I Don't Think I Can Look At "Elemental" The Same Way Again After Learning These 17 Interesting Facts About The Film
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Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of touring Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California to celebrate the release of their latest film, Elemental.
I also got to chat with the film's director, Peter Sohn, to learn all about the ins and outs of making an animated film. It was so fascinating!
Here are just a few of the cool behind-the-scenes facts he shared with me along the way:
1.Elemental is loosely based on director Peter Sohn's life and his family's immigration story to the United States.
2.His parents are Korean immigrants. They moved to the Bronx, which is where Peter was born and raised. The film is set in Element City, which emulates New York City with its melting pot of cultures.
3.The diversity seen in NYC is explored through the four elements that reside in Element City — water, air, earth, and the newest to arrive, fire.
"The idea of a world where cultures and communities mix together was one of the biggest ingredients of the film."
4.Ember (fire element) and Wade's (water element) love story finds them discovering ways to learn and blend their cultures. This was also inspired by Peter's real-life relationship with his wife, artist Anna Chambers, who is white.
"There's a story of love in this too! I married someone who wasn't Korean. That idea of two different cultures coming together was another huge inspiration for the film."
5.Bernie Lumen (Ember's dad) built his own convenience store called The Fireplace when he got to Element City. Peter's dad also created his own business when he moved to the Bronx: a grocery store called Sohn's Fruits & Vegetables.
"My parents immigrated to this country in the late '60s/early '70s. I grew up in my father's grocery store in the Bronx. That world of immigrants in a city and everyone trying to make a life for themselves was a huge inspiration. As a father now, I have so much gratefulness for the sacrifices that they made."
6.Just like the fire elements faced discrimination in the film when they first arrived to Element City, Peter's family also dealt with racism and xenophobia.
Disney / Pixar
7.Peter said there are a bunch of Easter eggs in the film, and one of them includes a character from Pixar's upcoming film Elio making an appearance during the air stadium scene, when the athletes are playing their game.
8.Every aspect of the film is backed by research, including the boiling point of water, various ports and entryways that immigrants used around the world, as well as personal immigrant stories from other employees at the company.
This map is filled with pins, which indicate the countries and islands the employees are from.
9.The hunt for Elemental's leads was a "long" one, but Peter ultimately decided on two actors whose voices felt like their Elemental characters on an external level. Leah Lewis stars as Ember Lumen.
"It was a long hunt for both of them, because I wanted voices, on an external level, that feel like their element. Leah has a very smokey voice and Mamoudou has a real cool voice. I saw her in a movie called The Half of It and she was great in that. She suffered no fools and she had this raspy voice, but could sing and control it. The scenes with her dad and the scenes with her friends really painted a picture for me like, 'Oh my goodness, I can really feel this voice.'"
10.As for Mamoudou Athie, who plays Wade Ripple, Peter was already a big fan of his previous work and knew that he had the artistic "range" to deliver those emotional scenes.
"With Mamoudou, there were several movies with him that stood out. There was one on Netflix called Uncorked where he's an aspiring sommelier and there's this scene where he flirts in a really nerdy way. Then there was this show called Oh Jerome, No and there was a scene where he was crying, but in a comedic yet real way. You can just see his range in the projects he does. His character Wade wears his emotions on his sleeve, so it was a no-brainer for me."
11.Elemental took seven years to make. Production took place both in Pixar Studios as well as their homes, as they worked remotely during the pandemic.
12.Elemental required more computers than any other Pixar film in order to bring it to life. It took 151,000 core processors. And if you need some context for that number, Finding Nemo had 923 core processors, Monsters Inc. needed 672, and Toy Story used 294.
Disney / Pixar
13.Each element went through dozens of revisions to guarantee facial expressions and their physical "body" movements aligned.
"We started off making Ember really realistic and she looked terrifying! We couldn't put cartoon eyes and when we put real eyes on her, she just looked creepy. Then we moved to a flat version that didn't feel like it appeared hot enough. We came to a middle ground where her realistic movements felt fiery enough but caricatured enough where her features can sit and hold into her."
14.The water elements were the hardest to work with for animators, because water can reflect and refract. Animators wanted to ensure they were able to encompass all of its forms and elemental reactions.
"We tried water that looked like there was no skin, but then some artists noticed that there's this meniscus, this silver lining — so they started putting that around him and it created this line-work around the water elements."
15.This was one of the first concept drawings Peter drew for the film. He and his family loved eating Korean BBQ, and he thought it would be fun if the fire elements loved eating hot food.
16.Peter, who also happens to be the inspiration for Russell from Up, believes he'd be a water element if he lived in Element City because he's a "big cry baby."
17.Lastly, Elemental is dedicated to Peter's parents, who died while he was making the movie. Peter wanted this movie to serve as a big "thank you" to his parents, and he hopes the film encourages every audience member to go home and hug their parents, if they can.
