Elemental Director Peter Sohn on His Emotional Inspiration & Why There's No Villain

Disney’s newest Pixar film, Elemental, is an original concept co-written and directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur). The story centers on two young adults, Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) and Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), who at first glance seem an odd pair, but their differences allow them to open up to new perspectives as they help each other come to a deeper understanding of identity and the world around them. To learn more about the boundary-pushing technology and the emotional core of this brand-new story, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with Sohn, who was joined by producer Denise Ream.

Elemental is a layered story that examines the dynamics of relationships between children and their parents, you and the person you meet on a train, and, quite literally, fire and water. Ember, who’s a second-generation immigrant in Element City, is poised and proud to take over her father’s (Ronnie del Carmen) shop, but when she meets the loveably “go-with-the-flow” Wade, a Water Elemental, he helps her stoke the flames of her curiosity and creativity. In addition to Lewis, Athie, and del Carmen, Elemental features the vocal talents of Catherine O’Hara as Wade’s mom, Brook, Shila Ommi as Ember’s mom Cinder, and Wendi McLendon-Covey as Wade’s boss, Gale.

Before grabbing your tickets, find out why this story is so personal to Sohn, how it changed throughout production, and why Ember was nearly a “monster” straight from The Lord of the Rings. Sohn and Reams discuss with Weintraub the lengths they went to in order to nail the perfect character designs for Elemental by partnering with Disney Research Studios in Zurich, as well as why they didn’t go with an A-list cast to voice their film.

#Elemental #PeterSohn #Pixar #DeniseReam

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