Peter Sohn is the director of the upcoming Pixar romantic comedy Elemental, reveals how the connection between fire and water inspired the emotional story at the heart of the animated film. The film follows fire elemental Ember and water elemental Wade as they grow closer and discover they have more in common than they expected. They must navigate their growing connections in the Element City, made up of elemental inhabitants of fire, earth, water, and air.
Screen Rat attended early press event for Elemental at Pixar Studios, in which a press conference was held with Sohn. He discusses the romantic comedy in his heart Elemental, as well as the importance of the father-daughter relationship between Ember and her bigoted father, Bernie. See Sohn’s full quote below:
This is the connection between fire and water. The first thing I suggested to Disney was, can fire and water be connected? Is this even possible? This hook got us through. I’m a big fan of a lot of romantic comedies, from Jane Austen movies to Moonlight to The Big Sick. All of these worlds, how they bring cities into the stories. The idea of romance is a big part of this movie, but it was also a triangle. Part of me has to do with trying to marry someone outside of my culture. But it’s not just a guy meeting a girl or a girl meeting a guy.
It was also father and daughter and what that relationship was. The original concept was to try to make everything universal. We can have some of the connection between these two, fire and water, but then we can understand the family dynamics and the cultural part of it. And to make the movie bigger.
Elemental brings Pixar back to the romantic comedy genre
Pixar has done it before with the romantic comedy genre Wall-E With the titular robot in love with the technologically advanced EVE. However, Elemental Despite being physically and culturally different, Ember and Wade seem to lean more toward some of their favorite tropes that are closer to each other. Elements tend to stick to themselves in Element City, especially when it comes to relationships, in part because of the safety.
However, Wade and Ember find an unexpected bond growing between them. As their bond grows stronger, these two elements discover they have more in common than they believed. Water, Air, Earth, and Fire each have their own culture that can be explored Elemental.
Another important relationship Elemental Between Ember and her father, Bernie. Exploring the relationships between Bernie and Ember, Ember and Wade, and Wade and Ember’s family Sohn’s own experiences were inspiring Elemental, which brings a deeper level of authenticity to the dynamic between the characters. These physical, cultural, and familial barriers are rooted in the reality of relationships and the classic tropes of the rom-com genre. With many of the classic themes at the heart of the film, Elemental It looks like a welcome return to the genre for Pixar.
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