Now this is a very recent Pixar film. Elemental is a 3D animated romantic dramedy released on June 16, of this year (2023 specifically.). Directed by Peter Sohn, Elemental takes place in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, specifically humanized versions of water, earth, air, and fire. The story focuses on a fire lady named Ember as she meets a water man named Wade. They meet through unusual circumstances, become friends, and eventually fall in love. This film was a personal passion project for director Peter Sohn, in fact all of Element City and the characters were based on Sohn's fascination with the Table Of Elements, and it's inspired by his childhood given that Sohn was a child of Korean immigrants. While Elemental has received favorable reviews from critics, as of this publication, the film has grossed only $360 million on a $200 million dollar budget, a rather underwhelming box office return for the film. But that could be subject to change as I write and publish this on July 27th, 2023.

What could have caused this film to have a rather underwhelming box office return? I think it might just be the timing because it came in the month of June, a month for summer blockbusters. You've got Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse and Transformers Rise Of The Beasts, and for July you've got Barbie and Oppenheimer. With such anticipated blockbusters, it's not surprising that Elemental would be overshadowed by all the other more favored movies. I'm not even going to mention The Flash because that film didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell because of Ezra Miller, but I digress. Elemental also had a budget of $200 million, making this one of the most expensive animated movies. And all that money is on the screen with its amazing visuals. The amount of realism from these anthropomorphized elements to their expressions and visual gags is amazing to look at. The animation is definitely the film's strength, but the budget is also the film's weakness, making it a big risk for Pixar. And just remember, Pixar's first movie Toy Story was made on a budget of $30 million back in 1995. Perhaps if the animators had spent less money, they probably wouldn't have to worry about such a big budget and focus on the story. And with everything going on in Hollywood, movie studios should realize that we no longer live in the 2010s, we're going to have to reduce our budgets to ensure movies can break even at the box office. But I once again digress, maybe by the time I've published this novel, Elemental will have broken even. Another reason might be because of the risk of telling an original story. We live in an era where Hollywood studios are more interested in making movies based on intellectual property from toys and video games, and any superhero that originated from a comic book. We live in an era where studios are more interested in making cinematic universe blockbuster movies than they are in releasing original ideas. And I guess some people weren't interested in the original idea to Elemental. Telling original stories is risky, but nobody should ever have to give up on telling original stories that aren't based on some property.

I personally do want to see this film succeed because I really liked it. The visuals were amazing to look at. The voice acting was good, composer Thomas Newman's score was nice to listen to. It might be my favorite Pixar score he's ever composed. The movie's song Steal The Show is definitely my new favorite song. A lot of the visual jokes made me laugh. Especially the wordplay. And the story was sweet. I actually do like how the film faces xenophobia and other relevant issues in the same way that The Incredibles tackled a midlife crisis and Coco tackled death and how we remember those we've lost. I like that the main characters represent an interracial couple given that I was born from an interracial marriage. Not only could it be a good example to teach children about xenophobia and bigotry regarding minorities, I hope that Elemental fascinates them enough to where they want to study the elemental table and the chemistry reactions that occur when two opposite elements mix and interact. And it did hit me in the feels. There's a reason I decided to watch this film twice instead of watching The Flash twice. So take it from me, Elemental is a unique film that deserves as much love as Pixar's older films. Take a splash and give it another watch.

Update: now I wrote this on July 27th, 2023. But as of August 6th, 2023, Elemental has officially broken even at the box office!!! The film has now grossed $423 million at the box office! That may not be the same big numbers as Toy Story 4, but the film still broke even and is now a sleeper hit! I'm really happy for the film knowing that it's succeeding a lot more. I wish nothing but love for the cast and crew who worked incredibly hard on this film.

I'm not going to do an honorable mentions chapter for this list. I will however recommend watching The Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command movie and TV series. If you're a fan of Buzz Lightyear, you'll like this show. Tim Allen voices Buzz for the spin-off movie while Patrick Warburton voices Buzz for the TV show. And now, the #1 underrated Pixar movie in my opinion is...