Information

Elemental (subtitled Forces of Nature in some countries) is a 2023 American animated romantic comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Dennis Remm, it was written by Sohn, John Hoberg, Kat Lickle and Brenda Hussuh. -Covey and Catherine O’Hara. Set in a world dominated by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows fire elemental Amber Lumen (Louise) and water elemental Wade Ripple (Athy), who spend time together in the city while trying to save a convenience store owned by Amber’s father, Barney. (Del Carmen).

Development of Elemental began when Sohn pitched the idea to Pixar based on the idea of whether fire and water could ever connect. The film drew inspiration from Sohn’s youth, growing up as the son of immigrants in New York City in the 1970s, highlighting the city’s distinct cultural and ethnic diversity while the story inspired romantic films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Moonstruck. (1987), and Amelie (2001). The production team conducted research spending many hours watching point-of-view city tours on YouTube like Venice and Amsterdam for inspiration. Animation tools were used to design the visual effects and appearance of each character, especially its main characters. On a budget of approximately $200 million, production of Elemental lasted seven years, in studios and in the filmmakers’ homes. Thomas Newman composed the score, and Love wrote and performed a song. The film was directed by Pixar animators Ralph Eggleston, Thomas Gonzales, Amber Martorelli and J. Dedicated to Garrett Sheldrew, all of whom died in 2022.

Elemental debuted out of competition as the closing film at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 27, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 16 in RealD 3D, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats. Despite opening below estimates, the film was ultimately considered a sleeper hit by analysts and grossed $495 million worldwide.

Details

Fire element Barney [B] and Cinder [C] migrate to Lumen Element City where they face xenophobia from other classical elements. After the birth of their daughter Amber,[d] they put down their blue flame that represents their heritage and started their own convenience store called Fireplace. Several years later, Barney wants to retire and give the shop to Amber once she can control her fiery temper. One day, when Barney lets Amber run the store on her own, she is overwhelmed by customers and runs down to the basement. His fiery explosion breaks a water pipe, flooding the basement and summoning Wade Ripple, a waterman and city inspector, who notes the faulty plumbing and reluctantly goes to City Hall and reports the violation to his airman employer, Gale Cumulus, who Do the work. Turn off the fireplace.

Wade brings Amber to Cyclone Stadium to convince Gale to reconsider closing his father’s store. Wade mentions to Ember that he was investigating a leak in the city’s canals before ending up in the fireplace, and suggests to Gale that he and Ember can track down the source of the leak from the store. Gale tells them that if they can track and seal the leak, the violations will be forgiven. While searching the canals, Wade and Ember discover a hole in a dam that allows tidal flow from the ship to flood the city’s plumbing, so they plug the hole with sandbags. Wade and Ember spend time together in town and learn more about each other. The sandbags eventually fail, so Amber creates a strong seal with her glass-forming abilities. Amber visits Wade’s family in a luxury apartment, where she uses her fire to fix a broken glass pitcher, impressing Wade’s mother, Brooke, who recommends her for a glassmaking internship. While playing “The Crying Game”, Wade makes Ember cry and confess that he has feelings for her. Gale calls Wade and approves the amber glass seal, thus keeping the fireplace from closing. Ember then realizes she doesn’t want to take over the store.

Barney announces his intention to retire and hand the fireplace over to Amber. The next evening, Wade takes Amber to Garden Central Station to see the Vivisteria flowers, which she was denied seeing as a child. With the station now flooded, Gale supplies Amber with an air bubble to safety while Wade pushes her underwater through the station. Later, Wade and Ember realize they are able to touch each other without harming each other and share a dance, but Ember remembers her duty to the fireplace and her family’s prejudice against water elements and breaks up with Wade. When Amber mentions taking over the fireplace during a party, Wade appears and declares his love for her, and accidentally reveals that he caused the broken pipe. Ember rejects Wade, though Cynder feels genuine affection. Frustrated, Barney refuses to give Amber the shop and retires.

Soon after, the new seal on the dam broke and Firetown flooded. After rescuing Blue Flame, Ember and Wade are trapped in a room with a fireplace, causing Wade to vaporize from the trapped heat. After the flood subsides, a grieving Amber confesses to Barney that she doesn’t want to run the fireplace and professes her love for Wade. Realizing that Wade has entered the stone ceiling, Ember plays the crying game to get him to return to his normal form. Amber and Wade hug and share a kiss.

A few months later, Wade and Ember, now a couple, leave Element City so Ember can study glassmaking and travel the world together.

Disney Voice Cast

Leigh Lewis as Amber Lumen, a tough, quick-witted fire elemental who works at her family’s convenience store in Fire Town, but has trouble controlling her explosive temper. If water falls on him, he will drown, so he uses an umbrella to protect himself. The filmmakers said it was essential for Ember to be “relatable and likable, not creepy and scary.” Lewis was selected for his role in The Half of It (2020).
Clara Lin Ding as Little Kid Ember
Reagan as Big Kid Ember
Mamoudou Athie Wade as Ripple, a sappy water elemental who works as a city inspector living in Element City. In terms of his density and movement, Wade is much heavier, and his body is more fluid and wavy than Ember’s. The filmmakers said that Wade is “very emotional and cries at the drop of a hat” based on Athie’s own ability to cry.
Ronnie Del Carmen as Barney Lumen, Ember’s father, Cinder’s husband, and owner of their family’s convenience store in Fire Town who plans to retire to allow his daughter to run the convenience store. He does not believe in the element of water.
Sheila Omi as Cinder Lumen, Ember’s mother and Bernie’s wife who also distrusts the element of water.
Wendy McLendon-Covey Gale as Cumulus, an air elemental with a large personality and Wade’s employer. Her surname is not included in the film’s credits, but it is mentioned in Fern’s photo.
Brooke Ripple, Wade, Alan and Lake’s widowed mother and Catherine O’Hara as Harold’s sister make Ember very welcome in a luxury apartment building.
Mason Wertheimer as Claude, a young Earth elemental who has a crush on Ember. Wertheimer made his feature film debut following the mockumentary podcast series Past My Bedtime (2022).
Ranobi Lahiri as Harold, Brooke’s brother and Wade and Alan’s uncle.
Wilma Bonnet as Flaretta, a customer of the fireplace.
Joe Pera as Fern Grouchwood, an overgrown earthenware bureaucrat who works at City Hall. His surname is not included in the film’s credits, but it appears in a picture of his desk nameplate.
As Matt Young King:
Alan Ripple, Wade’s older brother, Lake’s oldest brother and Eddie’s husband.
Lutz, an airball player who plays for the Windbreakers at Cyclone Stadium.
Earth Reaper
Jeff Lapancy as Sparkler Customer
Ben Morris Wood as Immigration Officer. Her name tag is her name C.C. Expressed as stump.
Jonathan Adams as Flary, one of the fireplace’s customers.
As Alex Capp:
customer
Delivery person
The owner of the world
P.L. Brown as Janitor
Although they were credited as “additional voices”, other Wade family members appear in the film including:

Innocent Onanovi stars as Marco and Polo Ripple, Wade’s two nephews.
Krista Gonzales as Eddie Ripple, Alan’s wife and Wade and Lake’s sister-in-law.
Ava Kai Hauser as Lake Ripple, Wade and Alan’s younger sibling and Ghibli’s love interest. Lake is Pixar’s first non-binary character.
Maya Aoki as Tuttle Ghibli, Lake’s girlfriend.
Other additional voices in the film include Dylan Buccieri, Assaf Cohen, Jessica DiCicco, Terry Douglas, Karen Hui, Arif S. Kinchen, Austin Madison, Cole Massey, Scott Manville, Alisha Mullally, Fred Tatasiore, Kari Wahlgren, and Secunda Wood.

Box Office

As of November 19, 2023, Elemental has grossed $154.4 million in the United States and Canada and $341.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $495.9 million. Analysts consider Elemental’s success an example of a sleeper hit.

In the United States and Canada, Elemental was released alongside The Flash and The Blackening, and would initially gross $35–40 million in its opening weekend from 4,035 theaters. The film grossed $11.8 million on its opening day (including $2.4 million from Thursday night previews), missing estimates by $30 million. The film debuted to $29.5 million, finishing in second place and marking the second-lowest three-day opening weekend for a Pixar film, behind the $29.1 million ($56 million inflation) opening of Toy Story in 1995, which sold significantly more tickets. Deadline Hollywood and TheWrap attributed the film’s marketing, the Covid-19 pandemic, to having to wait for Pixar films to be released on Disney+ instead of theaters, and competition with Spider-Man: Across the Spiders. Verse, despite receiving positive word of mouth.

In its second weekend, the film grossed $18.4 million, placing second. While the 38% drop was cited as a good sign of future legs, TheWrap noted: “Elemental will have to endure historic proportions to return to profitability.” In Elemental’s fourth weekend, Variety wrote that although the film held up well after a “disastrous opening” for several weeks, there was “no hope domestically of recouping its $200 million production budget.”

By early August, Elemental managed to make a drastic change, with many media outlets hailing Pixar’s unprecedented box office return as the film grossed $400 million worldwide. Disney released an official statement regarding the film’s box office return, with Tony Chambers, Disney’s EVP of Theatrical Distribution saying “After a disappointing opening weekend, we’re really pleased that audiences have discovered what a great film it is.” That same month, Pixar president Jim Morris said “The box office we’re looking at now, [the film] should do better than break even in theaters. And then we’ll have revenue from streaming, theme parks and consumer products. It’s definitely a profitable movie for the Disney company.” will.” By the end of the summer box office season, Elemental had grossed more than $478 million worldwide, with The Hollywood Reporter stating that the film may not be a huge financial winner. With its expensive $200 million budget, it’s still considered a victory to beat a low opening and have strong legs next week.

Internationally, Elemental did particularly well in South Korea, becoming the film’s third largest market. This was attributed to director Peter Sohn’s Korean-American background and the inclusion of elements that resonated with Korean audiences. As of August 20, 2023, the international box office total of Elemental Spider-Verse has surpassed

About

Directed by	Peter Sohn
Screenplay by	·         John Hoberg Kat Likkel ·         Brenda Hsueh
Story by	·         Peter Sohn ·         John Hoberg ·         Kat Likkel ·         Brenda Hsueh
Produced by	Denise Ream
Starring	·         Leah Lewis ·         Mamoudou Athie ·         Ronnie del Carmen ·         Shila Ommi ·         Wendi McLendon-Covey ·         Catherine O’Hara
Cinematography	·         David Bianchi ·         Jean-Claude Kalache
Edited by	Stephen Schaffer
Music by	Thomas Newman
Production companies	·         Walt Disney Pictures ·         Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	·         May 27, 2023 (Cannes) ·         June 16, 2023 (United States)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million
Box office	$495.9 million

ScreenShots