Elemental

It’s almost as though the contours of what made Pixar great have been copied out here in vague watercolour.

Gentle and humane but never raw or vulnerable.

There are tonal parallels with Pixar’s Inside Out and Zootropolis, but while it has a peppy visual energy, Elemental lacks the wildly inventive storytelling of the former and the laughs of the latter.

A bit like Inside Out meets Zootropolis – but not as fully worked out as either – it’s a movie of lovely, radiant moments.

Busy, zany and sincere, the movie does a perfectly good job with the stuff of urban culture clash. But it is also fatally unfunny, and gets more so with every weird contrivance it whips up.

The problem is that there’s not enough storytelling muscle here for the allusion to really land.

With its gorgeous animation and vibrant colours, Elemental seems to mark a return to the classic magical atmosphere that characterises Pixar cartoons and marked many of our childhoods.

A vivid, vibrant world and expectedly colourful, absorbing animation are never matched by Elemental’s basic plot and clumsy allegories.

Consequently, the film not only focuses on interclass and racial romance, but also reflects on other issues such as uprooting, the breaking of family mandates, prejudices and vocation or talent.

There is no shortage of imagination in place, and the fluid animation, paired with the kinetic pacing and creative solutions to singular elemental problems, shows a dynamic engagement with the premise on the part of the director and animators.