It was just a few months ago that Pixar delivered Turning Red to the public, but in June, the studio will be back with Lightyear, the first Pixar movie to play exclusively in theaters since Onward’s brief time on the big screen. However, if you’d rather look further ahead into the future, then move aside, Lightyear, because the next Pixar movie has been revealed. it’s called Elemental, and Pixar has shared the first look this upcoming movie.
Pixar’s 27th feature film is set in a city where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together, and follows Ember and Wade, a fiery young woman and go-with-the-flow guy who end up discovering how much they have in common. You can see how Elemental’s starring duo looks in the below piece of concept art:
Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn, who previously helmed The Good Dinosaur and the Partly Cloudy short, and Denise Ream, who also worked on The Good Dinosaur, as well as Cars 2, is producing. Elemental’s story is inspired by Sohn’s childhood in New York, with the director explaining in an official statement:
My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx. We were among many families who ventured to a new land with hopes and dreams—all of us mixing into one big salad bowl of cultures, languages and beautiful little neighborhoods. That’s what led me to Elemental. Our story is based on the classic elements—fire, water, land and air. Some elements mix with each other, and some don’t. What if these elements were alive?
So following Lightyear, i.e. the movie starring the sci-fi action hero that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy from the Toy Story movies, we’ll be delving back into original territory with Elemental. Going off the brief premise and Peter Sohn’s comments, the story sounds like a mashup of Inside Out and Onward. We’ll have to keep waiting to learn what kind of adventure Ember and Wade go on where they discover their similarities, as well as who will voice them and the other characters, but clearly this story means a lot to Peter Sohn on a personal level. Elemental will be Pixar’s sole feature-length project of 2023, with 2024 going back to delivering two movies.
Elemental will come out on June 16, 2023, although it hasn’t been clarified if it will first play in theaters or go straight to Disney+ like Soul, Luca and Turning Red did. Either way, once Elemental arrives, I’ll be curious to see how it ranks among Pixar’s other non-franchise movies. If you’re interested in delving into Pixar’s library, make sure you have a Disney+ subscription lined up.
