Just like shoulder pads and bleached tips, drugs fall in and out of fashion with the scientific and medical establishment. And perhaps none is having such a renaissance moment as MDMA. Whether you call it ecstasy, molly, or even just “E,” MDMA is very likely to be legally approved to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in the United States by the country’s top medical authority, the Food and Drug Administration, by the end of 2024.

It’s a welcome if perhaps overdue move. Study after study shows MDMA can be used as a powerful therapeutic drug, and it may even treat other brain conditions, like anxiety and eating disorders.

At this point, the evidence trail stretches back years. The drug does something profound to our brains beyond inducing the classic euphoria that helped it garner the name “ecstasy.” In an interview with Inverse, science journalist Rachel Nuwer says that in all her reporting on the science of MDMA and how it changes the brain, it became increasingly obvious that it may open what’s known as a “critical period” in the brain — a pathway for the person to form new ways of thinking, almost like a return to a childhood state. Applied to trauma or triggers, this effect could ultimately be healing.

Pixar movies have long turned high-concept ideas into heartwarming family films. (What if toys were alive? What if our feelings had feelings?) But the trick to making those far-out ideas digestible to audiences of all ages is an age-old storytelling device: the villain.

Not all Pixar movies have villains, and indeed, some of the best ones don’t. But a really good bad guy has elevated most of the studio’s greatest films into the realms of all-time classics. Where would Toy Story’s narrative of ego and friendship be without a psycho like Sid? What would Monsters, Inc. be without the snide Randall Boggs? These villains don’t define the best Pixar movies, but they ramp up the stakes and drive the conflict so that bigger ideas can shine through.

Elemental is a fantastical romance that tackles big ideas with heart. But the film’s lack of a true villain holds it back from being truly great.