

The element element, on the other hand, corresponds to practically nothing children know or recognize about the natural world. Instead of giving them a deeper understanding of Fire, Water, etc., the over-complicated premise creates all sorts of confusing new rules for kids to learn — rules which don’t really apply outside the film. “Elemental” is so elaborate and calls for so much exposition that the briskly paced movie is still trying to shoehorn essential backstory into the film’s final reel. Sohn should have made the plot simpler, not faster. There’s poetry and soul here, but both are watered down by how much the movie seems to be multitasking. With Pixar, sincerity is elemental. The rest risks distracting from what really matters.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (closer), May 25, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 103 MIN.

Production: (Animated) A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Pixar Animation Studios production. Producer: Denise Ream. Executive producer: Pete Docter.
Crew: Director: Peter Sohn. Screenplay: John Hobert & Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh; story: Peter Sohn, John Hobert & Kat Likkel, Brenda Hsueh. Camera: David Juan Bianchi, Jean-Claude Kalache. Editor: Stephen Schaffer. Music: Thomas Newman.
With: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera.

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‘Elemental’ Review: Sparks Fly

The latest movie from Disney/Pixar tucks a romantic comedy inside a high-concept premise. It’s smoldering and splashy.

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A man made of water and a woman made of fire sit in a movie theater together, with other patrons in the background.

By Amy Nicholson

“Elemental” is the latest Pixar premise to feel like someone laced the cafeteria’s kombucha keg with ayahuasca. Starting eight years ago with “Inside Out,” the animation company has transformed cartoons into a form of group therapy that encourages audiences to ruminate on inner peace, death (“Coco”) and resurrection (“Soul”). This story is simpler (elemental, even). It’s a girl-meets-boy cross-cultural romantic comedy — a good one that woos us to root for the big kiss. But the Pixar-brand psychotropic flourish comes from which cultures. Here, they are water, earth, air and fire — the four classical elements that the ancient philosopher Empedocles used to explain our world — all tenuously coexisting in Element City, a Manhattan analogue founded by the first droplet to ooze out of the primordial sea. The girl, Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis), is a leggy lick of flame; her crush, Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), is a drip. When she brushes near him, his body roils. Steamy.

This setup sounds strange and looks stranger. Yet, the four classical elements are one of civilization’s great unifiers, a cosmological theory shared by the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Mahabhuta, the Kongo cosmogram, the Indigenous medicine wheel and the zodiac. We’ve long interpreted life through water, earth, air and fire. Now, the trick is to see the life in them, once we squint past the visually overwhelming chaos of Element City, a smelting pot of puns and allusions.

You’d have to freeze-frame each scene to absorb all the sight gags: fire-mommies pushing fire-babies in BBQ grills, tree-couples tenderly harvesting each other’s apples, luxury tower aquariums with sunken swimming pools for a living room, whirlwind basketball games that hawk souvenir cloud-shaped pants. Even then, the yuks spillith over into the closing credits whose margins are cluttered with funny bits of illustrated flotsam like Lighterfinger candy bars and Sizzlemint gum.

The suspension of disbelief is so staggering that one flaw in the execution would cause the whole gimmick to collapse. I decided to trust the director, Peter Sohn, during the opening sequence. As Ember’s future parents, Bernie and Cinder (Ronnie del Carmen and Shila Ommi) disembark upon a bizarro Ellis Island, all-too-aware that they’re two of the earliest fireball émigrés, I clocked her father’s chain mail pants and relaxed. Metal knickers are the kind of minutia that tells you Sohn and the three screenwriters (John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh) have pored over every corner of their high concept, allowing us to make the mental switch from scanning the landscape suspiciously to marveling in the details.

The staggering design ambition balances out the plot’s affecting, relatable ordinariness, which kicks in a couple of decades after the Lumens settle in and open a store that ignites a thriving fire community. By the time Ember is an adult, the Firish (as in “Kiss Me, I’m…”) have erected blocks of residential kilns that resemble a modernized Cappadocia. Yet, there’s no forgetting that Element City was once a wets-only town. The Wetro light rail zipping overhead creates a splash zone of urban blight in its wake.

Ember expects to inherit the family shop. Then Wade bursts through the pipes. Smartly, the couple’s differences aren’t just tactile — they’re cultural. A child of immigration and sacrifice, she’s overworked, emotionally burdened, vulnerable to being snuffed and prone to explode. He’s a preppy, soft-bellied blue-blood comfortable wearing his emotions on (or rather, soaking through) his sleeves. Even his name — Wade Ripple — belongs inside a champagne bucket in Kennebunkport.

The film’s loveliest stretches watch the pair tentatively discover each other’s habitats. She’s enchanted by (and quietly resentful of) his confidence that he’s welcome anywhere. He finds purpose encouraging her to forge through a society inclined to see her as distracting (dark movie theaters are a no-go), off-putting (what’s with that flamin’ hot food!) and dangerous (look out when her temper ticks past its flashpoint).

Their romance doesn’t rush a beat. Oddly, it’s the most human rom-com in years. There’s no villain, no phony contrivances, and the mandatory breakup is well-buttressed by the script. The running time is strung together from dozens of perceptive moments and the occasional stunning set-piece. A near-wordless scuba dive (a callback to WALL-E and Eva’s space ballet?) plays like a swoony Bollywood interlude alongside Thomas Newman’s gentle, semi-acoustic score, which could double as a mood-setter at a meditation retreat. This is what animation should do: wow us with expressive, impossible wonders rather than reimagining Flounder from “The Little Mermaid” as a photorealistic fish.

“Elemental” seems like a stunt from a company running dry on ideas. Perhaps that’s partially true. Yet, it’s in the tradition of mankind’s long history looking to water, earth, air and fire to understand itself. Only, please, nobody tell Pixar that Aristotle added a fifth element, ether, which physicists interpret as dark matter or the void. My brain can’t handle a sequel.

Elemental Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review described incorrectly the humor in “Elemental.” It included jokes about breaking wind; those jokes weren’t completely absent from the film.

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Review: 'Elemental' is a Thematically Rich Inter-Element Love Story

by Manuel São Bento July 19, 2023

When it comes to animation, there is no studio more beloved than Pixar . The infamous stereotype that "animation is only meant for children" has been broken and disproved many times over the years, and much of this work is due to the studio's reputation for emotionally powerful stories with impactful messages for anyone of any generation. Lately, despite positive reviews from both critics & audiences, their new movies haven't been able to achieve the same overwhelming commercial & financial success. I don't understand this trend, as I've continued to enjoy their recent offerings immensely, including Pixar's latest: Elemental . This movie has already been playing in theaters for months in the US, but I'm glad I could finally catch up with it.

Elemental's director Peter Sohn is pretty much one of the top talents within Pixar already, being a creative voice with increasing importance within the animation studio since 1999. Despite countless contributions as a narrative artist, producer, and animator, the truth is that Elemental is only his second feature film as a director – his debut was The Good Dinosaur from 2015. It's been a while since I walked into a movie theater completely clueless about the film I was going to see. Total lack of knowledge about the type of story, cast, and even visuals, as I've only come across one or two stills from Elemental over these last few months.

Pixar's Elemental easily became one of the most surprising viewings of the year for me, precisely because of the circumstances that led me to see it. It's a movie with more heart than narrative creativity – a somewhat generic, predictable screenplay – where the variety of relevant themes and relatable characters is the biggest highlight. From the risks and sacrifices of emigrating to the depiction of different types of discrimination, without forgetting the barriers created by outdated family ideals as well as the importance of cultural traditions, screenwriters John Hoberg & Kat Likkel , along with Brenda Hsueh , leave no topic aside.

That said, the main story revolves around the rather straightforward question: can opposite elements like water and fire actually be together? Do opposites really attract to each other? Elemental constructs a clear parallel by focusing the narrative on an intimate interracial relationship by bringing together Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis ), a fire element, and Wade (voiced by Mamoudou Athie ), a water element, addressing all the natural complexities that arise from this entanglement. With so many different ideas to explore between the two of them, secondary topics end up getting superficial exploration, but still, the movie is still efficient and thought-provoking about the scenarios it examines.

On the other hand, the romance and Ember's journey of self-discovery couldn't have been handled better. Both characters of Ember and Wade share remarkably human personalities, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as completely different upbringings due to their families, who also couldn't live in more distinct ways. If Ember's family was forced to emigrate to improve their quality of life and struggled daily to build their own business and home, Wade was born with a golden spoon, has always lived in the city center, and all of his family members are highly successful.

If Ember and her parents are alienated by a city that was far from being open or accessible to fire elements, Wade has never had any problems adapting to a privileged environment. One would expect Wade's family to be more close-minded and not accept fire elements into their nucleus and community, but Elemental very cleverly plays with audience expectations and exchanges characteristics that would normally be associated with a certain group of people just because they come from a certain culture or way of life.

Elemental is, at its core, a love story, and the interactions between Ember and Wade are more captivating as the plot unfolds. The ease with which Ember gives in to her nerves and anger ends up leading her to find an overly dramatic Wade, who gets too emotional with everything that involves stronger feelings, generating not only a physical barrier due to their nature but also an emotional obstacle. The beautiful arcs that each character traverses feel extraordinarily lifelike and any viewer will be able to connect with both elements.

It's true that everything happens in a rather obvious manner, and the surprise factor with this story is nearly zero. That's why Pixar's Elemental is a perfect example of how much the audience's emotional connection to the story's protagonists is more impactful than any narrative limitation of the genre or even the plot itself. Personally, I was genuinely shocked by the fact that I had to fight back tears during the conclusion of the film, even though I anticipated everything that was going to occur anyway.

There are tons of details, both visual and narrative, that I can deeply relate to due to how the last few years of my life have unfolded, and when that's the case, flaws like formulaic scripts become less of a distraction. Furthermore, Elemental maintains the studio's tendency to be exceptionally educative by demonstrating how the different elements that make up our planet interact and react with each other. These details in particular are fascinating, and it's always impressive to see the phenomenal effort put in by Pixar's talent.

Elemental is quite similar to the real world in many ways, so the world-building in it isn't surprising for its imagination, rather for the ease in which they've made parallels and comparisons to our own world. Pixar's animation quality remains superb, and the cast's voice performances contribute to the aforementioned emotional connection with the characters – Leah Lewis (from How to Deter a Robber , "Station 19", "Nancy Drew") and Mamoudou Athie (from Patti Cake$ , The Circle , Uncorked , Jurassic World Dominion , "Archive 81") clearly stand out. There's not as much humor as I hoped for, but the few moments of comedy are highly effective, eliciting especially audible laughs from the audience, particularly featuring the water elements.

It is, without a doubt, a movie with much more heart than narrative impact. Elemental doesn't have that emotional punch that usually leaves the entire theater weeping by the end, nor does it contain sweeping, breathtaking messages to make viewers think about their own lives for days on end. But Sohn executes all of his ideas with clear, incredibly personal intent. And, in a world where any irrelevant nitpick is enough to trash a flick nowadays, it feels good to be able to enjoy a flawed film that carries so much heart.

Final Thoughts

Pixar's Elemental may be straightforward and predictable, but it's so thematically rich and features such emotionally relatable characters that, by the end, I found myself fighting back tears. It features a visually stunning inter-element love story mixed with a beautiful journey of self-discovery. The outstanding world-building is once again a highlight, as are the numerous exceptionally enlightening visual details about the interaction between the different elements. Emigration, discrimination, and family ideals are some of the many essential topics addressed. I don't understand the criticism surrounding the alleged "fall of Pixar" and this latest movie. I will continue to enjoy these stories, and I highly recommend that viewers try to do the same, without worrying about incessantly comparing to what came before.

Manuel's Rating: A- Follow Manuel on Twitter - @msbreviews / Or Letterboxd - @msbreviews

Find more posts: Pixar , Review

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Watch Elemental with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Elemental may not satisfy as fully as the greatest Pixar pictures, but it remains a solid story told with dazzling visual flair.

With a heartwarming message and stunning animation, Elemental proves Pixar hasn't lost its touch.

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Ember Lumen

Mamoudou Athie

Wade Ripple

Ronnie del Carmen

Bernie Lumen

Cinder Lumen

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40 Must-See Movies to Watch This Summer Season

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Who says this summer is light on blockbuster fare, despite the strikes holding productions and release dates up?

Big movies coming to theaters in the next hot few months include favorite IP getting a 2024 burnish, from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (May 10, Wes Ball) to “Alien: Romulus” (August 16, Fede Alvarez) and “Twisters” (July 19, and from one of our favorite indie directors, “Minari” filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung ). Oh, and a little movie called “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (May 24), which George Miller will first bring to the Cannes Film Festival before opening it in theaters later that month. Plus, poised to be a Netflix hit this summer is Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” (May 24 in theaters), playing for a couple of weeks in select cities before the crime comedy starring Glen Powell hits the streaming platform.

But those bigger-ticket titles aside, summer 2024 is a time for indies to shine, from Annie Baker’s long-awaited festival hit “Janet Planet” (June 14) to India Donaldson’s wonderful Sundance premiere “Good One” (August 9), two coming-of-age movies that skirt the usual formulas for such films. Plus, on the genre side, there’s plenty for horror fans to look forward to, from Ti West’s “MaXXXine” (July 5), the final installment in the trilogy preceded by “X” and “Pearl,” plus Oz Perkins’ mysterious “Longlegs” (July 12), the serial killer thriller for which Neon has been slow-dripping a creepy and tantalizing marketing strategy. Oh, and Yorgos Lanthimos is already back in theaters after the Oscar-winning “Poor Things” with his follow-up “Kinds of Kindness” (June 21), also starring Emma Stone and playing first at Cannes.

Rising filmmakers on the list include Sean Wang with Sundance audience winner “Didi” (July 26) and Ally Pankiw with “I Used to Be Funny” (June 7), sure to be a Gen Z hit thanks to comedy star Rachel Sennott leading the ensemble.

Below, IndieWire picks 40 movies we’re looking forward to this summer season. OK, we’re cheating a bit and actually kicking off our preview with May release dates (summer doesn’t technically start until June 20), but hey, we’re all already in summer mode anyway, so why not lean into it already?

Christian Blauvelt, Wilson Chapman, Bill Desowitz, Chris O’Falt, Erin Strecker, Samantha Bergeson, Brian Welk, and Christian Zilko contributed to this story.

‘The Idea of You’ (May 2, Amazon Prime Video)

THE IDEA OF YOU, from left: Nicholas Galitzine, Anne Hathaway, 2024. ph: Alisha Wetherill /© Amazon Prime /Courtesy Everett Collection

Based on the book by Robinne Lee, ‘The Idea of You’ centers on a mother of a teenager daughter, Selene (Anne Hathaway), who stumbles into a real-life fantasy when she meets and then begins to date the lead singer of a popular boy band (Nicholas Galiztine). The two’s chemistry is off the charts but can a real relationship thrive under the glare of the spotlight? The fanfic-y premise has plenty of depth here thanks to a script by Jennifer Westfeldt and Michael Showalter (who also directs). It’s an updated, gender-swapped version of ‘Notting Hill’ — and another signal that rom-coms have some life in them yet. —ES

‘Evil Does Not Exist’ (May 3, theaters)

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi retreated into a rural village outside of Tokyo to make ‘Evil Does Not Exist,’ his first film following the global success of ‘Drive My Car,’ which won the 2022 Best International Feature Oscar. The Japanese director found himself perhaps uncomfortably in the worldwide spotlight after being known for indies like ‘Asako I & II’ and ‘Happy Hour,’ and so ‘Evil Does Not Exist,’ winner of the 2023 Venice Silver Lion and FIPRESCI prizes, is a return to minimalist basics — an ecological parable wrapped up with unexpected thriller elements, and a movie he shot in secret.

‘Evil Does Not Exist’ follows the modest-living Takumi (Hitoshi Omika, previously an assistant director on Hamaguchi’s ‘Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy’) and his daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa), living off the land in Mizubiki Village, where its townspeople become aware of a corporation’s plan to build a glamping site on their grounds. Two of the company’s representatives arrive from Tokyo to hold a town meeting, playing out in a long take in which villagers air their grievances about the encroachment and its potential impact on their water supply. It’s the water that nourishes the area’s wild wasabi, and cooks the noodles at their beloved local udon restaurant. Meanwhile, the tourism company’s mixed intentions collide with an unsettling series of events that upend Takumi’s already precarious bucolic life. — RL

‘The Fall Guy’ (May 3, theaters)

THE FALL GUY, Ryan Gosling, 2024. ph: Eric Laciste / © Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

Finding the perfect alchemy between action, comedy, and romance is no easy feat, but ‘The Fall Guy’ has all three in spades. David Leitch’s film is a love letter to the art of being a stuntman, showing us how the sausage is made but doing so in a way that doesn’t skimp on spectacle and doubles as a clever commentary on Hollywood (no, they don’t give Oscars for stunts, the film at one point reminds us). While it’s a stretch to believe that Ryan Gosling might just be the faceless, anonymous body double for a less hot movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), he has impeccable chemistry with Emily Blunt and isn’t just doing Ken, either. Universal moved ‘The Fall Guy’ to the start of the summer after ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ vacated the slot, and Gosling and Blunt should turn this one into a hit. — BW

‘I Saw the TV Glow’ (May 3, theaters)

Following ‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ with another, richer, and even more explicitly trans meditation on the role that media can play in revealing people to themselves, Jane Schoenbrun’s astonishing new film manages to retain the seductive fear of their micro-budget debut and deepen its thrilling wounds of discovery even while examining them at a much larger scale. If ‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ was a 360p snapshot of dysphoria in motion, ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ — which stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as a pair of suburban teens who are convinced their favorite TV show is hiding urgent truths — is an intimate landscape shot with the ultra-vivid resolution of a recurring dream.

This Sundance standout marries the queer radicality of a Gregg Araki film with the lush intoxication of a Gregory Crewdson photo, and finds Schoenbrun holding on to every inch of their vision as they make the leap from outsider artist to A24-stamped auteur. Unlike the lo-fi creepypasta of Schoenbrun’s previous feature, ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ is a movie that knows it will be seen by a wide audience, and yet it’s only so powerful because it also knows how the things people watch can have the power to see them in return. Even the parts of themselves they might be hiding from. Even the parts of themselves they aren’t ready to name yet. The good news is that it’s coming out very soon. The bad news is that the summer movie season might just peak in the first weekend of May. —DE

‘Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story’ (May 3, Netflix)

UNFROSTED, (aka UNFROSTED: THE POP-TART STORY), from left: Melissa McCarthy, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, 2024. © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

So what’s the deal with Jerry Seinfeld making a movie about Pop-Tarts? Seinfeld has said ‘Unfrosted’ is inspired by what he has hoped is his definitive bit about Pop-Tarts. In Jerry’s words it’s a toaster treat the same shape as the box it comes in and with the same nutrition as the box it comes in, and it can’t go stale because it was never fresh. Breakfast is over. You lost, Mom. But while there really was a rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post to be first to market with their toaster pastry, ‘Unfrosted’ has about as much to do with being historically accurate as ‘Weird’ is actually about Al Yankovic’s life story. The Netflix film has a litany of guest stars, a song by Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor, and even Seinfeld trotting out his best ‘Newman line reading for a joke about xantham gum. — BW

‘Gasoline Rainbow’ (May 10, theaters; May 31, streaming on Mubi)

Bill and Turner Ross’ semi-scripted road trip movie, which follows a group of high school grads wandering through Oregon in the kind of pointless adventure that only youth can facilitate was one of the most unexpected delights of the 2023 fall festival season. The loosely structured movie, which features improvised dialogue over a real outline as the cast of first-time actors explores the coast before finding themselves walking 500 miles to Portland after their van breaks down, plays like a series of sketches about discovering the simple pleasures of adulthood for the first time. But despite its minimalistic story, ‘Gasoline Rainbow’ represents the kind of pure, undiluted cinematic expression that materializes too rarely to be missed. —CZ

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ (May 10, theaters)

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Noa (voice: Owen Teague), 2024. TM and copyright © Twentieth Century Fox. Film corp. All rights. Reserved. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Taking over for Matt Reeves, Andy Serkis, and the stellar trilogy of ‘Planet of the Apes’ reboots is no easy task. But ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ dives into the ape society years after Caesar came to power and made apes the Earth’s dominant species. The film is made to grapple with the same power dynamics and questions about who writes history as some of the ‘Apes’ films that have come before it. ‘The Maze Runner’ filmmaker Wes Ball is behind the camera for this one, and the early look at CinemaCon came loaded with a lot of energy and some impressive world-building. — BW

‘Babes’ (May 17, theaters)

BABES, from left: Michelle Buteau, Ilana Glazer, 2024. © Neon /Courtesy Everett Collection

Calling it ‘Bridesmaids’ for pregnancy doesn’t quite do ‘Babes’ justice. Minute for minute, Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz’s script has more raunchy, gross-out riffing and laughs than likely any film you’ll see this year. But Pamela Adlon’s film aims to elevate the material by framing it as a love story between two best friends. ‘Babes’ begins as a pregnant Dawn (Michelle Buteau) is sitting down for an enormous Thanksgiving feast at an upscale restaurant after her water has broken and then sees her best friend Eden (Glazer) get pregnant herself after a one-night stand (why it’s a one-night stand is its own surprise). It’s a film about Eden’s own journey into motherhood — mushroom trips included — while trying to maintain a friendship with someone increasingly consumed by her own family. — BW

‘Back to Black’ (May 17, theaters)

BACK TO BLACK, Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, 2024. ph: Dean Rogers / © Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

While it may seem like anything Amy Winehouse is hallowed ground never to be treaded by anyone other than the late Grammy winner, the iconic singer-songwriter has received her first narrative feature spin thanks to Sam Taylor-Johnson’s ‘Back to Black’ biopic. ‘Industry’ breakout star Marisa Abela sings, dances, and falls in love as Winehouse for the feature that captures Winehouse’s rise to fame and the creation of her titular 2006 album.

Director Taylor-Johnson reunites with ‘Nowhere Boy’ scribe Matt Greenhalgh to center on Winehouse’s tumultuous relationship with both the paparazzi and her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, played by Jack O’Connell. Eddie Marsan and Leslie Manville also star as Winehouse’s father and grandmother, respectively. Winehouse’s music was licensed for the feature, with Abela undergoing vocal lessons to croon onscreen. The actress also endured ‘Amy boot camp,’ which consisted of dieting and weight-training to shrink down to emulate Winehouse’s petite stature in part due to her eating disorder and drug addiction. Winehouse died at age 27 from alcohol poisoning. The funeral-esque title of ‘Back to Black’ echoes the real-life singer’s heartbreaking story, which is now adapted for better or worse to the big screen. — SB

‘In Our Day’ (May 17, theaters)

You’d be forgiven for not having seen every Hong Sangsoo movie. The South Korean director, known for films like ‘On the Beach at Night Alone,’ ‘Claire’s Camera,’ and ‘The Novelist’s Film’ has released 29 features, and often more than one in the same year. So was the case for 2023, which saw the festival circuit premieres of ‘In Water’ and ‘In Our Day.’ And as of writing, Hong already has another movie that premiered at the Berlinale, ‘A Traveller’s Needs.’

Here, Sangwon (Kim Minhee), an actress recently returned to South Korea, is temporarily staying with her friend, Jungsoo (Song Sunmi), and her cat, Us. Elsewhere in the city, the aging poet Hong Uiju (Ki Joobong) lives alone, his cat having recently passed away. On this ordinary day, each of them has a visitor: Sangwon is visited by her cousin, Jisoo (Park Miso) and Uiju, by a young actor, Jaewon (Ha Seongguk). Each of them wants to learn about a career in the arts. But they also have bigger questions. —RL

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ (May 24, theaters)

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA, (aka FURIOSA), Anya Taylor-Joy, 2024. © Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection

It’s been nine years since ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ premiered, instantly becoming one of the most acclaimed action movies of all time and spawning immediate demand for a Furiosa spinoff. With her shaved head, mechanical arm, and formidable demeanor, Charlize Theron created one of the great 21st century blockbuster characters.

Now, a prequel spinoff has finally happened. But director George Miller says that when he saw the CGI youthening effects in ‘The Irishman’ he knew the technology was not there yet… so he decided to recast Furiosa. A bold choice given how closely associated she was with Theron. But in stepped Anya Taylor-Joy, who read for the part by performing Peter Finch’s ‘mad as hell’ monologue from ‘Network’ for Miller over Zoom. This origin story will show how Furiosa went from an idyllic childhood in The Green Place, ruled by many mothers, one of the few oases in the post-apocalyptic ‘Mad Max’ universe Miller created, to becoming a ruthless imperator for warlord Immortan Joe — while subverting the hyper-macho dystopian order along the way. In her crosshairs? A villainous, prosthetic-nose-wearing Chris Hemsworth, who may finally get to fully flex his comic sensibilities while also portraying something new for the actor: Menace. —CB

‘Hit Man’ (May 24, theaters; June 7, Netflix)

HIT MAN, Glen Powell, 2023. © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell have been working together since the rising Hollywood leading man was just a kid — really! Powell was just 14 when Linklater first cast him in his ‘Fast Food Nation’ — but their partnership has only deepened in the years that followed. Powell caught plenty of attention in Linklater’s ‘spiritual sequel’ to his seminal ‘Dazed & Confused’ and charming hang-out joint ‘Everybody Wants Some!!,’ and he’s only going to get more eyeballs on him with the upcoming ‘Hit Man.’

Linklater and Powell co-wrote the fact-based comedy together, with Linklater directing Powell and breakout co-star Adria Arjona in this sexy, funny, and clever festival hit. After debuting at Venice, the film did quite the circuit: TIFF to NYFF to Sundance, delighting audiences at every stop. This summer, audiences will get to check it out both in a limited theatrical release (it’s very fun with a big group) and streaming at home. The feature follows Powell as everyman Gary Johnson, who moonlights with the New Orleans Police Department (a philosophy professor by trade, Gary is also a skilled tech wonk) and is eventually tasked with going undercover as a fake hitman, meant to capture would-be clients desperate to pay a hefty fee to off the baddies in their lives. — KE

‘Robot Dreams’ (May 31, theaters)

ROBOT DREAMS, 2023. © Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection

In case you think you are having deja vu: Yes, this is the same film that Neon qualified for last year’s Oscars and was nominated for Best Animated feature alongside ‘The Boy and the Heron’ and ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ — and you know what, it belongs in the same breath as those two great films.

Spanish director Pablo Berger’s (‘Blancanieves’) first foray into animation is a love letter to the silent clowns (Chaplin), New York City of the 1980s (East Village), the Ligne Claire animation style (original ‘Tintin’ books), and those special friendships you hold dear long after they are over. Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, it’s the story of how a lonely dog and his robot become inseparable companions, become separated, and their struggle to reunite. Told without dialogue, the film’s use of sound and music (at times descending into the territory of a musical) is incredible, with characters so fully expressed in their movement that you might not even realize there are no words. As sweet as it is sad. If you want to leave the cinema with your heart feeling so full it might explode, this is your movie. —CO

‘Young Woman and the Sea’ (May 31, theaters)

Long before there was Diana Nyad, there was Trudy Ederle. While Netflix’s Oscar-nominated ‘Nyad’ may have picked up some late awards season attention last year, don’t count out Joachim Rønning’s upcoming Disney feature to catch its own wave when it arrives in theaters (after initially planning a streaming-only run) early this summer. In presenting the film’s first trailer at CinemaCon in April, producer Jerry Bruckheimer told the crowd that the feature is his highest-testing film ever (uh, what about ‘Top Gun’?), and the hitmaker is definitely on to something: ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ is a real crowd-pleaser.

Daisy Ridley stars as Ederle, who started swimming competitively when that was very much not a thing nice young ladies did. The plucky daughter of bootstrap German immigrants, Ederle and her older sister Margaret (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) swam for fun as kids in the early part of the 20th century, before Trudy started breaking all kinds of records. While she eventually made it to the Olympics, she’s best known for becoming the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Not familiar with her? That’s exactly what Rønning’s film attempts to correct, as the lightly fictionalized — and very family-friendly — feature takes us on a fantastic voyage through the exploits of a heroine whose name we all should know. —KE

‘The Watchers’ (June 7, theaters)

Horror icon M. Night Shyamalan is passing the torch to his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan, who makes her feature directorial debut with the novel adaptation of thriller ‘The Watchers.’ Dakota Fanning stars as a woman lost in the woods who finds herself trapped with three other creepy strangers; together, they must outrun flesh-eating monsters that prey only at night. Who is really watching whom?

‘Barbarian’ star Georgina Chapman, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouere co-star, with director Shyamalan also penning the script. And don’t just count Shyamalan as a nepo baby: She’s already proven her chops on (granted, yes, her father’s series) ‘The Servant,’ helming a trio of episodes. She also directed second unit on her dad’s ‘Old’ and ‘Knock at the Cabin,’ yet another novel adaptation. — SB

‘I Used to Be Funny’ (June 7, theaters)

I USED TO BE FUNNY, Rachel Sennott, background: Caleb Hearon, 2023. © Levelfilm / Courtesy Everett Collection

Rising director Ally Pankiw, who has topped IndieWire’s Female Filmmakers to Watch list , helms Rachel Sennott dark comedy vehicle ‘I Used to Be Funny’ which follows an au pair (Sennott) who dreams of becoming a famous stand-up comedian. But this isn’t an ‘Obvious Child’ or even ‘Joker’-esque take: ‘I Used to Be Funny’ more so parallels Sennott’s breakout performance in ‘Shiva Baby,’ with her stand-up character Sam Cowell balancing her PTSD with a ‘Search Party’ style mystery involving missing teen girl Brooke (Olga Petsa) that she used to nanny.

The film is split between the past and present, where the memories of Brooke make it more difficult to ignore her glaring open case. Director Pankiw has helmed ‘Black Mirror’ episodes plus a buzzy fashion ad campaign starring Aubrey Plaza, but ‘I Used to Be Funny’ is her highly anticipated first feature. Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, Ennis Esmer, and Dani Kind also star. —SB

‘Ghostlight’ (June 14, theaters)

‘Saint Frances’ duo Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson return with another delicate charmer, this one starring real-life acting family Keith Kupferer, Tara Mallen, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer as a family dealing with tragedy in unexpected ways. The cure: community theater Shakespeare. Really!

We know things aren’t right in the Mueller family long before O’Sullivan and Thompson ever-so-delicately dole out the details of a tragedy that still pulls at the trio. It involves a looming lawsuit, the sense the family is incomplete, unsaid feelings, and an ultimate reveal too artfully handled to be spoiled here. O’Sullivan and Thompson are aces at tucking themes, concepts, and ideas into their films that, in other directors’ hands, might feel a bit cheesy or chintzy. Instead, the duo handles them with the utmost respect and care. Audiences may eventually start to see where this is heading and how it will all braid together, but that doesn’t dilute the joy of seeing it actually unfold.

O’Sullivan and Thompson gently fold their story together, finding humor and heart at every turn, leading to the kind of ending that somehow inspired the film’s very first audience at Sundance to laugh and cry. Again, we know how this sounds, but — it’s funny! and good! And a reminder of how bright a light one story can shine on everyone. — KE

‘Inside Out 2’ (June 14, theaters)

INSIDE OUT 2, from left: Fear (purple, voice: Tony Hale), Sadness (glasses, voice: Phylis Smith), Anger (red, voice: Lewis Black), Joy (green dress, voice: Amy Poehler), Disgust (green, voice: Liza Lapira), Anxiety (orange, voice: Maya Hawke), 2024. © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

All your favorite emotions are back Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira), but with a sequel that goes inside a boy turning 13 they are joined by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), and her support team Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). Needless to say there will be some drama in the already delicate balance of emotions raging inside Riley (Kensington Tallman) as he off to hockey camp. Pete Docter (now the head of Pixar) hands over the reins to first-time director Kelsey Mann, who was head of story on ‘Onward.’

To learn more about the film, make sure to check out the report from IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz, who went up to Pixar to see the first 35 minutes. — CO

‘Janet Planet’ (June 21, theaters)

JANET PLANET, from top: Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, 2023. © A24 /Courtesy Everett Collection

Ten years after winning a Pulitzer Prize for ‘The Flick,’ a brilliant play about the everyday mundanities facing movie theater ushers working in front of a movie screen we never actually see, Annie Baker is taking her talents to the other side of the projector with her film debut ‘Janet Planet.’ The film, which premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival before landing a June release from A24, stars Julianne Nicholson as an acupuncturist who navigates raising her daughter in a hippie community while forming transient relationships with three different men over the course of a summer. As a playwright, Baker is revered for basking in volume-speaking silences punctuated by perfectly terse interruptions of dialogue that don’t reveal an iota of information more than what’s absolutely necessary.

‘Janet Planet’ is a clear extension of that creative ethos, but the medium of film gives Baker the freedom to examine minuscule details and present her work with a level of precision that would never be possible in live theate. It’s a bold debut that could position her to follow Celine Song as the next great playwright-turned-filmmaker and seems destined to become one of the summer’s must-see indie films. —CZ

‘Summer Solstice’ (June 14, theaters)

Brooklyn-based filmmaker Noah Schamus’ ‘Summer Solstice’ follows trans man Leo (‘My Animal’ star Bobbi Salvör Menuez), an actor in New York City tumbling through auditions, working as a barista, and situationships that never turn into anything more. But when Leo’s college best friend, the cis straight Eleanor (Marianne Rendón) invites Leo an on impromptu trip upstate, the pair find themselves navigating familiar, old feelings. Eleanor is becoming acquainted with Leo for the first time since he transitioned, making for a weekend getaway that brings them closer to buried secrets and untapped emotions while exploring the newfound gender dynamic between them. ‘Summer Solstice’ has played the Provincetown and Deauville film festivals to acclaim, and was an official selection of last year’s Newfest. —RL

‘Ultraman Rising’ (June 14, Netflix)

The Netflix Animation/Tsuburaya Productions co-production marks the 44th film in the ‘Ultraman’ franchise, and one of the most anticipated animated features of the year. First-time director Shannon Tindle (creator of ‘Lost Ollie’) has fashioned a thrilling and heartwarming superhero film that he designed with a colorful and graphic 2D sensibility organic to the DNA of the anime franchise. Industrial Light & Magic (the Oscar-winning ‘Rango’) handled the animation with wonderful flourish.

The film’s about the difficulty of balancing career and family, achieving success, and embracing legacy. With Tokyo under siege from rising kaiju attacks, Dodgers baseball superstar Ken Sato (Christopher Sean) reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman with a lot of emotional baggage. But he gets sidetracked when he reluctantly adopts a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must cast aside his enormous ego to manage both his new baseball career and parenthood while protecting the baby from a defense authority bent on exploiting her and destroying him. —BD

‘The Bikeriders’ (June 21, theaters)

THE BIKERIDERS, from left: Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, 2023. ph: Kyle Kaplan / © Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

Yes, you’ve seen this one before. The last time we highlighted ‘The Bikeriders,’ it was on our 2023 Fall and Winter Preview , in which this writer noted: ‘it’s telling how very much we’re also anticipating the release of a new Jeff Nichols joint. It’s been seven years since such a treat — in 2016, we were gifted the two-fer of ‘Midnight Special’ and ‘Loving’ — and it seems as if Nichols himself would likely agree his ‘The Bikeriders’ was worth the wait.’ We did not, however, know just how long we’d have to wait for this one to be available to eager audiences.

While the film was initially set for a December 1, 2023 release from 20th Century Studios after premiering at Telluride, the strikes and other business machinations eventually led to Focus Features picking up the film for a summer release . It was still worth the wait.

A long-gestating project for Nichols — the ‘Take Shelter’ filmmaker has wanted to make a film about ’60s-era bikes for nearly decade — ‘The Bikeriders’ finally took shape in 2022, pushing Nichols to leave ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ (which would have ruled) and take on a story that eventually found its center in Danny Lyon’s photo-book of the same name, which followed a Midwestern motorcycle club. Nichols’ take is more sprawling, following the club through many permutations, and with a jaw-dropping cast on board (perpetual Nichols star Michael Shannon, plus Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Mike Faist, Austin Butler, and Boyd Holbrook). —KE

‘Green Border’ (June 21, theaters)

The Polish opposition in October 2023 won victory over populism, with pro-European former prime minister Donald Tusk now set to become the next president after a tense election that’s put nationalism at the fore. But freedom of speech issues remain a concern: Mere weeks prior, Poland’s exiting conservative leadership vilified the latest homegrown release from one of the country’s best filmmakers, Agnieszka Holland’s urgent migrant crisis epic ‘Green Border,’ as anti-Poland in its depiction of refugees caught in the titular zone between Poland and Belarus. It’s here at this green border that Middle Eastern and African refugees attempt to make it to the European Union, only to become pawns of geopolitical war.

This nearly three-hour black-and-white film takes an unflinching look at corruption among Polish border guards as a Syrian refugee family tries to make safe passage. Holland was inspired by a 2021 incident in which Belarus’ dictator Alexander Lukashenko threatened thousands of people stranded at the green border; Holland and screenwriters Maciej Pisuk and Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko poured hours of research into making the film as documentary-like as possible, and it shines a harsh but needed light on the untenability of the migrant crisis. — RL

‘Kinds of Kindness’ (June 21, theaters)

The Yorgos Lanthimos/Emma Stone partnership is the gift that keeps on giving. Very hot on the heels of last year’s ‘Poor Things,’ the dream team returns with ‘Kinds of Kindness’ (formerly known as the even less SEO-friendly ‘And’), a supposedly three-hour triptych of stories about an unnerved policeman, a passive bystander who tries to assert some control of his life, and a woman in search of the world’s next great spiritual leader. How those stories will overlap and/or inform each other remains to be seen, as does how an all-star cast including Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, and Joe Alwyn, will be split between them, but the flashy, New Orleans-centric teasers suggest the movie will be another unexpected swerve for the increasingly unpredictable Lanthimos. We’ll find out when ‘Kinds of Kindness’ premieres in Competition at Cannes in May. — DE

‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’ (June 28, theaters)

HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CHAPTER 1, Kevin Costner, 2024. © Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection

During the Western’s heyday in the 1960s, the genre primarily lived in two forms: sweeping cinematic epics and endlessly popular (if lowbrow) weekly TV shows. Kevin Costner has given the latter form a massive resurgence in recent years thanks to his role in Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Yellowstone,’ and now he’s hoping that his latest directorial passion project can help bring back the former. Costner directs and stars in ‘Horizon: An American Saga,’ his two-part self-financed Western epic about American westward expansion during the Civil War that he began writing in 1988. The massive film, which is set to premiere at Cannes next month, is one of the summer’s biggest gambles. But Costner appears to be confident in its success, as he’s already preparing to shoot a third and fourth film in the series later this year. —CZ

‘Last Summer’ (June 28, theaters)

‘Fat Girl’ provocateur Catherine Breillat is back in explosive rare form with the tantalizingly erotic and (typical for Breillat) problematic forbidden romance, ‘Last Summer.’ The Cannes 2023 premiere stars the great actress Léa Drucker as a defense attorney for juvenile assault victims who goes to bed with her 17-year-old torment of a stepson, Théo (Samuel Kircher). Anne’s life is promptly blown up by their affair and away from the oblivious eyes of her older husband (Olivier Rabourdin), away on business. The seemingly bucolic setting of the family’s summer home juxtaposes eerily against the destructive relationship playing out within its walls and on its lawns. It doesn’t end well for anybody, but this is an enormously entertaining and dangerous movie without any tidy moral judgments. — RL

‘MaXXXine’ (July 5, theaters)

MAXXXINE, Mia Goth, 2024. © A24 /Courtesy Everett Collection

In the age of so-called elevated horror, what a treat that Ti West has delivered his trilogy dedicated to the disreputable aspects of the genre and where it intersects with that other industry so disreputable it has to be outright marginal, even while making billions of dollars: porn. After ‘X’ and prequel ‘Pearl,’ ‘MaXXXine’ closes things out by bringing Mia Goth’s adult film actress Maxine Minx, already with a trail of bodies in her wake, into the VHS ‘80s of L.A., terrorized by serial killer The Night Stalker. While trying to be in more than just adult films — and apparently taking quite the tour of Universal Studios’ Bates Motel and mansion — Maxine ends up crossing paths with the killer. Or a killer, at least.

This time, Goth appears opposite Kevin Bacon, a gumshoe with a gumbo-think accent, Giancarlo Esposito as an agent for the adult film industry, Elizabeth Debicki as director of the in-universe horror movie ‘The Puritan II,’ and Lily Collins, seen only in a brief closeup screaming her head off. West seems to be offering a neon-lit night journey with this one, and a reminder that bad taste can taste really good. —CB

‘Sing Sing’ (July 12, theaters)

Colman Domingo is on an incredible run this year considering his Best Actor Academy Award nomination for ‘Rustin.’ ‘Jockey’ filmmaker Greg Kwedar directs ‘Sing Sing,’ which follows the true story of a leader of a theater troupe in prison and how they use acting to escape the realities of their incarceration, putting on a play all while Domingo’s character is seeking parole. The film is based on a real-life rehabilitation program, and the movie even features a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors. Domingo leads the cast that also includes Paul Raci, an Oscar nominee for ‘Sound of Metal.’ — BW

‘Longlegs’ (July 12, theaters)

At this point, the only question that remains about Oz Perkins’ ‘Longlegs’ at this point is: Can it possibly be as good as the slow-burn, hyper-cryptic marketing campaign that Neon has been rolling out over the last few months? For a horror movie so shrouded in secrecy, its basic plot seems pretty digestible: Set in 1974, the story follows an FBI agent played by ‘It Follows’ star Maika Monroe as she tracks a serial killer who looks a lot like Nicolas Cage, has ties with her past, and may or may not have a weird kink for the occult. But if the teaser trailers are any indication, Perkins has inflected that familiar premise with all manner of unflinching menace, and Neon — fresh off the success of ‘Immaculate’ — might have an even bigger and more nightmare-inducing genre hit on its hands. —DE

‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ (Netflix, July 19)

Hype for this documentary at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival was as sky-high as its subjects. Jeff Zimbalist’s ‘Skywalkers’ is a cross between ‘Man on Wire’ and ‘Fire of Love’ that showcases the love story of two law-breaking, death-defying Russian stuntpeople who sneak to the tallest skyscrapers and traverse the tippy tops, sharing photos of their escapades. The film follows rooftopping influencers Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus as they traverse harrowing heights and share their story with the world, with the film featuring stunning footage likely to induce vertigo even on the small screen streaming on Netflix. — BW

‘Twisters’ (July 19, theaters)

TWISTERS, from left: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Glen Powell, 2024. © Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection

Twenty-eight years ago, the greatest blockbuster of the ‘90s was released: An elemental tale of the elements, a searing portrait of pure science versus the desire to monetize what we all know to be the highly lucrative field of meteorology, a showcase for Phillip Seymour Hoffman to lustily declare his desire for ‘Food. Food! FOOD!’

I’m talking about ‘Twister,’ Jan de Bont’s Wagnerian tale of marital breakup set against a backdrop of F5 tornadoes and the Valkyrie-like storm chasers who pursue them. At last, a sequel is here, and in the extremely capable hands of Lee Isaac Chung, who already delivered a memorable tornado scene (or at least a scene of panic over a potential tornado) in his 2020 best picture nominee ‘Minari.’ Hoffman and star Bill Paxton are now chasing the thunder in the sky, and, as far as we know, co-star Helen Hunt hasn’t returned — nor has Todd Field, alas — but a new group of storm chasers is on hand to finish what they started. Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos appear to have their own version of ‘Dorothy,’ the unique collection of sensors from the first movie that can map the interior of a tornado.

They hope to find a way to dissolve twisters outright. Powell, with his rictus grin and Stetson hat, fits right into this slice of Tornado Alley Americana, and it looks like this time, an especially high wind advisory will need to be declared for a rodeo. Like the 1996 original, cue the CGI cattle! Or to quote Hunt in her inimitable deadpan: ‘Cow.’ —CB

‘Crossing’ (July 19, theaters)

In “Crossing,” the new film from “And Then We Danced” director Levan Akin, the earthy spirit of Italian icon Anna Magnani is channeled by not one but two actresses who resemble her. There’s Mzia Arabuli as Lia, a retired schoolteacher on a journey from Batumi in Georgia to Istanbul in Turkey to find her missing trans niece, and Deniz Dumanli as Evrim, the trans NGO lawyer the movie dupes us into thinking is Lia’s niece. The two women are as far apart on the joie de vivre spectrum as any pair could be — Lia has calcified into an emotionless stone who gives away nothing, while Evrim lives freely and sexually liberated in an otherwise LGBTQ-challenged country — yet “Crossing” movingly bridges the space between them as Lia gets closer to locating her niece with the help a Gen Z Georgian teenager named Achi (Lucas Kankava). — RL

‘Didi’ (July 26, theaters)

2024 Best Live Action Short Oscar nominee Sean Wang (‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó’) tackles the excruciating ups and downs of being 13 years old in the year 2008 with ‘Didi.’ This sensitively drawn but blunt coming-of-age story set in Southern California in the age when MySpace was just starting to give way to Facebook, but the pitfalls and pratfalls of adolescence stayed the same, won the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It’s not hard to see why, as this irresistible comedy centered on Chris (Izaac Wang) and his Taiwanese-American family (led by ‘Twin Peaks’ cult icon Joan Chen as the no-nonsense matriarch) delivers slice-of-life laughs and relatably painful moments in equal measure.

In the puberty-addled, pock-marked summer between middle and high school, a brace-faced Chris experiences his first crush, terrorizes his college-bound sister (Shirley Chen), and makes prank videos with his friends — before abandoning them for a newer, quote-unquote cooler crowd. Director Wang, raised in Fremont, based the film on his own background as the Taiwanese-American son of immigrant parents. It’s a great summer crowdpleaser and should expect to get some indie awards love toward year’s end. —RL

‘Cuckoo’ (August 2, theaters)

CUCKOO, Hunter Schafer, 2024. © Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection

There’s no flying over this nest for domestic drama horror film ‘Cuckoo.’ ‘Euphoria’ breakout star Hunter Schafer plays Gretchen, a teen determined to escape her awkward new family dynamic after her father (Márton Csókás) relocates to a resort in the German Alps with his new wife (Jessica Henwick). Yet it’s her dad’s boss, Mr. Konig (Dan Stevens), and his obsession with Gretchen’s mute half-sister (Mila Lieu) that frighten Gretchen more than just tense family meals. Her paranoia leads to mysterious visions, strange noises, and the belief that perhaps Mr. Konig’s resort is haunted by ancient spirits. The Neon release is ‘Luz’ writer/director Tilman Singer’s sophomore film, with ‘Cuckoo’ having debuted at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival and making its U.S. premiere at SXSW. Schafer is also appearing in a flurry of projects ranging from Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to Oscar-winning ‘Poor Things’ with anthology feature ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ and David Lowery’s queer rock film ‘Mother Mary’ starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel. — SB

‘Good One’ (August 9, theaters)

A slight but sensitive and fantastically assured debut that unfolds with the pointillistic detail of a great short story, India Donaldson’s “Good One” is a coming-of-age story that jettisons all of the genre’s most familiar trappings in favor of a long walk in the woods.

Donaldson’s script doesn’t waste any time setting its terms, even if her film has the discipline and patience to wait for more than an hour before it finally activates them. Modest and casual until the exact moment when the film’s master plan suddenly clicks into place like the hammer of a gun transforming a neutral tool into a deadly weapon, “Good One” is the kind of movie that tightens its complete lack of tension into a knot in the pit of your stomach. It often reminded me of Julia Loktev’s little-seen but seldom-forgotten “The Loneliest Planet” in that sense. Wilson Cameron’s serene nature cinematography and Celia Hollander’s airy, Joanna Newsom-esque score don’t quite disabuse us from the notion that something terrible is eventually going to happen, even if they both play against the suspense (this doesn’t feel like a thriller until you start to project its family dynamics onto your own parents and/or children, at which point it becomes thoroughly harrowing), and when the worm finally turns it’s almost a relief that we can put it behind us. It’s sad and unfair, but also liberating in a way. — DE

‘Trap’ (August 9, theaters)

M. Night Shyamalan’s 16th feature asks the question: What would happen if a serial killer was a Swiftie? ‘Trap’ follows a dad (Josh Hartnett) who takes his teen daughter to the concert event of her life. But when he goes to the bathroom, he notices something strange afoot with cops surrounding the building and cameras being set up everywhere. A merchandise clerk lets him in on a secret that the whole concert is a ruse to lure out a murderer known only as The Butcher. But Shyamalan is always good for a twist, and rather than father and daughter trying to escape a deadly situation, the film’s trailer revealed Hartnett himself is actually The Butcher now calculating his escape route. We’re guessing things only get more interesting from there. — BW

‘Alien: Romulus’ (August 16, theaters)

ALIEN: ROMULUS, Cailee Spaeny, 2024. © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection

For those of us who are still pissed off that Ridley Scott was never given a chance to finish his prequel trilogy (and we number in the dozens), the prospect of another, unrelated ‘Alien’ movie feels like something of a double-edged sword, and the fact that it’s directed by ‘Evil Dead’ helmer Fede Álvarez suggests that ‘Romulus’ might lean harder towards the unrelenting slaughter of ‘Aliens’ than the foreboding mystery of Ridley Scott’s contributions to the series.

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing! ‘Aliens’ is one of the best action films ever made, and Álvarez’s horror bonafides make him a much better fit for this franchise than he was for ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ (or ‘The Millennium’ franchise or whatever you want to call it). More reasons to get excited: ‘Romulus’ is set between ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens,’ which is fertile Weyland-Yutani territory to mine, and it co-stars ‘Priscilla’ breakout Cailee Spaeny and ‘Industry’ highlight David Jonsson, both of whom are worthy to pick up the mantle left behind by the likes of Sigourney Weaver and… Ian Holm? Paul Reiser? The exact nature of Jonsson’s role is still unclear, but what’s an ‘Alien’ movie without a few unanswered questions. —DE

‘Between the Temples’ (August 23)

No film this side of “A Serious Man” has confronted the mysteries of tsuris as directly as Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples,” a spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox screwball comedy about a grief-stricken cantor who loses his voice, only to find that he’s surrounded by a chorus of well-intentioned people who are happy to speak for him. Played by a note-perfect Jason Schwartzman (the “Asteroid City” star delivering another fumblingly wistful performance as a widower trying to make sense of his pain, this one inspired by the music of David Berman), Ben Gottlieb is begging to be run over by passing trucks when his fortunes are turned around by a chance encounter with his childhood music teacher (Carol Kane!), whose own grief is leading her closer to the same faith that Ben has just lost.

All sorts of razor-sharp antics ensue as these two lonely souls develop an unusual friendship based on mutual understanding, mushroom-laced tea, and the fury of their less open-minded Jewish families, their bond forming the basis for this cockeyed but eminently wise little movie about the pursuit of happiness. — DE

‘Y2K’ (Summer 2024, theaters)

Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut is a madcap riff on the Y2K fiasco that reimagines the infamous false alarm as a computer glitch that turns every machine on Earth into a killing machine that’s determined to ruin New Year’s Eve for everyone. Rachel Zegler and Jaeden Martell lead an ensemble cast of high schoolers trying to survive the night in a goofy comedy that combines B-movie practical effects with self-aware ‘90s nostalgia. The crowd-pleasing formula received an uproarious response at SXSW, so there’s reason to believe ‘Y2K’ could turn into a sleeper hit once A24 gives it a release date. — CZ

‘Sleep’ (Summer 2024, theaters)

Jason Yu doesn’t waste any time when it comes to his riotous feature directorial debut, ‘Sleep.’ Picture it: We’re in a cozy apartment in the middle of the night, and someone (in this case, ‘Parasite’ actor Lee Sun-kyun) is gently snoring away in bed beside his pregnant wife (Jung Yu-mi). Suddenly, there’s a bang, or a shuffle, or a yelp, enough to pull Soo-jin (Jung) out of her slumber and out into the apartment. It’s scary — dark apartment, nighttime, weird noise, all bad — but set against the backdrop of Lee’s happy snoozing, it’s also quite amusing.

And then Hyun-su (Lee) sits up, still asleep, and utters the two words no one would want to hear in such a situation, let alone his high-strung wife: ‘Someone’s inside.’ Instantly, it’s terrifying. But as Yu manically — and that’s not to say messily, not at all — seesaws between the funny and the scary, ‘Sleep’ starts to take on its highly entertaining shape. Even freaked totally out of her mind, Soo-jin goes looking (for what? for who?) in the far reaches of their apartment, only to discover — via the rarest of horror tropes, an actually well-earned jump scare — there’s nothing to fear. Or is there?

While Yu, who also wrote the film’s script, piles on a few obvious elements — don’t get too attached to the couple’s cute dog; don’t overlook the mystical beliefs Soo-jin’s mom touts — much of what he’s put on the page translates cleverly to the screen. Upon close expectation, Yu is weaving a tight, taut thriller that knows the value of both jumping in fright and tittering in delight. Mostly set in the film’s apartment, which undergoes its own changes over the course of the feature, ‘Sleep’ is a close, claustrophobic gem, instantly immersive and constantly evolving. —KE

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Pixar Elemental Christian Movie Review
Elemental (Christian Movie Review)
Elemental (Christian Movie Review)
Elemental Movie (2023)
Elemental (Christian Movie Review)

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Elemental

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Should Christian Families Watch Pixar's ELEMENTAL?
ELEMENTAL tells a funny, charming, ultimately heartwarming story. It displays Pixar's usual knack for creating and building an amazing world with surprising, funny situations. The movie contains a main theme about overcoming prejudice. As such, it seems to learn toward a traditional Pro-American message that we live in a melting pot where ...
Elemental (Christian Movie Review)
Elemental is a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance. Ember (a fire element) and Wade (a water element) unexpectedly fall in love. The budding romance poses obvious problems, such as their inability to physically touch and the societal expectations that "elements don't mix.". The movie isn't slow, but it isn't action packed either.
Elemental (2023)
While it wasn't as visually stunning as the classic movies Disney/Pixar has brought us in the past, such as "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," and "Cars," "Elemental" had a good storyline, intriguing characters, some meaningful life lessons, and a fun, upbeat song that had us dancing in our seats in the movie theater. It had a few ...
Pixar Elemental Christian Review
Furthermore, on a scale of Finding Dory to Turning Red (both rated PG), Elemental sits right in the center as far as objectionable content and scariness factor. The visuals are great, and this Pixar film really made the elements of fire and water come to life. However, overall the storyline is just so-so.
Elemental
Check out our written review here: https://thecollision.org/elemental-christian-movie-review/TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Intro1:42 About The Film5:05 Content to Consider...
Movie Review: Elemental
Movie Review: Elemental. Pixar's latest tells the colorful story of two very different characters—one fire, one water—who fall in love but struggle to navigate their obvious differences. Redemptive themes mingle with some hot-button cultural concerns that parents will want to consider carefully. Read the Plugged In Review.
ELEMENTAL
ELEMENTAL tells a funny, charming, ultimately heartwarming story. The story stresses several moral, redemptive themes like overcoming prejudice, family, owning a business, and sacrifice. There's also a heartwarming resolution to the conflict between Ember and her father. However, the movie alludes to identity politics.
Parent reviews for Elemental
APS12345 Parent of 6-year-old. October 11, 2023. age 10+. This movie attempts to address immigration, discrimination and xenophobia. While I appreciate the intent, the result is jarring and problematic for a young audience. There are multiple depictions of discrimination and derogatory remarks, primarily made against the fire people.
'ELEMENTAL'
Elemental #elementalmovie from #Disney and #Pixar is enjoying it's opening weekend in UK cinemas right now. Here is my review from an unashamedly Christian v...
Elemental
Elemental flows in that stream. Ember is a Fire girl who always thought she'd grow up to run her family's shop in Firetown. But after she meets Wade, she realizes she has other dreams and ambitions. The couple has more than just familial expectations to overcome. "Elements don't mix," they're told.
Elemental Movie Review
October 11, 2023. age 10+. This movie attempts to address immigration, discrimination and xenophobia. While I appreciate the intent, the result is jarring and problematic for a young audience. There are multiple depictions of discrimination and derogatory remarks, primarily made against the fire people.
Elemental movie review & film summary (2023)
Advertisement. "Elemental," Disney and Pixar's latest, feels emblematic of the studio's struggle to recapture its original magic, making a mess of its world-building in service of a conventional story that fails the talent of the animators involved. Set in a world where natural elements—earth, fire, water, air—coexist in a New York ...
Elemental (2023)
Filter by Rating: 9/10. An animation high for 2023! exceladeogun 16 August 2023. Elemental. This tells the story of a water element and fire element falling in love; Elemental is a fresh spin on the opposites attract love story. Themes of racial prejudice, systemic segregation, immigration and parental expectations are explored.
Movie Review: 'Elemental'
Movie Review: 'Elemental'. NEW YORK (OSV News) - Thanks to its rich blend of ethnicities, the United States has long been referred to as a melting pot. In the animated romantic comedy "Elemental" (Disney), director Peter Sohn substitutes for that metaphor a fable featuring embodiments of the four elements, using the dynamics of their ...
4 Things Parents Should Know about Pixar's Elemental
4. It Includes a Few Speed Bumps for Families. Elemental is rated PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language. The language is "pushing the boundaries" stuff, but still noteworthy ...
'Elemental' Review: Pixar Offers Mixed Metaphors and ...
Disney releases the film in theaters on Friday, June 16. So much of modern Pixar comes mired in "almost's" and "what-if's," and Peter Sohn's " Elemental " is no exception. It's ...
Get the Inside Story of Elemental from Director Pete Sohn
Drew Taylor. May 16, 2023 @ 11:12 AM. "Elemental," the new Pixar feature where the elements (earth, air, water and fire) are andromorphic characters living in a vast, technologically advanced ...
Review: 'Elemental' is Bright, Bold, & One of Pixar's Best
Pixar's "Elemental" arrives on the big screen in less than a week, an original comedy built on the premise that no two people are too different to fall in love—not even if they happen to literally be fire and water. Unconventional leads Ember and Wade, wonderfully voiced by Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie, embody the… Read More »Review: 'Elemental' is Bright, Bold, & One of Pixar ...
Movie review: Pixar's 'Elemental' won't set the world on fire, but it
Pixar's "Elemental" conjures a diverse metropolis where the elements — fire, water, earth and air — live like ethnicities mostly ghettoized from one other. For fire and water, especially, mingling can be combustible. A bad splash could consume fire; a strong flame could evaporate water. This is the rare kids' movie where subway ...
'Elemental' Review: Pixar's Overcomplicated Rom-Com
Editor: Stephen Schaffer. Music: Thomas Newman. With: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O'Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera. Trying to ...
'Elemental' Review: In Pixar's New Movie, Sparks Fly
Ember expects to inherit the family shop. Then Wade bursts through the pipes. Smartly, the couple's differences aren't just tactile — they're cultural. A child of immigration and sacrifice ...
Review: 'Elemental' is a Thematically Rich Inter-Element Love Story
Elemental is, at its core, a love story, and the interactions between Ember and Wade are more captivating as the plot unfolds. The ease with which Ember gives in to her nerves and anger ends up ...
Elemental
Disney and Pixar's "Elemental," an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted ...
2024 New Summer Movies: 40 Films to Watch
Rising filmmakers on the list include Sean Wang with Sundance audience winner "Didi" (July 26), Megan Park with the Aubrey Plaza comedy "My Old Ass" (August 2), and Ally Pankiw with "I ...

Elemental (Christian Movie Review)

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Pixar Elemental Christian Review

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Movie Review: Elemental

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