59 Fun Facts About Elemental

Who directed Pixar's Elemental (2023)?

Peter Sohn directed Elemental and shares its story credit with screenwriters John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh.

Who voices Ember Lumen, the fire element at the heart of Elemental?

Leah Lewis, previously George Fan on The CW's Nancy Drew, voices Ember Lumen, the fiery shopkeeper's daughter.

Who voices Wade Ripple, the water element who falls for Ember?

Mamoudou Athie voices Wade Ripple; he earlier starred in Netflix's Archive 81 and the film Uncorked.

What is the name of the metropolis where Elemental takes place?

Elemental is set in Element City, a metropolis built by and for water elements first, where fire residents like the Lumens are latecomers.

What is the name of the convenience store run by Ember's family?

Ember's family runs The Fireplace, the Firetown shop Bernie built and hopes to hand to Ember once she proves she can run it.

Where did Ember's parents emigrate from before settling in the city?

Bernie and Cinder emigrated from Fire Land and met open prejudice from the other elements, mirroring Peter Sohn's parents' immigrant experience.

What is Wade Ripple's job when he first meets Ember?

Wade is a city inspector who gets flushed into the shop's basement by the pipe burst and dutifully writes up its plumbing violations.

Who voices Ember's father, Bernie Lumen?

Del Carmen is a longtime Pixar story artist who co-directed Inside Out.

Who voices Ember's mother, Cinder Lumen?

Iranian-American actress Shila Ommi voices Cinder Lumen, Ember's matchmaking mother who reads customers' love by smell.

What is the name of Wade's boss, an air element with a big personality?

Wade's boss is Gale Cumulus, a booming cloud who runs his City Hall department and alone can cancel the shop's citations.

Which actress voices Wade's air-element boss?

Wendi McLendon-Covey, best known as Beverly Goldberg on The Goldbergs, voices Gale, Wade's blustery cloud of a boss.

Which actress voices Brook Ripple, Wade's mother?

Catherine O'Hara, of Schitt's Creek and Home Alone, voices Brook Ripple, the architect mother of the weepy Ripple clan.

During which sale does Ember lose her temper while running the shop alone?

Ember is left to run the Red Dot Sale herself; an impatient customer sets off her temper, and the blast in the basement bursts the pipes.

What object in the family shop represents the Lumens' traditions from the old country?

The Blue Flame, carried from the old country, embodies the Lumens' heritage; Ember's dash to save it from the flood traps her and Wade in a sealed room.

What are Ember and Wade playing when Wade admits he has feelings for her?

Ember later uses the same game to get a condensed Wade to drip back into his normal form.

What do Ember and Wade first use to plug the hole they find in the dam?

Ember and Wade first stack sandbags over the hole in the dam, but the water pressure soon bursts through them.

What material does Ember create to seal the dam when the first fix fails?

Ember heats the sandbags until their sand fuses into glass, sealing the dam; that glass-shaping skill is what later impresses Wade's mother Brook.

What sport is played at Cyclone Stadium, where Wade takes Ember to plead with his boss?

Cyclone Stadium hosts airball, the city's wind-blown ball game; Gale, a fanatical Windbreakers fan, is in the stands when Wade brings Ember.

What ultimately happens to Wade when he and Ember are trapped in a hot, enclosed room?

Trapped in the sealed, overheated shop, Wade evaporates; Ember later spots him condensed on the ceiling and brings him back by making him cry.

How does Elemental end for Ember and Wade?

Ember's father retires and leaves the shop in the hands of his friends.

Wade's family member Lake Ripple is notable as Pixar's first what?

Lake Ripple, Wade's younger sibling voiced by Kai Ava Hauser, is Pixar's first non-binary character; Lake's partner Ghibli also appears.

Who voices Fern Grouchwood, the overgrown bureaucrat at City Hall?

Joe Pera, the deadpan comedian behind Joe Pera Talks with You, voices Fern Grouchwood, the plant-covered clerk buried in City Hall paperwork.

What relation are Marco and Polo Ripple to Wade?

They are among the family members credited only as additional voices.

The director has said Elemental was inspired by growing up as the son of immigrants where?

Peter Sohn grew up in the Bronx, New York; the film's city draws on New York's patchwork of immigrant neighborhoods.

From which country did the director's parents emigrate?

Peter Sohn's parents emigrated from Korea to New York; their hard-won family business inspired the Lumens' shop.

What kind of business did the director's parents build after immigrating?

Peter Sohn's parents built a grocery store in the Bronx; both died during the film's production, which he has called a thank-you to them.

Fire Town, the neighborhood where Ember grows up, is built from which materials?

Each immigrant neighborhood in the city was made of organic materials suited to its element.

Unable to travel during the pandemic, the set designers studied YouTube tours of which two canal cities?

The result is a city crisscrossed by water canals and elevated water channels, deliberately hostile to a fire character.

Roughly how many computing cores were used to render Elemental?

For comparison, Toy Story in 1995 was made with 294 cores.

Who produced Elemental?

Denise Ream, who also produced Cars 2, produced Elemental, reuniting with Peter Sohn after producing his first feature.

Which linguist, known for Game of Thrones and Dune, co-created the film's 'Firish' language?

David J. Peterson, creator of Dothraki and High Valyrian, devised the Firish language with his wife, linguist Jessie Peterson.

A sign offering a two-cent meal at a diner appears in the city as a tribute to which late Pixar artist?

The film is dedicated to him and three other Pixar colleagues who died in 2022.

How long did production on Elemental take, according to its makers?

Elemental took about seven years to make; its crew worked remotely through the pandemic and finished the story from home.

In which month of 2023 did Elemental begin streaming on Disney+?

Elemental arrived on Disney+ on September 13, 2023, three months after its theatrical release, and drew 26.4 million views in its first five days.

Who composed the score for Elemental?

Thomas Newman, the composer of The Shawshank Redemption and American Beauty, wrote Elemental's score, his fourth for Pixar.

Who performed 'Steal the Show', the original song from Elemental?

Lauv performed 'Steal the Show', released as a single in early June 2023, two weeks before the film opened.

Elemental was the closing film of which festival in May 2023?

Elemental closed the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 27, 2023, screening out of competition.

Which Pixar short film played before Elemental in theaters?

Carl's Date played before Elemental, making it the first Pixar feature preceded by a Pixar-made theatrical short since Bao opened for Incredibles 2 in 2018.

Which actor voiced Carl in the short film shown before Elemental?

Ed Asner voiced Carl in Carl's Date, recording his lines before his death in August 2021; the short was released posthumously.

Roughly how much did Elemental gross in its opening weekend in the United States and Canada?

Elemental opened to about $29.5 million in the United States and Canada, a start reported at the time as Pixar's weakest since Toy Story's 1995 debut.

What was Elemental's approximate final worldwide gross?

Elemental finished with about $496 million worldwide, rebounding from its weak opening so strongly that the trade press called it a sleeper hit.

What was Elemental's reported production budget?

Elemental's production budget was reported at $200 million, which its soft domestic opening looked unlikely to recoup before overseas takings grew.

Elemental was the most-streamed animated film in its Disney+ premiere week since which film?

It drew 26.4 million views in its first five days on the service.

Which film beat Elemental to the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?

Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron won Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards in March 2024, beating Elemental and the other three nominees listed.

Elemental was billed as which numbered Pixar feature film?

Elemental is Pixar's 27th feature, following Lightyear (the 26th) and preceding Inside Out 2 (the 28th).

Which 2009 short film was the director's directorial debut?

Partly Cloudy, which played before Up in 2009, was Peter Sohn's directorial debut; its gray cloud Gus makes the dangerous babies the storks dread delivering.

Which 2015 Pixar feature was the director's first full-length film?

The Good Dinosaur (2015) was Peter Sohn's first feature, after he replaced Bob Peterson as director; it is widely called Pixar's first box-office bomb.

The director's own appearance was the basis for which Pixar character?

Russell, the young Wilderness Explorer in Up (2009), was modeled on Peter Sohn's own appearance by Pixar's animators.

Which character did the director voice in Ratatouille?

Peter Sohn voiced Emile, Remy's gluttonous brother, while working as a story artist on Ratatouille (2007).

Which robotic cat did the director voice in Lightyear (2022)?

Peter Sohn voiced Sox, the robot companion cat in Lightyear; he had voiced Ciccio in Luca the year before.

Where did the director get a summer job on The Iron Giant while still a student?

Peter Sohn was a CalArts student when he landed a summer job on Brad Bird's The Iron Giant at Warner Bros. Feature Animation.

Which Pixar sequel was the director announced to helm in 2025?

Pixar announced in June 2025 that Peter Sohn would direct Incredibles 3, the first film in the series not directed by its creator Brad Bird.

The actress who voices Ember was cast because of her role in which 2020 film?

Peter Sohn cast Leah Lewis after seeing her in The Half of It (2020), convinced she could play hot-tempered yet appealing.

Where were the lead voice actors first revealed to the public in September 2022?

The voice cast was unveiled at the D23 Expo in Anaheim on September 9, 2022, alongside the first footage shown to the public.

Elemental was Thomas Newman's fourth Pixar score and his first not directed by whom?

Newman's earlier Pixar scores, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Finding Dory, were all for Andrew Stanton films; Elemental was his first for another director.

Where did Elemental hold its worldwide premiere on June 10, 2023, after its Cannes debut?

The Los Angeles premiere followed at the Academy Museum, and Australia saw it first at the Sydney Film Festival.

How many Academy Award nominations did Elemental receive?

Elemental earned one Academy Award nomination, Best Animated Feature at the 96th Oscars, where it lost to The Boy and the Heron.

Which two films opened against Elemental in the US on June 16, 2023?

The Flash and The Blackening opened the same weekend; The Flash took first place while Elemental's $29.5 million debut came second.

What grade did CinemaScore audiences give Elemental?

Critics were cooler: Metacritic scored it 58 out of 100 based on 45 reviews.