Elemental: Pixar Announces Next Fantasy Animated Film for 2023

May 16, 2022

Following the successful release of Turning Red, Pixar Animation Studios has officially announced its next original animated film titled Elemental, a fantasy feature revolving around characters based on the four elements. The studio has also revealed the first concept art, which you can check out below, providing us a glimpse of the main characters Ember and Wade.

The film will revolve around the journeys of an unlikely pair, “Ember and Wade, in a city where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together,” reads the synopsis. “The fiery young woman and the go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.”

Set to arrive in theaters on June 16, 2023, Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn (Partly Cloudy short), whose childhood in New York serves as an inspiration for the film’s story. It is produced by Denise Ream (Cars 2), who worked with Sohn in The Good Dinosaur.

“My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx,” Sohn said in a statement. “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?”

Its current theatrical release will see Pixar’s 27th feature going up against no direct competition. However, it will be debuting in the same month as two other high-profile films including Sony’s long-awaited Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Paramount Pictures’ Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.