Peter (Sohn) would reel me back in a bit when I was too sassy or angry or sobbing. “It was a challenge to keep my heart open for all these emotions. “You even see it in the way she is animated, when she’s feeling down and unsure, her light literally dims,” says Lewis. Lewis says she related to Ember’s fierce pride and determination and had to discover the character’s more vulnerable side over time. “Whether it’s unabashed joy or deep anger, you feel it all deeply.” ![]() ![]() ![]() “Clown class gets you to be yourself,” he says. Athie and Lewis were never in the same recording booth together, and only met for the first time last summer.įor his part, Mamoudou says he grew up as a very self-conscious boy, and finding the exuberant positivity of Wade required what he calls “clown work.” Not the circus kind, but rather exercises meant to take him back to the carefree, honest emotions of youth. Much of the voiceover work for “Elemental” took place during the pandemic. “My parents were always there for me, which was invaluable.” Though her parents weren't immigrants, “I grew up Chinese American, so I did at times feel that sense of otherness that Ember feels when she goes around Element City,” says Lewis. Her character’s frustrations – at one point, Ember is shunned by those afraid of her fiery constitution – were familiar. Lewis, 26, was born in China and adopted by an American family when she was 6 months old. This film just spoke to me on a cellular level.” He says he feels “a level of gratitude to my parents that I cannot express, so doing this movie is really a love letter to them. “Life is just more interesting in a diverse world.” Mamoudou Athie says Pixar's 'Elemental' spoke to his immigrant background 'on a cellular level'Īthie, 34, whose parents emigrated from Mauritania in western Africa when he was a child, just became an American citizen last year. “We talked to so many of the people in our studio who are first- and second-generation immigrants, who have added so much to our Pixar community, and we wanted to honor that with this film,” she says. But it is also a genuinely American saga – the quest to fit in while retaining one’s cultural roots – that resonated for both lead voice actors as well as much of the multinational production company, says “Elemental” producer Denise Ream. Where Wade comes from a well-to-do aquatic clan that lives in a fancy high rise, Ember is an immigrant from the world of fire who is bent on honoring her parents by taking over their shop, which peddles things fire people would eat (that would be wood).Įmber’s road to self-discovery is of course a proxy for Sohn’s story, he says. 'Elemental' movie review: Fire and water mix but nothing else does in Disney Pixar's first rom-com Not your usual romantic comedy woes.īut true love has a way of defying chemistry, and much of the film is centered on Ember’s struggle not so much with her love life but with her identity. ![]() Namely, that a kiss will mean she'll be extinguished and he'll boil and evaporate. They live in Element City, surrounded by diverse, well, elements (including earth and air), but find their mutual attraction might come with disastrous consequences. “Elemental” charts the romance between two polar opposites: fire (Ember Lumen, voiced by Leah Lewis) and water (Wade Ripple, voiced by Mamoudou Athie). “That one day in the Bronx was the seed,” he says. “I had invited my brother and my parents, who came here from Korea with nothing, and I looked at them and thought of their sacrifices and just cried,” says Sohn, 45.Ībout a year later, he was telling that story to friends at Pixar who immediately told him this should be his next film. Pixar veteran Peter Sohn − he directed "Elemental" as well as 2015's "The Good Dinosaur," and his likeness informed the face of Russell in “Up” − was back where he grew up for a festival celebrating the arts. The journey to “Elemental,” Pixar’s new animated film (in theaters Friday), started eight years ago in the New York borough of the Bronx.
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