“Elements don’t mix!”: Unearthing Racial Scripts and a Rhetorical Economy of Whiteness in Disney and Pixar’s Elemental

Using a narrative rhetorical approach, we map how Disney and Pixar's 2023 film, Elemental, sustains a rhetorical economy of whiteness, as theorized by Asen and Kelly, which emphasizes the degree to which rhetorical constructions of racial difference are foundational to whiteness and economic systems. We identify and critique how Elemental discursively contributes to a system of exclusivity for those within the bounds of whiteness concerning economic mobility via racial scripts. Created and produced during Joe Biden's United States (U.S.) presidential term (2021–2025), Elemental offers a metaphorical tale that engages the fractious, politically conservative anxieties concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as anti-immigration views. We unearth how the film's narrative logic and representational choices concerning the immigrant experience invites anti-immigration and anti-DEI discursive logics, thus fostering illogical and prejudicial cultural anxieties. The rhetorical analysis centers on three main points. First, the narrative logic of the film is premised on post-racialism which involves the obfuscation of structural, systemic, and historic racial oppression by conceptualizing racism as a matter of interpersonal bias, thus perpetuating neoliberalism. Second, Elemental utilizes racial scripts to perpetuate the racist logic of biological racial difference thus inscribing onto the characters fundamental qualities that inhumanely positions them as Others that pose a threat to the safety of whiteness. Lastly, Elemental conveys the message that cultural difference is valuable inasmuch as it can be used to achieve economic and social mobility as measured by the standards of whiteness, and thus the film propagates a rhetorical economy of whiteness.