Set in a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live (separately), Elemental tells a touching immigrant story about a fiery young woman (Leah Lewis) and a go-with-the-flow water guy (Mamoudou Athie). It is essentially Zootopia meets Romeo & Juliet meets Moonstruck . The third act will make you cry. By the end of the summer, Elemental had legs, surging past $496 million worldwide. It is now the most-watched movie on Disney+ of 2023. It is a gentle, beautiful film that proves Pixar still has gas in the tank.
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: A critically acclaimed romantic comedy from Searchlight Pictures that became a standout on and Disney+ [1, 6]. : A highly-rated Disney Original Movie
It is the highest-rated Disney release of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Score) and the only true blockbuster that made grown adults cry in the theater about a talking badger. Must-watch.
Disney’s 2023 slate was heavily reliant on intellectual property (IP), specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the Star Wars galaxy, and legacy animated sequels. While the year produced some of the highest-grossing films globally, it also produced high-profile flops that sparked industry-wide conversations about superhero fatigue and the necessity of legacy sequels. This paper ranks and analyzes Disney's top performers of 2023, categorizing them by their success metrics and cultural footprint.
This is not a film for children who want slapstick. It is a meditative, surreal journey through grief, legacy, and the creative process. The hand-drawn animation is breathtaking—specifically the sequences of the "Warawara" floating through the sky. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, beating out Disney’s own Wish .
In 2023, The Walt Disney Company experienced a correction. The era of "peak content," where any IP release was guaranteed a massive audience, came to an end. The top films of the year— Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Elemental —succeeded because they prioritized emotional storytelling and distinct artistic visions over franchise connectivity.