Osmosis Jones was a trending topic on Twitter today, after Disney’s Pixar revealed the voice casting for the lead characters of new animated film Elemental.

The film’s director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream, who previously collaborated on The Good Dinosaur, introduced the characters at the D23 Expo in California.

Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World Dominion) and Leah Lewis (The Half of It) will play the film’s unlikely protagonists, Ember (Lewis) and Wade (Athie) – in a city where fire, water, land and air elements (residents) live together.

Deadline reported the film, due for release on June 16th 2023, was based off director Sohn’s own childhood in New York City.

“The idea started with my parents. As immigrants to the U.S. from Korea in the ’70s, they had no family, nothing. But they managed to create a life here in New York,” Sohn said. “And just like them, many people have left their people and families to a new land, with hopes and dreams, all mixing into one big salad bowl of cultures, languages and neighborhoods.”

Fans were quick to point out the similarities between the male lead, Wade, and 2001 live-action/adult animated comedy film’s titular character, Osmosis Jones.

“Wade kind of looks like Osmosis Jones to me,” one fan replied on the Disney thread.

“Osmosis Jones, is that you?” wrote another.

It isn’t the first time Disney’s Pixar has come under fire for allegedly plagiarising the main characters, with online gaming portal Coolmath Games previously claiming the concept and characters for Elemental bear a striking resemblance to their game, Fireboy and Watergirl. 

Ironically, when Osmosis Jones failed miserably at the Box Office 21 years ago, (opening in seventh place and earning less than $14 million against its $70 million-plus budget) production house Warner Brother’s then-President of Domestic Theatrical Marketing, Brad Ball, blamed the film’s animation technique.

“In the end, parents seemed put off by content and it can also be argued that ‘2-d’ animation in this day of CGI, was ‘out-executed’, though the film’s animation did have a striking look,” he said in an internal email, according to Cartoon Brew.

Given this theory, Disney Pixar’s animation technique alone could make this new character a star.

Many are now requesting a legitimate reboot or sequel of the film, which could join the ranks of other nostalgic reboots like King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead.

“Osmosis Jones trending and it’s not bc it’s getting a sequel when will you all stop playing with my emotions,” one fan lamented.

Here’s some of the best fan reactions we’ve seen:

And this fan, who was all over it when the concept drawings were released in May:

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