Pixar’s unique animated worlds include a place where toys are sentient beings, a universe where cars can breathe and talk and eat food somehow, a city populated by monsters who scare children to power their appliances, and the inside of a teenager’s mind, where her emotions are anthropomorphized.
To that list, we can now add Elemental City,” the setting of Pixar’s next animated feature, Elemental. It’s populated by a host of unique creatures; the two leads are a being made of fire (voiced by Leah Lewis) and one made of water (Mamoudou Athie). What will happen when they get together? Besides, like, maybe some steam and perhaps some lukewarm puddles. Watch the movie’s first teaser trailer below to find out…
Elemental was directed by Peter Sohn, a member of the Pixar senior creative team whose previous work at the animation studio includes The Good Dinosaur (which he directed), The Incredibles and Ratatouille (where he was an animator), and Incredibles 2 (where he was a story consultant). Sohn has also provided a few voices to Pixar movies through the years; most recently he was the voice of the adorable Sox in Lightyear.
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
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.
Elemental is scheduled for release on June 16, 2023. (The press release does not actually specify whether it is opening in theaters, like Lightyear, or is going straight to Disney+, where several previous Pixar movies landed, including Soul and Turning Red.)