Pixar’s next film is already pointing toward another ‘misfire’ for the Disney studio

Pixar could be looking to add to its string of lacklustre releases in recent years, as the first reviews for the studio’s upcoming film Elemental have begun trickling in. Ahead of the animated film’s release on June 15, Elemental has amassed a 57 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, which so far places it as the second lowest-scoring Pixar film in front of 2011’s Cars 2. 

Elemental is helmed by The Good Dinosaur director Peter Sohn, and stars Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie Wade and Catherine O’Hara, among others. The film takes place in a city where the four elements of fire, water, land, and air coexist alongside one another, with two residents from fire and water meeting to discover how much they have in common. Elemental made its debut by closing out this year’s Cannes Film Festival, though audience reactions appear to be lukewarm. 

In a review for Variety, Peter Debruge said the “opposites-attract rom-com feel[s] like a misfire,” while Jo-Ann Titmarsh of London Evening Standard said Elemental “simply doesn’t cut the mustard.” For his part, The Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer wrote that audiences will leave the film “without much of an impression.” All of this is not to say that Pixar’s latest outing was a complete disaster, with reports emerging that Elemental received a five-minute standing ovation after its Cannes showing. 

Along this positive line, Robbie Collin of Daily Telegraph said that while it’s “unlikely to feature on many people’s favourite Pixar lists, Elemental brings with it the satisfying creak of a ship being righted.” The Sunday Times described the film as a “flawed but big-hearted tale of forbidden love,” while Next Best Picture said it will “warm your heart and move you to tears.” 

Elementals’ tepid critical reception follows a slew of plagiarism claims directed at the Pixar project. Fans have called out similarities between the character designs of Elementals and web-browser video game Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements, while others made comparisons with fellow Disney title Zootopia. Addressing concerns that Elemental will rip off Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sohn said that his film is “so different.”

“There’s no martial arts in our world. There’s not anything like that. It’s this city story with romance, and this family drama,” the director said.