Disney and Pixar Announce Elemental, Reveal Release Date and First Concept Art

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Disney and Pixar have an impressive track record, most recently scoring major successes with films like Pixar's Turning Red and Disney's Encanto, with the studio offered the first glimpses at their upcoming film Elemental. In addition to teasing details about the film's plot, they also offering a brief synopsis of the experience, hinting at yet another experience that will surely be accessible to audiences of all ages, though will bring with it much bigger metaphorical and emotional experiences. While the film does have a release date, it's not yet known if the project will debut exclusively in theaters or if it will earn a hybrid release strategy on Disney+. Elemental is set to debut on June 16, 2023.

Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur, Partly Cloudy short) and produced by Denise Ream (The Good Dinosaur, Cars 2), the film journeys alongside an unlikely pair, Ember and Wade, in a city where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. The fiery young woman and the go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.

Elemental is an original film inspired by Sohn's childhood in New York. 

"My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx," the director shared 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," Sohn continued. "Some elements mix with each other, and some don't. What if these elements were alive?"

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pixar films have earned some complicated releases over the years, as Onward hit theaters the week before theaters around the world closed their doors, though landed on Disney+ a month later. Films like Luca and Soul had their theatrical releases scrapped entirely, instead debuting straight to Disney+. This year's Turning Red was initially set to be Pixar's return to theaters, though the spread of the omicron variant resulted in a late change to that plan, with it also releasing on Disney+, with the exception of a week-long release in Los Angeles. 

This summer will see Lightyear landing in theaters, inspired by the iconic Buzz Lightyear character from the Toy Story series, marking the first theatrical Pixar release in more than two years.

Stay tuned for details on Elemental before it premieres on June 16, 2023.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments below!

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