“Elemental”: What Can We Expect From the New Pixar Movie?

Disney is in a good moment. Recently, D23 took place, which is the convention of the mouse company, in which the next releases were announced. There were some projects from Star Wars, Marvel and even Pixar itself, among which the movie "Elemental" stands out.

Elemental presents us with an interesting premise: what would happen if the elements had emotions? This story, which we will see in 2023, is based on the 4 classic elements: fire, water, earth, and water. Although they seem to have differences, it is also possible that they have more things in common.

The official synopsis indicates that we will meet Ember and Wade, two characters of fire and water, respectively, who are in a city where residents of the 4 elements coexist. Therefore, the key will be to see how differences enrich us, a theme that has been present in almost all Disney and Pixar stories.

The commitment to animate abstract concepts

But… what about emotions? Well, there we have a trend that Pixar has been working on for the last few years. More specifically, the representation of emotions through different characters. And, to understand it, it is necessary to go back in time. More specifically, to 2015.

At that time, "Inside Out" emerged, a film directed by Pete Docker that received great reviews from the press and the fans, to the point of being considered one of the 100 best films of the 21st century, according to the BBC. For this, he won the Oscar for Best Animated Film and the Golden Globe.

The plot is very simple: Riley Andersen is an 11-year-old girl who has had a "healthy" emotional growth, since her primary emotion was Joy. She works with the other basic emotions: Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger. The problem is that she has to move and this leads to emotional problems.

From then on, there are changes in the behavior of the characters inside Riley's head. All of this reflects changes in her behavior, which make her much more irritable. Although she avoids Sadness, she ends up discovering that it is necessary at certain times, so that everything works in a balanced way.

"Inside-Out 2" has already been announced. This film will seek to explore Riley's head as a teenager, introducing new emotions. It will arrive in 2024 and will surely have the same tone as the previous one, although located at a time in life with many more emotional changes.

Also read: Inside Out 2: What Other Emotions Will Pixar's Sequel Make Us Feel?

Now, was that the only time this happened? The reality is no. Another example happened with "Coco", released in 2017 and which had incredible success. Although there is no representation of emotions as such, there is a "second dimension" in which deceased people have a "second life", where they can also express emotions.

And did you know that it was not the only film that had a similar theme? Another of the most acclaimed films was "Soul." This production gives a new perspective to death, where the souls are part of an additional plane, known as the Great After and the Great Before, which represent death and birth, respectively.

There is also a great exploration of emotions there, since there are souls with different personalities. A clear case occurs with soul 22, who sees no point in living on Earth and has never been able to reach anyone's body. Therefore, this soul discovers its passion to have a chance in the world.

As we mentioned, all these films were really successful for Pixar, since they have been the ones that have had the best rating in recent times. For this reason, it is not surprising that they want to continue on this path. Now, it remains to be seen if the new film, "Elemental", maintains the naturalness of the plot or if this style feels forced.