★★★★

Looking back – almost three decades back – virtually nothing in the latest feature from Pixar could have been achieved at the dawn of computer animation. Certainly not with any credibility. In Elemental, the studio’s first all out cinema original since 2020’s Onward, flames lick the air with every smoking flicker. People made entirely of water osmose seamlessly in and out of photo real canals, while folk of bark and foliage sprout bright and casually stunning floristry from their branch pits. It’s as though one could reach forth and pluck petals from the screen itself. These days, Toy Story’s groundbreaking animation looks little more than child’s play in comparison. Elemental hasn’t the emotional gut-wrenchary of that original masterpiece but proves, twenty-seven films on, that Pixar still rides a wave of its innovative own even now.