This movie is no exception, drawing from Sohn’s second-generation immigrant status. Much of what works about the film is informed by his experience, and that of other Pixar employees.

But it’s the romance that makes “Elemental” worth your time and emotional investment, thanks to a romantic male lead who isn’t made up of the same stuff we’ve seen in Disney movies of yore.

“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.

But it’s the romance that makes “Elemental” worth your time and emotional investment, thanks to a romantic male lead who isn’t made up of the same stuff we’ve seen in Disney movies of yore.

Fire and water do mix in “Elemental,” although creating something successful and original isn’t as elementary for Pixar as it used to be.

“Elemental” is inspired by the experiences of its director, Peter Sohn, a second-generation immigrant, his parents bringing him to the United States from Korea when he was a child.

June 13, 2023 at 4:00AM Ember, left, voiced by Leah Lewis, and Wade, voiced by Mamoudou Athie, have a fire-and-water love story in “Elemental.” (Disney/Pixar/The Minnesota Star Tribune) ...

Pixar’s Elemental draws an interracial love story from a personal place The filmmakers were inspired by the director’s life — and by movies from The Big Sick to The Godfather ...

Directed by Peter Sohn, who helmed Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur,” “Elemental” is set in a world where the four classic elements — fire, earth, water and air — are alive and coexist.