Elemental (2023)Movies

How many more everyday objects can Pixar possibly give googly eyes and mouths to? The answer, as Buzz Lightyear would say, appears to be “to infinity and beyond!” Because for their new “Elemental,” the struggling animation studio has picked their most rudimentary characters ever — fire and water.  Far from the ingeniously realized robot in “Wall-E” or the scrappy rodent chef of “Ratatouille,” here simple flames gab, droplets ride the subway and blades of grass work office jobs. Fire riding a bicycle — really? The movie walks a fine line between clever adventure and Pixar self-parody. The place is Element City, a New York-y metropolis inhabited by anthropomorphic wind, water, fire and earth citizens.  The story’s most inspired idea is that all the elements...