‘Elemental’ Team on Pixar Films Returning to Theaters: “It’s Disappointing When People Watch Them on iPhones”
Pixar’s latest film Elemental, exploring a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together as a romance blossoms between fiery young woman Ember and water guy Wade, represents much more than a fictional story to several of its cast and creators.
Alongside the romance at the center of the story is the journey of a fire family, the parents of which emigrated from their native fire land to start a better life for their daughter in Element City. It was one of the film’s leading themes, says its director.
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“The guiding light that got me through all of this was just this idea of appreciating the people in our lives that sacrificed something and risked,” Peter Sohn told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Thursday. “For me, those people are my parents. They were immigrants from another world, and they came here with nothing and built a life for my brother and I.”
Mamoudou Athie, who voices Wade, said he felt a connection when he first met Sohn and heard his story, as “we share a similar background, similar feelings about our background, similar feelings of a debt of gratitude to our families. And I just felt so connected to this piece and his heart. I just was like, ‘I’ve got to get this part.'”
Athie admitted, though, that he was surprised that the director wanted his deep voice “for such a youthful-feeling character. And he did, and I was really happy he could hear beyond what the standard is.”
Wendi McLendon-Covey, who voices the blustery Gale, noted, “every actor wants to be part of a Pixar movie because these movies live forever.”
“They’re beautiful stories. They’re told in an iconic way, and you say yes before you even find out what it’s about — or I did anyway. I didn’t even read the whole email before I said yes,” she said before adding, “when I saw it finally I cried so hard at the end, it’s beautiful.”
Tears seem to be a common theme, as Leah Lewis, who voices Ember, said upon her first viewing, “I barely even processed the film because I was sobbing the whole time.”
Elemental marks Pixar’s first original, non-franchise theatrical title to be released in theaters since the pandemic following disappointing box office numbers for Lightyear and several years where its films were sent straight to Disney+. It will be a major test for the iconic brand if its movies can still produce theatrical success, as the team emphasized the value of seeing films like this on the big screen.
“We make them to be seen [in theaters], all of them, even the ones that went to streaming,” said Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter. “We sit and review them 40 feet tall, so it’s disappointing when people watch them on iPhones or whatever because there’s so much more in there. This film is no exception.”
Athie — who called the project “my favorite movie I’ve ever done” — added, “You have to see it to understand. There’s something about the technology, they’ve never used technology like this before. I didn’t understand what they were talking about until I saw a bit of the movie at D23 and I was like, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’ And honestly, just to see a wonderful, family movie like this in theaters, there’s nothing really like it.”
Lewis noted the theatrical benefit: “The fact that 19 villages went into making this film and also the special effects of every single character, it’s something that you really have to do in order to see the detail and how grand this film is because it’s a very, very large, visually tantalizing kind of film.”
The film is also coming out during a particularly successful time for animation, following big box office success for The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
“I have so many friends working on all of these movies and the idea of animation growing is a dream that when you get into this business you always have of wow, there’s so many movies out there, and I just count ourselves lucky that we’re even a part of it,” said Sohn of this moment.
Pixar president Jim Morris added of Universal and Sony’s recent animation successes: “In the movie business, we’re always hopeful that they’re all going to go through the roof like that. We’re really happy and proud for those movies, our fellow filmmakers, they did a great job. We’ve got high hopes for this and there are a lot of films out there right now, but we’re excited.”
Elemental hits theaters on June 16.
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