‘Elemental’ Director Peter Sohn Says “Culture Clashes” And Family Love At Heart Of Disney/Pixar Movie – Contenders Film: The Nominees

Dominic Patten
·2 min read
‘Elemental’ Director Peter Sohn Says “Culture Clashes” And Family Love At Heart Of Disney/Pixar Movie – Contenders Film: The Nominees
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“It’s been really interesting to talk about the film in this personal way, because it really was never meant to be so personal,” Elemental director Peter Sohn said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees panel Saturday.

“The seeds sort of started,” the Disney/Pixar vet added of his own Korean family story that birthed the Oscar-nominated toon. “And it rippled through the crew, and a lot of our crew members started bringing their own personal lives to it as well.”

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With a love story of sorts between fire element Amber and water element Wade, “empathy among cultures” and a dollop or two of the immigrant experience and interracial relationships, the seven-year effort to bring Elemental to the big screen now sees the half-billion-grossing pic up for Best Animated Feature. It will face off for the Oscar against Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. Netflix’s Nimona, Robot Dreams and Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

RELATED: Contenders Film: The Nominees — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Having debuted Out of Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Elemental was released wide in June to a steady drip of box office success and acclaim. With voices by the great Catherine O’Hara, Nancy Drew alum Leah Lewis, The Get Down vet Mamoudou Athie and The Goldbergs star Wendi McLendon-Covey, among others, and a score by Thomas Newman, the film is a case of much more than opposites attracting, it is opposites finding their true selves.

RELATED: ‘Elemental’ Composer Thomas Newman On Scoring From A Passive Perspective: “The Scene Presents Itself In A Certain Way, And I Respond Musically”

It was a process that Sohn says became a true family affair at the studio.

“We had just sent out an email out early in development about wanting to hear if anyone had these kind of stories,” he said onstage. “We were overwhelmed with all these responses. We slowly but surely went through all of them throughout the first year in development, having meetings, hearing these wonderful touching stories, really funny stories and, frankly, sad stories helping us define what these unique cultures could be for fire, and for water.”

RELATED: ‘Elemental’ Review: New Pixar Animation Is Visually Splendid, But Swamped In Syrupy Sentiment – Cannes Film Festival

Elemental can be seen right now on Disney+

Check out the panel video above.

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