Elemental Director Peter Sohn Reveals Cultural Influences On Newest Pixar Movie

Fire, Water, Earth, and Air are coming together once more as they thrive in Element City with the arrival of the upcoming Pixar movie, Elemental, and director Peter Sohn reveals that there is more than what meets the eye with the cultural influences in the film.

Credit: Pixar

Step into the vibrant Element City where Fire, Water, Earth, and Air are living together in diversity and through that comes the culture of each of the faction in Elemental.

Elemental will witness the anthropomorphic elements living in Element City and a fiery woman and a go-with-the-flow guy from opposite elements learn that they actually have a lot of things in common, breaking the notion that they could not go together.

Seven years in the making, Elemental director Peter Sohn reveals to ComicBook.com the importance of the incorporation of his personal life into the the rich world of Element City.

Peter Sohn reveals that cultural influences are all over Elemental, "When I first started pitching it, there were things of my own life that I would make fun of in terms of like, oh, I love spicy food. Wouldn't it be funny if Fire food was really spicy, that kind of thing."

Sohn clarified that the residents of Element City are not Asian, they are universal, "Once people started asking, 'Oh, are they Asian?' It was like, no, they're not meant to be Asian. Or 'is Air meant to be this culture?' Quickly I realized that no, these have to be universal."

Sohn provided his main direction for Elemental in presenting their own culture in Element City, "My biggest goal was to try to take the element itself and pull from there to make the culture."

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Sohn became cautious in adding the cultural influences to the mixture of Elemental, "If you go too far, it could become alien so you do have little grounding ways to do that."

Elemental is expected to break the norms and stereotypes that are associated with each of the elements and it hits close to home to director Sohn as it mirrors his life as immigrants in New York City.

Peter Sohn is best known for his work in The Good Dinosaur and after the success of that film, he crafted Elemental for seven years.

Elemental proudly banners the voice cast composed of Leah Lewis as Ember Lumen, Mamoudou Athie as Wade Ripple, Ronnie Del Carmen as Bernie Lumen, Shila Ommi as Cindy Lumen, Mason Wertheimer as Clod, Wendy McLendon Covey as Gale, Joe Pera as Fern Grouchwood, and Catherine O'Hara as Brook Ripple.

Elemental is set for a theatrical release on June 16, 2023.