It’s been a complicated week for Pixar. The company laid off 75 employees including producer Galyn Susman – best known for having the lone back-up copy of Toy Story 2 on her home computer when the entire movie was accidentally deleted – while rival animated movies like Spider-Man and The Super Mario Bros. are coining it in with a whole different style. Elemental is old school Pixar – charming, touching, hopeful and possibly out of its time. Set in Element City, home to four kinds of anthropomorphic elements, the wealthy water-born resent the immigrant fire-based newcomers. It’s about class and race and was inspired by long-serving Pixar director Peter Sohn’s instructions from his grandmother’s deathbed to “marry Korean”. This film explains why he didn’t. But, you know, cute.
Elemental is released June 16 US and July 7 UK
Photograph Disney
