Elemental, Pixar's new love story, has to overcome a problem previously faced by WALL-E. While Pixar isn't known for including love stories in their repertoire, or even as subplots in the vast majority of their movies, they managed to strike the perfect balance in 2009's WALL-E, which tackled love, climate change, and space travel with two robots who could only say one word each. Elemental is shaping up to be Pixar's next love story, possibly a forbidden love story, as the two lovers are the personification of fire and water.
Arguably, the only Pixar movie with a strong love story, aside from WALL-E, is Up, but that story didn't follow Carl and Ellie falling in love as the main plot, as the tragic opening is still held as one of Pixar's most shocking moments. That leaves WALL-E as the strongest comparison to Elemental, especially seeing as both films are a love story without human protagonists. It can often be difficult to pull off a love story when the film is aimed at children and has another deeper meaning, as Pixar films often do. However, WALL-E managed to do both perfectly which puts Elemental in a tricky spot.
WALL-E Sets A High Bar For Pixar's Elemental
Because WALL-E was such a success, both commercially and critically with general audiences, it leaves big shoes for Elemental to fill. WALL-E released in 2008, which means that the target audience of children is nearly grown up. Elemental could be positioning itself to be the next WALL-E, but with the ease of Disney+, it is likely that most children will have seen the latter film already.
Elemental's release date is June 16th, 2023, coming nearly 15 years after WALL-E. It will have to strike the same balance WALL-E did by teasing a romance that children want to root for without being overbearing. However, it will also have to be careful not to repeat too many of WALL-E's general storyline, or it will risk alienating its older audience who is more conscious of tired out tropes and basic stories. For Pixar to maintain the general feel that their movies are for everyone, young and old, they will have to find a way to make Elemental's love story appeal to children without losing the rest of their audience.
How Elemental's Love Story Will Be Different To WALL-E's
While not much is known about the story details of Elemental yet, Pixar seems to be positioning it as a new and fresh love story. It is unlikely it will repeat many of the same themes seen in WALL-E. In WALL-E, the love story was largely told through actions and voice inflections as WALL-E and Eve could each only say each other's names and nothing more. It was a classic "boy getting the girl" story, with Eve showing no interest in WALL-E at first and only caring about her job. From what the trailer revealed, the characters in Elemental have a wider range of vocabulary, so that will provide a much different story right off the bat.
When Ember and Wade (fire and water, respectively) meet on a train, it is a classic "meet cute" moment. It appears, based on the Elemental movie trailer, that Ember doesn't interact much with the other Elementals. Whether by choice or by discrimination, Ember looked to be something of a loner as she wore a hooded clock that covered most of her fiery body. This love story could tackle forbidden love and discrimination similar to how Zootopia handled similar topics back in 2016. Even though Elemental is following a high bar set by WALL-E, it will be exciting to see how Pixar chooses to tackle their next love story.