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The first trailer for new Pixar movie Elemental has launched, and it takes us on a fantastical journey into a world where every character is one of the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire.
The trailer, which you can watch above, sees an incognito fire-resident step onboard a transport boat, destination Element City. As she walks, weird and wonderful characters are shown off – from a tree-shaped passenger to some fluffy cloud people. It's one meeting in particular that's significant, though: Ember encounters a water resident, and when their hands almost touch, the cross of water and flame causes a hiss of steam. Meet protagonists Ember (fire) and Wade (water), who, over the course of Elemental, will form an unlikely duo: and come to realize they're more alike than they originally thought.
Total Film sat down with director Peter Sohn to break down the new trailer and discuss the film's inspiration, how the visual style was created, and what Sohn has learned throughout his over 20 years at Pixar. Here's our full conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Total Film: Just from this clip alone, it already looks like such a fascinating world. Could you talk me through how you went about creating the setting of Element City and figuring out how all the elements would fit together?
Peter Sohn: It started off with fire being a main character. Growing up in New York, what it means to belong to a city or belong to a community was something that was interesting to navigate. And so sometimes where I didn't feel like I belonged, the city reflected that; and then sometimes when I did, the city reflected that. So, it was starting off with fire, and what would make it the toughest for a fire character? A city that started with water infrastructure. We started building the city to go, 'Oh, where would they have built this place?' So it was like a delta where water and earth met. They got to the city, they started forming it, and then air came in, and fire finally came in terms of the hierarchy. What was fun in the teaser to showcase was that, 'Oh, the trains are on water, like the It's A Small World ride or something.' The whole infrastructure is based on water, and how tough or dangerous that might be for fire. So that's how it started, and then everything else fit into that foundation.
We also see some really cool character designs in the trailer. I love the tree-shaped character and the little turnip children, they're so cute. How did that visual style develop? Every character in the trailer just looks so unique, even when they're from the same element type.
Fire and water were really tough. We tried making realistic fire and she looked really scary. [Laughs] She looked terrifying, like a Balrog. Then when we went so graphic, it didn't feel hot, or it didn't feel like she could burn anything. So, we had to find this balance of caricature of an anthropomorphic face, and then a caricature of the actual effect. Once we found that, that dictated where Wade would be and then where the rest of the characters would be in terms of earth, air characters to try to unify them. It all started with them.
Talking of Wade and Ember, we see them meet for the first time in the trailer. Already, we see a problem where some water from Wade hits Ember's hand, and it looks like it hurts her. What kind of journey are they going to go on when they have this huge barrier between them? And how were you thinking about crafting their relationship and their interactions?
It was twofold. There's a personal side of it. I'm Korean and I grew up with very conservative Korean parents. They wanted me to marry Korean, but I didn't, I fell in love with someone from California, this Italian, half-English Californian – all the culture clash that came from that. And so there was a lot of that personal side that started to boil into the relationship. But then, the other side was the actual elements, of trying to explore, 'Okay, what do we get from fire.' Fire is temporary, fire can be passionate, fire represents this or that. And then water is transparent, they go with the flow. And so those started forming those characters. Then once we really started building that up, did we see how they might unite or how they might clash. A lot of the journey for Ember is understanding her identity and her culture in this world through the lens of Wade. His "go with the flow" personality really starts to open up something in Ember that you didn't realize was there.
You've said before that your experiences as a child of your parents, who were immigrants in New York City, helped to inspire this movie. Could you talk some more about that?
They had immigrated from Korea in the late '60s, early '70s. My parents came separately. My dad started as a hotdog cart guy in Manhattan, he would sell near the park, hotdogs, and pretzels. I had heard these stories growing up, but I just thought, "Whatever Dad." I had no empathy for it until I got older and really understood, "Oh my goodness, my dad came here with nothing, and got this grocery store, bought a bigger grocery store, found this other shop, and just built and built and built, this immigrant dream of trying to create a place for our family." That understanding really affected me and became what the movie is, essentially. But it also came with a lot of xenophobia, a lot of racism, where cultures clashed. That's what I so much liked about the elements – that some elements can mix, some can't. And so there was this balance between the two and it all stemmed from that upbringing in New York. The movie isn't based in New York, it's a fantasy place. But there are a lot of different places that began to fuel Element City in that way.
Pixar movies tell these incredible stories, but they also have these universal truths embedded within them. What would you say is at the heart of Elemental?
It's a love story, the heart of it. I think part of the love story is this idea of understanding who you are to then understand who your parents were, or vice versa; understanding your parents can help you understand who you are. I don't know about you, what age you were when you started seeing your parents as people. There was always Mom and Dad, but then they became like, "Oh, right. You also have your own personal trials and tribulations that I didn't know about." That part I hope everyone can connect to, because we all have parents, obviously, but really understanding what they've done was part of the game.
You've also directed The Good Dinosaur and you've worked on many other Pixar movies over the years. What lessons have you carried with you in your time at Pixar, and how did they help you with Elemental?
One of the great things about Pixar is the artists here and their dedication to try to make something as best as we can, and not taking that for granted, and really trying to understand the different departments and the processes because this is such a technically challenging movie that it would all be based in trust to make any of this, and teams collaborating together. And I think throughout the years, understanding how some of the movies collaborated on things were some of the big lessons for me in terms of trying to get something done. We're still getting it done!
You've also voiced some Pixar characters, most recently Sox in Lightyear. Does that experience help you with directing?
Yeah, absolutely. As a performer, trying to find something real in the character and trying to lead the room to make the character was something that I really appreciated with Angus [MacLane, Lightyear director], in terms of trying to find who Sox was, what pieces of him could help the story out. And so, that I totally brought into working with the performers on Elemental. So much of this is a love story that chemistry is necessary between the two performers. And because we're so split all the time because of COVID, trying to allow the performers to find that chemistry was a big part of the game that I don't think I would have done without that experience.
Elemental releases June 16, 2023. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Disney movies for everything else there is to get excited about.
