“Elemental” visual effects supervisor Sanjay Bakshi says, “Our challenge mostly had to do with complementing our normal tools with a new set of tools that could layer on top in ways that gave our animators new forms of expression.”īakshi previously helped make dinosaurs and rats into relatable characters for “The Good Dinosaur” and “Ratatouille,” but those creatures already had eyes and mouths as starting points.

But Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) meets-cute with Wade (Mamoudou Athie) during a flood and together, they run the gamut of emotions without benefit of blood, flesh or bone. “Elemental” director Peter Sohn (the animated short “Partly Cloudy”) sets the story in Element City, where segregated tribes of fire, water, earth and air rarely cross paths. To sell the distinction, animators crowned Ember with flickering spikes of flame-red hair while Wade sports an ever-gurgling aquamarine pompadour. Never mind Elvis and Priscilla, two of the year’s most captivating movie hairstyles belong to Ember and Wade, the animated heroes of “Elemental.” In Pixar’s anthropomorphic rom-com, these star-crossed elements fall in love despite overwhelming odds: She’s fire, he’s water.