(Left) Director Peter Sohn at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. Photo by Deborah Coleman/Pixar. (Right) The Incredibles in 2004’s ‘The Incredibles’. Photo: Pixar Animation Studios.
Preview:
Peter Sohn will direct ‘Incredibles 3’.
Brad Bird, who directed the previous two movies, wrote the script.
The movie was confirmed at last year’s D23 event.
If you cast your mind back to last August, you might recall that Disney took the opportunity of its D23 event to announce that a third movie in the successful ‘Incredibles’ franchise was in the works.
Little was revealed about it, beyond Pixar animation Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter offering that Brad Bird –– who has written and directed both the previous outings, was developing a third.
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Yet it would appear that Bird’s duties elsewhere (more on that lower down the page) are precluding him from handling the new movie. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that while Bird is at work on the screenplay, ‘Elemental’ director Peter Sohn is the one who will usher the super-powered Parr family back to screens, with ‘Soul’s Dana Murray producing alongside Bird.
The Incredibles in 2004’s ‘The Incredibles’. Photo: Pixar Animation Studios.
Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe helped superheroes conquer cinema, Bird’s first ‘Incredibles’ movie, released in 2004, told the story of Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson).
Bob (A.K.A. Mr. Incredible), and his wife Helen (A.K.A. Elastigirl, played by Holly Hunter), are the world’s greatest famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville, always saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis.
But 15 years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they have no choice but to retire as superheroes to live a “normal” life with their three children Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Spencer Fox) and Jack-Jack, who were born with secret superpowers.
Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top-secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.
In the 2018 sequel, ‘Incredibles 2’, the Parr family still know that heroism is illegal according to the established law that prevents them from helping people.
But their lives in hiding are cut short when a wealthy philanthropist approaches Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl with the idea to remove the law and make their heroic acts legal. And Elastigirl is chosen to help lead this plan, leaving Mr. Incredible in charge of the kids.
Things get even more complicated when a terrifying new menace called the Screenslaver shows up and threatens to abolish Elastigirl’s attempt to restore heroism. Who is the Screenslaver? Can the Parrs save the world from chaos and destruction? Can the heroic freedom be restored?
That project, ‘Ray Gunn’, has been a passion of Bird’s for nearly 30 years. Originally created alongside writer Matthew Robbins, it’s reportedly the story of the last human private detective, Raymund Gunn, in a future world composed of humans and aliens.
Originally aimed for production via Skydance Animation and its deal with Apple, the movie has been mired in creative difference issues and budgetary wrangles, but is now likely to see screens via Netflix, which took over the ‘toon company in 2023.
Peter Sohn feels like the natural pick to follow Bird; he has worked on every animated Bird film (including both ‘Incredibles’) up until ‘Ray Gunn’.
Bird has been a mentor to Sohn, and Sohn was specifically chosen to carry The Incredibles torch by Bird and Pete Docter.
Sohn is a Pixar veteran, having worked on various movies as a story artist, animator and story consultant, and has been a member of the company’s Senior Creative Team (a group of filmmakers who offer input to those making films there) for a decade.
As a director himself, Sohn made ‘The Good Dinosaur’ and the aforementioned ‘Elemental’, Sohn’s second movie, was nominated for the best animated feature Oscar last year.
When will ‘Incredibles 3’ head to theaters?
Disney and Pixar are keeping that particular piece of information locked in a vault for now, but given the usual lead time on CG animated movies, we can’t imagine it being ready much before 2028 or 2029 (the planned sequel to ‘Coco’, for example, is tentatively scheduled for 2029.)
Next up for the Emeryville-based animation team is alien abduction adventure ‘Elio’, which sees the title character (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), a space-obsessed kid who is swept off on a cosmic misadventure.
What happens when fire and water mix? In Elemental City, it sparks an unlikely connection between two of its residents – Wade and Ember.
The elements Fire, Water, Earth, and Air come to life in Pixar’s animated feature ‘Elemental,’ following the journey of Ember as she works towards her goal of taking over her parents’ convenience store – Fireplace. Due to her fiery personality, Ember has a hard time controlling her outburst when it comes to interacting with the customers, further delaying her desire to take over the family store.
In the midst of Ember’s predicament, she meets Wade in the most unexpected way, which results in the store being on the verge of shutting down. As Ember and Wade work to get the store up to code, they discover something even more alarming that could cause devastating destruction to parts of Elemental City.
The story of Ember and Wade gives us all the warm and fuzzy feeling of a romantic comedy – the unexpected meeting, their clashing personalities (playing into how fire and water don’t mix), and how they have to put aside their differences to save their city.
“Disney and Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where Fire-, Water-, Earth- and Air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.”
‘Elemental’ first premiered at the 76th Canne Film Festival as the closing film. It held its world premiere on June 10, 2023 at the Tribeca Festival. Prior to the festivals, the first twenty minutes of the film was screened in 3D at the 2023 CinemaCon and was positively received by critics.
The animation style for ‘Elemental’ was quite a challenge for director Peter Sohn’s team. To bring Ember and Wade to life, it required about 10,000 controls, whereas the average Pixar character has about 4,000. The animators needed additional controls in order for the characters to act like elements, which also included layers of effect on top. For example, Ember couldn’t have shadows because she is a Fire elemental. With Wade, having too little light meant you couldn’t see him.
Director Peter Sohn at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. Photo by Deborah Coleman/Pixar.
The story of Ember and her family is inspired by Sohn’s own experience. He is a son of Korean immigrants, and his parents opened a bodega-style store in the Brox, much like Ember’s family in the film. There are also beats that will resonate with the immigrant experience – Bernie and Cinder changing their names because their birth names proved to be too hard for an Elemental City immigration officer to pronounce.
The film touches on the pressure of being a child of an immigrant as well – Ember’s dad, Bernie, recounts how disappointed and disapproving his own father was when he chose to leave his hometown. When Bernie bowed to his father as a final farewell, his father did not bow in return. Bernie carried that burden of his father’s disapproval for the rest of his life and vowed not to do the same to his daughter.
The Pixar animated feature opened in theaters domestically on June 16, 2023, and is available in various formats, such as Dolby Cinema, IMAX, Real 3D, and 4DX. ‘Elemental’ is still playing in theaters, so be sure to check your local listings and Moviefone below for showtimes in your area. ‘Elemental’ has a total runtime of 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Disney and Pixar’s all-new theatrical short ‘Carl’s Date’ to release in front of ‘Elemental’ on June 16, 2023.
If you’re catching this in the theater, you’ll be treated to a delightful Pixar short film ahead of the feature called ‘Carl’s Date,’ which sees the return of Carl Fredricksen and Dug from ‘Up.’
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Watch the official trailers for ‘Elemental’ below:
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Can’t make it out to the theater? Don’t worry; the Pixar animated feature will surely make its way to Disney+. Additionally, Disney has announced the film will become available on digital on August 15, 2023. ‘Elemental’ will be available to purchase on platforms such as Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, and more. The physical release will be on September 26, 2023.
For a moment there, it looked like ‘The Flash’, a remnant of the “Snyderverse” set of DC movies that Warner Bros. (now Warner Bros. Discovery) had pinned its hopes on, would speed to victory.
But with a positive reaction out of April’s CinemaCon event (where even journalists’ social media had been mostly glowing) and ringing endorsements from an eclectic group that included Stephen King, incoming DC Studios boss James Gunn, and superstar/theatrical experience cheerleader Tom Cruise), hopes were higher that final director Andy Muschietti had pulled something off that might be embraced by audiences.
And yet… ‘The Flash’ opened to a dismal $55 million over the June 16th-18th weekend, on par with past DC bomb ‘Watchmen’ ($55.2 million) and not far ahead of infamous stumble ‘Green Lantern’ ($53.5 million), not adjusted for inflation.
In defense of the movie (which we reviewed positively), it was facing an uphill battle. It was a lesser-known character who, despite some comic book recognition a long-running, popular TV series and appearances in the different cuts of the ‘Justice League’ movie, wasn’t a proven draw on its own yet.
Star Ezra Miller, who had played the role with charm and humor against some of the more serious superheroes, didn’t help, racking up a string of controversial personal crises we won’t reheat here, but had been trying to resuscitate their personal reputation with apologies and seeking mental health treatment. They were also mostly kept away from promotion for the film.
Another issue was the movie’s delayed release, which kept it shifting around the schedules.
And finally, the worrying fear of superhero fatigue, which has impacted both DC and Marvel movies of late.
Audiences really do seem to be tiring of watching costumed heroes running/flying around, sprawling parallel dimension stories with endless heroes popping out of portals and big CGI-laden finales.
Even the star name endorsements didn’t move the PR needle.
“It is unfathomable to me why Zas [WBD CEO David Zaslav] and James Gunn promise how wonderful any picture or new plan will be months into the future. The public doesn’t care and isn’t aware of their prognostications. Let the product talk.”
Word of mouth wasn’t great even when it did open –– audiences handed out a B Cinemascore, and reviews were more mixed closer to its arrival.
Said Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian to the Reporter about the movie:
“‘The Flash’ unfortunately had a rough road to the multiplex and given the complexities and challenges of the marketing and positioning of the film in the marketplace, the number one debut is actually a solid result for the latest from DC Comics in such a crowded and competitive summer season.”
Yet ‘The Flash’ wasn’t the only movie facing problems on its release. Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ also didn’t manage to make much of a dent at the box office.
The latest movie from the animation powerhouse, long considered a champion at the box office, delighting audiences and growing a huge fanbase with its work, had been going through its own relative rough patch.
Corporate parent Disney had not exactly safeguarded the studio’s films –– during the pandemic, it was understandable why movies such a ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ might have been pushed to streaming service Disney+, but once theaters started to open up again and audiences seemed happier returning to the movies, it was less defensible for the likes of ‘Turning Red’ to debut primarily on small screens.
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So as ‘Elemental’ –– set in a world of living elements and featuring a love story between the fiery Ember (Leah Lewis) and watery Wade (Mamoudou Athie) –– debuted over the same weekend as ‘The Flash’ with the second-lowest three-day opening (for a wide release) in studio history at an estimated $29.5 million.
The only Pixar film to ever make less than ‘Elemental ‘over a three-day opening was the original ‘Toy Story’, which made $29.1 million over its first three-day weekend. And there’s really no comparing the two, since ‘Toy Story’ opened in 1995, when cinema tickets were much less expensive, debuted on 1,500 fewer screens than ‘Elemental’.
It also follows the poor performance of last year’s ‘Lightyear’, the movie (with its loose ‘Toy Story’ connections) that was supposed to have brought Pixar soaring back to theatrical. Instead, it crashed and burned, and several of the people who worked on the movie lost their jobs in the latest round of Disney layoffs.
‘Elemental’, of course, had no such connections to help sell it, but its originality was also seen as its own positive: in a world of sequels, reboots and franchises, it could help boost the cause of films not based on IP. Unfortunately, the relative lack of recognition (even from a hugely popular team such as Disney/Pixar) didn’t get people into theaters.
The new movie did at least warrant an A from Cinemascore’s polling of cinema customers, which points to potential legs, especially since there aren’t a lot of family movies headed our way at the moment.
Both Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney/Pixar are unlikely to be too affected by all of this drama, aside from when they have to justify spending to shareholders. Both companies have a robust slate on hand (albeit impacted by the ongoing WGA strike) and plenty of money to spend on upcoming releases.
Warners has ‘Blue Beetle’ and the ‘Aquaman’ sequel ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ waiting in the wings and is keeping its fingers crossed that Gunn can rejuvenate its superhero fortunes with his new DC Studios output. Disney has many subsidiaries to generate movies and income, and Pixar has its next movie, ‘Elio’, scheduled to arrive next March (like ‘Elemental’ it is once again gambling on another original story). And we’re not likely to see the end of the comic book genre or animated movies anytime soon. But there are surely lessons to be learned from both of these flops.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Double Dream/a Disco Factory production of an Andy Muschietti film, ‘The Flash.’ It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and is set to open in theaters in North America on June 16, 2023 and internationally beginning 14 June 2023.
In theaters on June 16th, ‘Elemental’ is the 27th feature film produced by the Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios, and while it has its charms, it comes across more as a technically accomplished animated effort than a truly satisfying all-round night at the movies.
Pixar could really use a big theatrical hit. After Disney shoved the otherwise excellent ‘Soul’ and ‘Turning Red’ either entirely on to Disney+ or in the case of the latter, on limited cinematic release where it lost money despite positive reviews before going to streaming, the company’s much-vaunted return to big screens was last year’s ‘Lightyear’.
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Yet Despite the connection to the ‘Toy Story’ movies, it flopped badly enough that some of the people involved have recently been let go as part of overarching Disney cost-cutting maneuvers.
Which naturally puts a lot of pressure on ‘Elemental’, the latest film to emerge from the company and directed by Peter Sohn, who knows a little bit about problematic Pixar movies having last made ‘The Good Dinosaur’, which earned decent reviews but didn’t connect with cinemagoers on a scale that the company might have preferred.
‘Elemental’ introduces us to Element City, a sprawling, fantastical metropolis where different elements –– Land, Air, Water and, more, recently Fire –– have settled in relative harmony. It’s to this world that Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) Lumen arrive from the land of Fire to start a new life with their unborn daughter.
Years later, that child, Ember (Leah Lewis) has grown into an impulsive young woman, one that her father hopes will one day soon inherit the shop he runs in the fire quarter. But Ember runs hot –– she has a burning temper than gets her into trouble with customers, and while she’s trying to be a loyal daughter, she’s not even totally convinced she wants to take over the family business.
When Ember accidentally meets city inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) she initially takes against the nervy, curious and kind water element, but circumstances keep pushing them together and they soon realize they could have serious chemistry.
Yet with the fire quarter under threat from water leaks and the pressure of family getting in the way, will these two unlikely friends –– and potentially more –– be able to let off some steam?
While ‘Elemental’ doesn’t channel the same level of emotional storytelling power as some of Pixar’s biggest hits (the team mining buddy comedies in particular for some fantastically entertaining and relatable narratives), it does feature two compelling lead characters.
Ember’s background –– or more specifically her parents’ –– is rooted in the immigrant story, hitting the beats of disappointed elders from different generations well and even featuring a knowing nod to language barriers (Ember’s mother and father are given their names when their original monikers prove too tough for a land element immigration officer to pronounce).
Despite its seemingly utopian feel, Element City also faces issues between elements (the fire people in particular are seen as dangerous, while Ember’s father has an understandable beef with water).
The opposites attracting aspect has powered Pixar movies since the start, though here the love story nature of the main pairing gives an extra layer to it. Lewis, and particularly Athie, bring real personality to their characters, yet the actual tale around them often comes across as less bespoke and more straight from the rack. Despite its immigration colors, the clash of cultures and emotional journey is a lot more basic than some previous films. And before you argue “it’s a kids’ movie”, Pixar has never aimed for just one audience. The likes of ‘Inside Out’ have tackled huge topics in interesting ways while also providing knockabout fun.
And yes, it’s also technically impressive, which is something we’ve all come to expect from the studio, here pushing the limits of characters made out of different elements. Element City is typically bursting with fun ideas, versions of real-world architecture, signage, transportation and other. It’s just unfortunate that the film should arrive two weeks after ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ which manages to cram in dazzling, dynamic and different animation styles while also not neglecting the emotional core of its adventure.
There are logic bumps here and there too –– it’s a common idea in animated movies to have the city named after characters, and a relatable concept, but human cities don’t tend to work that way –– no one lives in Homo Sapienburg.
This is far from a bad film, though –– just a little more generic in places than some of its stablemates and it may suffer in terms of rewatchability for that.
Finally, ‘Elemental’ arrives in theaters with a new short set in the world of ‘Up’. ‘Carl’s Date’ is bursting with gentle humor and reminds us exactly why audiences fell in love with cranky pensioner Carl (Ed Asner) and chatty, excitable dog Dug (Bob Peterson, who also writes and directs the piece). Following the widower as he nervously tries to figure out what to do on his first date in decades, it’s a lovely chance to check-in with the characters and boasts more warm laughs from Dug.
It’s almost a mistake to run this before the feature, since it harkens back to a time when Pixar could break our hearts with one four-minute, dialogue-free montage. While nothing in ‘Carl’s Date’ carries that sort of power, neither does ‘Elemental’.
Disney and Pixar’s all-new theatrical short ‘Carl’s Date’ to release in front of ‘Elemental’ on June 16, 2023.
Final Thoughts
Yet the latest Pixar film at least carries more invention and originality than ‘Lightyear’ and is worthy of engaging audiences, even if its surface is more polished than its heart is full.
Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.
Earlier this year, Moviefone had the pleasure of traveling to Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California to meet director Peter Sohn and screen some exclusive scenes from the new movie. After our tour and screening, we had a chance to attend a Q&A, along with several other members of the press, to hear what director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream had to say about the upcoming Pixar movie.
Director Peter Sohn at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. Photo by Deborah Coleman/Pixar.
Peter, can you talk about the difference between directing a Pixar movie that you are assigned like ‘The Good Dinosaur,’ or creating a film from scratch like you did with ‘Elemental?’
Pete Sohn: We’ve been here 23 years now at Pixar, and both experiences really showcased just the incredible talent. I keep saying it, but it’s such a lucky thing to be with all these people that really love what they’re doing, and I’m very proud of ‘The Good Dinosaur’ and the work that we got. The difference would be, it was inherited and I didn’t have that personal connection to it, but it was also much faster. I think we would’ve made 20 ‘Good Dinosaurs’ in the time it took to make ‘Elemental,’ but in starting this project from the beginning, it was from a personal place. So, there were a lot of interesting new things to learn along this process, where the experience on ‘Dinosaur’ was very much about getting a team focused and getting a film done. On this one, I didn’t realize how much a personal thing can hold you, and really put you on a rail of sorts. Whereas ‘Good Dinosaur’ was just, “Oh, do whatever, let’s just get this to work.” Whereas here, that’s not what that experience was. So it was a lot of processing and not to make it too sad, but my parents both passed away during the making of this movie. So, it was a very personal project, but then it was a very emotional one at the same time that was very different from that first experience. There were several pathways. 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, and all that kind of fun. My biggest goal was to try to find and take the element itself and pull from there to make the culture. Obviously if you go too far, it could become alien so you do have little grounding ways to do that. Something that was really interesting was disruption, meaning you think there is a piece of a culture that you think that it is mixed with the fire element on top, but then the next one should take you into another place where it’s giving you other values of cultures that we know, but without it pointing to anything. But more than anything, it was just saying, “Oh, they’re fire people. They eat wood. No earth people eat wood in this way. How can we exploit that? What dish, what kind of plates would they have?” So it would be extrapolating everything we could from the culture. We had a language made as well from David Peterson who did ‘Game of Thrones,’ and they have this amazing, brilliant team. Trying to take the fireplace sound effects, that stuff, and then trying to make a language of it. So when we first started adding fire sound effects to the characters, it just didn’t sound like a performance. So they came up with this language, again, based off of what we knew from fire.
Can you talk about the challenges of having the different elements interact together on screen?
Denise Rea: I mean getting the characters ready, I would say particularly Wade was probably the biggest challenge. That was really hard. We all knew fire would be hard, but I think we were a little surprised about the water characters being so difficult. Basically time’s ticking and, development and animation has to start. So that’s always a kind of nerve wracking time. then as Pete alluded to, we actually did need the effects post animation to be more procedural at a certain point. We did have bespoke shots. There’s a lot of hand effects that were going on, but a certain percentage, we had to get what you get right out of the box. So getting that ready was also a big challenge.
Can you talk about casting Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie and why they were the right actors for the roles?
PS: In the beginning, when I first designed these things, I was drawing a campfire and a bucket of water, and then they became characters. Then fire would be a smoky voice and water would be a cooler voice. So that idea of trying to find the external layer of the voice that have some characteristic that would tie to the element. Then in the art school days of breaking down a design, you would just throw everything that you know about that certain design and what you wanted. So fire was like, it could be passionate, it could be temporary, it could be fiery. So that sort of formed the early characteristics of her internal character. Wade would be the same thing where it was just transparent, emotions on the sleeve and then cool and goes with the flow. All those pieces start to form those early concepts of who they were. As we started developing the story, they start to form more where Ember began getting deeper about understanding her identity. “Am I from this city? Am I there?” There was this movie called ‘The Half of It’ from Netflix, directed and written by Alice Wu, and Leah stars in this. She performed on all these levels that were really interesting where she could be really hot tempered but still very appealing. Then she had a vulnerability in her voice that also she could straddle, but that was so sincere and authentic, but the whole time it was this smokey voice and she could sing. So it was like, holy cow. There were some moments in that film where she was talking to her father and it was so tender, but at the same time she could have a force behind it that I thought was perfect for this role. Then the same for Mamoudou, there was two pieces of Mamoudou that we had when we first started the character. I was always drawing and cry. I am a sap full on. So I kept drawing Wade in this sort of emotional way. Mamoudou was in this show called ‘Oh Jerome, No.’ He was going through a breakup, and he did this cry that was so sincere but hilarious. We had done some scratch recording for our reels. The amount of crying that Wade does, it can get so painful, it can be high pitch, but Mamoudou had such a compassionate soul that when he was crying, you just went with him in it. And then there was this other movie called ‘Uncorked’ that he was this guy that worked a barbecue shop, but he wanted to be a wine sommelier. He was working at the shop and this beautiful young woman comes in and he was flirting in this really nerdy way that I thought really was Wade. He does this weird little song and he just felt really loose and went with the flow without any problem. That’s how those voices came to be.
Can you talk about the difficulties of creating the stadium sporting event we see in the trailer with all the different elements together?
DR: Computationally, that thing’s just a beast. Then you add the wave in there. So that was one that you don’t want that to come at the end of the show, so we wanted to put that in early, but all those cloud characters were hard. I mean everything was hard, but they were tricky. So that went into production pretty early and I feel like we looked at the shots in that scene not too long ago?
Can you talk about the different cultures of the different elements that all live together in Element City?
PS: It was so interesting to start. Everything goes back to Ember, what Ember’s journey is. Then how to make a fire character feel uncomfortable in a city. So it was a very simple idea. “Oh, maybe having to get on a water train or having to cross water, always would make her uncomfortable.” So that started helping us understand the hierarchy of this place. So, what if water came to this place first? Understanding this planet was a brain tease for us. What is this place? This is element city. Who got here first? So the idea of water coming first and then earth coming second formed the delta, like a river delta where there’s a lot of water, meeting earth. Then from that delta that they would build this town, this city, and then air would be the third and then fire would be the last sort of element to come into the city. But it was all based off of that hierarchy of, the toughest thing for fire would be water. Then water would start. Where do you build a city where water lives? So it started that way. Then, in terms of the town and the segregation, there really isn’t segregation in that way in this film. It’s not ‘Zootopia’ in that world where everything is disconnected from each other. I really wanted a hopeful city. It’s meant to have this feel of like, “Oh, we could have a new life here. Our dreams can come true here.” We have a little bit of xenophobia. They walk through an air character that’s like, “Watch it.” I used to have watch it, but then I added, “Watch it, Sparky” right there, this little detail to just talk about truths that I know growing up and understanding, what are the prejudices of this world? I think everyone is trying to mix well in Element City, but then Ember’s father Bernie is having issues with his own uncomfortable connection with water. Then that would become a force throughout the movie that obviously when Ember connects more with water characters, that would be an issue just like it was with my family. But that sort of all supported what we needed the place to be for the story.
Can you talk about the father/daughter story in the film?
DR: I really loved the father-daughter relationship and that connection and understanding our parents as people. That’s something that I realized, which is what your parents do for you, and I sadly realized it after my dad was gone. So, it’s the love between children and their parents and it was fun to do a different story, frankly. That’s what I think our story and edit teams were excited about.
Finally, can you talk about your involvement in scoring the music for the film?
PS: It was a dream to just get to work with Thomas Newman. He’s just been someone that I’ve always admired. So I say that because I used a lot of his music as temp when making the reels. Now, that’s just one external coloring of it. But for the story, the intellectual part of me wanted to showcase a foreign world, and a world that we know, and I guess an American world. It’s not American, but it’s part of our culture, and in tracking that sort of intellectual idea of identity. “Am I Korean or am I American? What am I? I was born here, but when I’m in Korea, they don’t treat me like I’m Korean. And when I’m here, sometimes you can feel not of this place.” I’m trying to use music to help support that idea when you’re in the fire shop the music says it’s foreign, but it’s not something that we don’t know, but it has a vibe that doesn’t feel like you’re here. Then when you’re in the city, it has something that anchors us to something that we know. Now, that’s a very difficult challenge to do. Ultimately what Tom had done for that aspect of it was just make very unique music that really starts to separate. But then on an emotional level, Ember’s journey of understanding her vulnerabilities and when her walls come down was also another layer that we really focused on. There’s an emotional punchline that I don’t want to ruin for you guys, but there’s an idea that has been strung through the score that we worked very closely with Tom to hone. He worked very linearly. He would just start from the beginning and go. Then once we had that, then it would be working backwards and forwards to really understand how to get those emotional themes to resonate. But he works in a way that I’ve never worked before. He does a lot of pre-records, meaning he records a lot of pieces separately and then puts them all together. Even when we were with the orchestra the last time on ‘Dinosaur,’ the orchestra, once they got on the beat, everything that you hear recorded is the score. Tom doesn’t do that. It’s just like this score that you’re hearing one 16th of this one queue. Then when you start to see it come together, it’s like you just see these different layers and all of a sudden, “Holy cow, that’s what that was going to be.” I mean, why are we here? What are we doing? It’s just a love for the movies and this love for the movies. When you have the picture that this team worked so hard on and there’s this live orchestra on that beat, when that first note hits, there’s this movie goosebump of like, “Oh, there’s magic now. There’s some chemistry going on between that sound and this picture that is so beautiful.” There’s so much magic here that happens when all these artists come together. I like to use a lot of sports analogies, but we’re all in this room together and one of us is like, “Oh, this is the shot I had done.” You see it with everyone. There’s a real sports thing of like, that was a slam dunk that that person just did for the shot that’s going to be a part of a movie that we all have wanted to see. It’s the same thing as that.
Even as it continues its habit of shifting some movies (such as the upcoming ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’) to Disney+ as a lure for subscribers, Disney is still seeing big box office for its major releases (if a little lower for, say, recent Marvel and Pixar movies).
So, the company –– which of course boasts those two big franchises plus Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight under its giant banner –– is expectedly touting the huge success of ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and pointing to all the films it has headed our way this year.
Tony Chambers, the company’s head of theatrical distribution led the presentation, highlighting the fact that this year marks the first time since 2019 that they are releasing movies from all seven labels.
The show kicked off with a new clip from a certain incoming Marvel release…
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’
Marvel Studio’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.’ Photo courtesy of Marvel.com.
And the mention of ‘Guardians’ was understandably small given that the movie will be in theaters next week (May 5th, to be exact), with just a new clip shown to the audience at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The footage features Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and the different version of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) we met in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ on a planet in space suits. “I know you don’t remember any of it. You were everything to me, I miss you so much.,” he tells her, pouring out his heart. The funny kicks in with the rest of the gang –– Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) –– revealed to be listening to Peter’s expression of love.
The focus on Marvel continued with the recently released trailer for ‘The Marvels’, though that of course had already been seen. Expect more from that one and other MCU titles when Comic-Con rolls around this summer.
Following that, it was on to Disney’s main animated arm…
Disney Feature Animation has the original fantasy film ‘Wish‘ headed our way later this year. Though the movie was originally announced at last year’s D23, Disney has been drip-feeding information ever since, and CinemaCon is no exception.
The movie, which is also a musical comedy, introduces Asha (Ariana DeBose), a sharp-witted idealist who makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force — a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star set out to prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. All with the help of Asha’s goat pal Valentino (voiced by current animation lucky charm Alan Tudyk).
A clip was shown, featuring DeBose’s character singing one of her featured tunes, ‘So I Made This Wish’ –– aka the ‘I Want’ song so traditional to Disney princesses with some beautiful sky and scenery around that elicited applause from the crowd.
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And Chambers also announced that Chris Pine is part of the voice cast, playing King Magnifico, the ruler of Rosas, a magical kingdom where wishes really do come true.
Said Jennifer Lee, DWA boss and co-writer of the movie about Pine in a press release from the studio,
“As the most powerful person in the kingdom, King Magnifico needed to be played by someone who could give all the charm, cleverness and charisma to this magnanimous character, and Chris is beautifully bringing all of that and then some.”
‘Wish’, directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, will be in theaters on November 22nd, filling the traditional Disney Thanksgiving slot.
Melissa McCarthy arrived on stage to talk up Rob Marshall’s live action/CG re-imagining of the fairy tale so famously brought to animated life by Disney in 1989. While Halle Bailey plays the titular Ariel, McCarthy is scheming sea witch Ursula.
Here’s what McCarthy had to say about her character.
“Did someone say my name… I had something in my throat. It was an honor to play one of Disney’s most delicious and iconic villains. You can’t help but love her. Ursula is everything — she’s dishy, she’s a conniving broad, maybe that’s why I relate to her.”
McCarthy cued up a new clip from the movie, which fittingly featured her character in the sequence where Ursula grants Ariel’s wish to become a human, and Ursula’s song ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’.
Despite the less-than-stellar results from ‘Lightyear’, Disney continues to see Pixar as a pillar of its schedule, and demonstrated that belief with 20 minutes of impressive, 3D footage from the upcoming ‘Elemental’.
As for the story, it transports us to Element City, where a host of elements live and work. The trailer showcases each element — air, earth, water and fire — and what sets them apart according to Ember Lumen (Lewis), a quick-witted and fiery woman who’s always stayed close to home in Firetown. She finally ventures out of her comfort zone to explore and meets go-with-the-flow water guy Wade Ripple (Athie). Elements are not supposed to mix, but Ember and Wade forge a connection – one that could cause problems for them and their families.
‘Elemental’ will close out this year’s Cannes Film Festival before arriving in theaters on June 16th.
The movie follows the American Samoa soccer team, infamous for their brutal 31-0 FIFA loss in 2001. With the World Cup Qualifiers approaching, the team hires down-on-his-luck, maverick coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) hoping he will turn the world’s worst soccer team around. The underdog comedy heads to theaters November 17th, and you can watch the trailer below.
Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation sees his Hercule Poirot headed to the floating city, where there are terrifying goings-on.
A first trailer was shown for the movie, which unlike most of the other footage shown today, has gone online.
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This time, a disconsolate Poirot finds himself at a Halloween party in one of the city’s creepier palazzos during a thunderstorm and, as it turns out, a seance. This palazzo is an orphanage, you see, and like all orphanages in ghost stories it’s got a deep, dark secret. A mother searching for a lost child thinks she can make contact through a medium, and over the course of an evening secrets start to unravel.
As was the case with Branagh-Poirot’s last two cases, the cast is stacked: Michelle Yeoh –– or, to give her her full title, Best Actress Oscar-winner and all-round goddess Michelle Yeoh –– will be that medium, Joyce Reynolds, and the cast also includes Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Camille Cottin and Jude Hill, who played the nine-year-old lead in Branagh’s ‘Belfast’.
Next was the first look footage and trailer for 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Creator’, the new sci-fi thriller from ‘Godzilla’ director Gareth Edwards.
Retitled from ‘True Love’, the movie finds humans facing off against robots.
In the trailer shown to audiences, John David Washington is reflecting on heaven with his wife and daughter. The daughter is an android, with a half-head. Gorgeous battle scenes akin to Edwards’ ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ see spaceship fighters attacking tropical locales. It looks astonishing and will hopefully arrive online before too long.
‘The Creator’ will land in theaters on September 29th.
Chambers closed out the presentation by introducing a video greeting from Indy himself –– AKA Harrison Ford, who praised the latest movie and cued up an action-packed clip.
The sneak peek showed Indiana Jones and his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) bickering with each other as they dodge gunfire and slow-moving camels in a bazaar in Tangier. As an army of mooks chases them, they chase after the Nazi Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who has the Dial in his possession. But Helena and Indy don’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to the dial. Helena is engaged to an unscrupulous man who wants the dial to make a fortune, and she has her own reasons for wanting to make the sale. Indy wants the dial because, presumably, it belongs in a museum.
And while Helena has the most death-defying moment in the scene as she jumps onto Jurgen’s car, Indy isn’t taking it easy as he drives a small cart through narrow streets and reaches out to grab the dial without getting shot by Jurgen’s right-hand man, Klaber, played by Boyd Holbrook.
The clip got a rousing reaction from theater owners, and ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘ is headed to Cannes before landing in theaters on June 30th.
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And that was it for the main presentation, though the company had one final treat up its sleeve –– a screening of new Stephen King adaptation ‘The Boogeyman’. That one will be scaring audiences in theaters from June 2nd.
The trailer for Pixar’s new movie ‘Elemental’ dropped today, (which you can watch above), and Moviefone had the pleasure of traveling to Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California to meet director Peter Sohn and screen some exclusive scenes from the new movie!
What is the plot of ‘Elemental?’
Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.
Moviefone had the pleasure of screening four never-before-seen scenes from ‘Elemental.’ Director Peter Sohn explained that some of the shots were just finalized days before the screening.
The first scene we screened was the opening on the movie. It begins with Ember (Lewis) as a small child arriving in Element City for the first time with her parents, Bernie (del Carmen) and Cinder (Ommi). What follows is a montage of Ember’s childhood as her family opens a “coffee shop,” they become an important part of the fire community and Ember learns to control her fiery temper.
The scene continues to present day, where Ember is still trying to control her temper, and her mother warns her that “Elements don’t mix.” When Ember’s father puts her temper to the test by letting her be in charge of their red dot sale, she loses her temper causing the water pipes to break and putting her parent’s store in jeopardy.
The flooding in their basement brings an uninvited guest in the form of Wade, an easygoing water-based being who works for the city’s health department. While the two have an instant attraction, Wade is forced to write up Ember and her family’s business for their violations.
The second scene involves Ember finding Wade to ask him not to report her family to his boss, a wind-creature known as Gail (McLendon-Covey). The two eventually go to a sporting event to find Gail, and this scene was shown to us in 3D. The sport they are attending is a version of basketball meets Quidditch that is played in the air by the gaseous creatures that reside in Element City. Gail is an obsessive fan and his too enthralled in the game to give Ember any attention. The scene ends with Ember in danger when the water-based creatures decide to start the wave to cheer on their team, which in this world is an actual tidal wave in the crowd that the fans create.
The third scene was a montage of Ember and Wade’s romance, which includes them walking around Element City, seeing the movie ‘Tide & Prejudice,’ having their photo taken together, Ember walking on minerals to change the colors for Wade, and Wade creating a rainbow for Ember.
The final sequence was like a scene from ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,’ when Wade takes Ember home to meet his affluent mother and family. They live in a luxury apartment building that is flowing with water everywhere, which makes it more than difficult for Ember to enter. Wade’s mother, Brook (O’Hara), is extremely welcoming to Ember, which makes Wade cry … a lot. We are also introduced to Wade’s little brothers, Marco and Polo.
The footage was impressive, both in 3D and the traditional format, and the animation looked unlike anything we’ve seen from Pixar before, actually making elements like fire and water come alive in a believable way. The story is also very cute, using a basic ‘Romeo and Juliet’ plot to tell a modern story about different cultures coming together to live in one community. Element City may also remind some Disney fans of ‘Zootopia,’ while the idea of bringing elements to life may remind some of the way emotions were brought to life in ‘Inside Out.’
Director Peter Sohn at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. Photo by Deborah Coleman/Pixar.
What Director Peter Sohn had to say about ‘Elemental?’
After screening the footage, we had a chance to meet director Peter Sohn and he began by talking about the very personal inspiration he had for this movie.
“I thought I would share where this idea of ‘Elemental’ came from. It’s really a mix of three very personal parts of my life. The first one is my parents. My parents came here from Korea in the late ’60s, early ’70s, to New York, and they didn’t have a lot of money. They had no family. They didn’t speak any English, but they managed to create a beautiful life in the Bronx. My dad owned a grocery store. I have so many memories of growing up in this shop and all my dad’s customers came from everywhere. Like my parents, they left their homes to come to a new land and they all were mixing into beautiful little neighborhoods with their cultures and their languages. So from that, came this idea of beautiful little neighborhoods.”
The director also talked about how he took his family’s story and combined it with elements from the periodic table.
“When I saw the periodic table of elements when I was a kid, all I thought about was that these were apartment complexes and they all lived next to each other. Platinum lives next to gold, but be careful of mercury because they have toxic relationships. Stories of what these elements were doing in their apartments were just mixing around in my head.”
Finally, the director revealed where the third part of his inspiration for the film came from.
“Then the last little piece was my wife, and this experience of marrying someone that wasn’t Korean, or was a non-Korean woman. Because growing up, my grandmother’s dying words were, “Marry a Korean.” You saw a little bit of that in the footage. That comes from a real place and it created all these sort of culture clashes growing up.”
But Sohn explained that even with this inspiration, he didn’t have the story until he came up with the romance between Ember and Wade.
“But even with these key pieces in place, we could go anywhere. The possibilities were endless. But until we came up with the idea of opposites attracting, fire and water, we didn’t have a clear focus of the film. Once that was our north star, we could adjust the characters and the obstacles that could happen to them. So with these three key inspirations and our guiding light of opposites attracting, the stories started to come together. I wanted to tell a story for everyone who’s ever made a sacrifice or taken a risk and set it in the hustle and bustle of a crazy city.”
Disney and Pixar’s all-new theatrical short ‘Carl’s Date’ to release in front of ‘Elemental’ on June 16, 2023.
Will There be a Theatrical Short Released with ‘Elemental?’
Yes! Disney is bringing back their theatrical shorts that screen before their animated movies beginning with the release of ‘Elementals.’ The new short is entitled ‘Carl’s Date,’ and features characters from Pixar’s Oscar nominated ‘Up.’
In the new short, Carl Fredrickson (voiced by the late Ed Asner) and his dog Dug (voiced by Bob Peterson) return as Carl reluctantly agrees to go on a date with a new lady friend, but admittedly with no idea how dating works these days. Ever the helpful friend, Dug steps in to calm Carl’s pre-date jitters and offer some tried-and-true tips for making friends, if you’re a dog. The short was written and directed by Bob Peterson and is a must-see for any ‘Up’ fans.
