Review: Home Video Release of Disney Pixar Elemental

Disney Pixar’s Elemental has arrived on home video in various digital and disc formats.  Elemental takes place in Element City where the residents of Fire, Water, Earth and Air live together.   The film explores the friendship between Ember (fire) and Wade (water) and their beliefs about the world they live in.  For more on the film, here is Maggie’s review from the theatrical release.

This home video release includes the feature film as well as the short “Carl’s Date” that appeared with it in theaters.   The bonus features include a full length director’s commentary, deleted scenes and a trio of featurettes.  For full specifications on the release here is the initial Home Video Press Release .

There are only two traditional featurettes included in this release, each clocking in around 10 minutes long.  The first is “Ember and Wade” which discusses the two lead characters and some of the challenges in animating them.  The second is “Next Stop: Element City” that explores the creation of the city.   There is also a 14 minute “Paths to Pixar” piece where a number of Pixar team members share this Immigrant Experience.  There are a handful of deleted scenes in storyboard form with each featuring an introduction by the person who created the board.   In all the deleted scenes run just over 20 minutes.

The heart of the bonus features on this release is the full length audio commentary by director Peter Sohn, visual effects supervisor Sanjay Bakshi, supervising animator Mike Venturini, and a directing animator Gwendelyn Enderoglu.

If you are a fan of commentaries or deleted scenes you should consider this release of Elemental for your library.  If you are looking for a number of traditional making of featurettes you will find this release lacking.  The two that are included are interesting but there are only two and total around 20 minutes.

Elemental is also available on Disney+ as is “Carl’s Date”.   The only bonus feature included on the Disney+ version is a trailer.  There is a companion 40 minute documentary entitled “Good Chemistry The Story of Elemental” during which Peter Sohn, the director of Elemental, takes you on his personal journey growing up in New York as a child of immigrants.   For more details on the Disney+ Release here is the initial press release

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** A review copy of this book was provided to us