58 Fun Facts About Elemental

As a schoolboy, Elemental director Peter Sohn imagined which classroom chart as an apartment block full of neighbors?

The periodic table looked to young Peter Sohn like apartment buildings, each element a tenant living beside the next, and that doodle grew into a city shared by fire, water, land and air.

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

Leah Lewis voices Ember, whose temper flares so hot during a rush at the family shop that it cracks the basement pipes and washes Wade into her life.

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

Mamoudou Athie voices Wade, the go-with-the-flow water guy who ends up fighting to save the very shop his own paperwork nearly closed.

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.

In Elemental, where did Ember's parents emigrate from?

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.

When Bernie left home in Elemental, which gesture of respect did his own father refuse to return?

A bow of honor went unanswered when Bernie emigrated, because his father saw leaving as a betrayal of tradition; at the film's end Ember bows to Bernie and he tearfully bows back.

In Elemental, how does Ember's mother Cinder tell whether a couple's love is true?

She smells their smoke: Firetown's matchmaker has couples light a wick and sniffs it for true love, and the same nose tells her when Ember starts falling for someone.

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

Gale Cumulus is the stormy cloud who runs Wade's City Hall department; she agrees to forgive the shop's violations only if he and Ember find and seal the leak within the week.

Which actress voices Wade's air-element boss in Elemental?

Wendi McLendon-Covey, the overbearing mom Beverly on The Goldbergs, brings the same bluster to Wade's boss, a cloud whose temper turns stormy whenever her team is losing.

Which actress voices Brook Ripple, Wade's mother?

Catherine O'Hara, the frantic mother of Home Alone, voices Brook Ripple, an architect whose warm welcome at dinner is the opposite of how Ember's own family treats water people.

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

The Blue Flame embodies the Lumens' heritage, so when the flood threatens to douse it, Ember and Wade rush in to save it and end up trapped inside the shop.

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

The Crying Game is the Ripple family's contest to make the other player weep first; Wade wins it by admitting how he feels, drawing Ember's first-ever tear.

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?

Glass: Ember's heat fuses a glass patch over the hole, and the same knack later wins over Wade's mother when she mends a broken pitcher at dinner.

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

Airball is the wind-blown game at Cyclone Stadium, where Wade's boss is a die-hard Windbreakers fan too furious about a losing match to hear Ember out.

What happens to Wade when he and Ember are trapped in a sealed room during the flood?

He evaporates as Ember's trapped heat builds in the sealed room, and she believes he is gone until she finds he has only condensed into the stone ceiling.

How does Elemental end for Ember and Wade?

They leave for her internship, a job Wade's mother lined up after seeing her talent, while Bernie retires and hands the shop to two loyal customers.

In Elemental, Wade's younger sibling Lake Ripple made headlines as Pixar's first what?

Non-binary character: Lake has only a small part at the Ripple family dinner, yet the role made news as a Pixar first the weekend the film opened.

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

Joe Pera, the soft-spoken star of Joe Pera Talks with You, voices Fern Grouchwood, a vine-covered clerk who so rarely leaves his desk that his office is a tangle of his own tendrils.

In Elemental, what relation are young Marco and Polo Ripple to Wade?

His nephews: Marco and Polo are the sons of Wade's older brother Alan, and their names nod to the swimming-pool game of tag, a fitting joke for two water kids.

Elemental director Peter Sohn drew on his childhood as the son of immigrants in which city?

New York: Sohn grew up in the Bronx, where his father's shops all stood in immigrant neighborhoods, and those streets of newcomers from everywhere gave Firetown its feel.

From which country did the parents of Elemental director Peter Sohn emigrate?

Korea: Sohn's parents arrived with little money or English, and the life they built from nothing became the debt of gratitude Ember feels toward her father.

What kind of business did the parents of Elemental director Peter Sohn build after immigrating?

A grocery store: Sohn's father opened it in an immigrant neighborhood and worked hard to provide for his family, the model for the shop Ember's family runs.

How does Ember get through a flooded station in Elemental without being put out?

Inside an air bubble: Wade's boss blows it around her so he can push her through the drowned garden, but it shrinks fast enough to turn the visit into a race.

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

Venice and Amsterdam: stuck at home, the team spent hours on point-of-view walking tours, then built a city so laced with canals that every street is a hazard for a fire girl.

What does Ember rig up in Elemental so she and Wade can trace the canals back to the leak?

A hot-air balloon: Ember throws it together on the spot, and the ride above the canals becomes the pair's first real talk, with Wade describing the father he lost.

Which flower, able to thrive in any environment, was young Ember turned away from seeing in Elemental?

Vivisteria can grow in any element, fire included, yet Ember and her father were refused entry to the exhibit when she was small, which is why Wade later finds a way to take her.

Which language creator from Game of Thrones and Dune devised the fire people's 'Firish' tongue in Elemental?

David J. Peterson, the inventor of Dothraki and High Valyrian, built Firish out of the sounds fire makes, though the filmmakers later pulled back how much of it is heard.

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.

What does Wade do to Bernie's fiery cooking in Elemental that gets him banned from the family shop?

He waters it down: Wade gets through the scorching food Bernie serves to test him, then cools it with a little water and says it's really tasty that way, which Bernie takes as an insult.

At the stadium in Elemental, what does Wade start in the stands to lift a slumping player named Lutz?

A chant and a wave: Wade knows Lutz is off his game because his mother is ill, so he gets the whole crowd behind him, and the win that follows leaves his stormy boss willing to listen.

Who composed the score for Elemental?

Thomas Newman, who scored Finding Nemo and WALL-E, wrote the music and also co-wrote the pop single that plays over Ember and Wade's montage of dates.

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

Lauv co-wrote 'Steal the Show' with the film's composer and sings it over the montage of Ember and Wade's dates, then again over the end credits.

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

Cannes gave it the closing-night slot on May 27, 2023, out of competition; the crowd rose in a standing ovation, yet the first reviews filed from the festival were lukewarm.

Which Pixar short film played before Elemental in theaters?

Carl's Date follows Up's widower getting ready for his first date since Ellie died; first slated for Disney+ before moving to cinemas, it was the first Pixar short to open worldwide for a Pixar feature since Bao in 2018.

Which late actor gave one of his final performances in the short film shown before Elemental?

Ed Asner recorded the grumpy widower of Up one last time in spring 2021 and died that August, so the short reached cinemas nearly two years after he was gone.

Elemental's opening weekend in North America was Pixar's smallest since which film's debut?

Toy Story opened to $29.1 million in 1995, and Elemental's $29.6 million start landed just above it, which is why early headlines wrote the film off as a flop.

By the end of its theatrical run, what were analysts calling Elemental?

A sleeper hit: the film kept selling tickets week after week, above all overseas, and finished on about $496 million worldwide, enough for the trade press to take back its opening-weekend flop verdict.

In Elemental, where on his body does Ember's young admirer Clod grow the flowers he offers her?

His armpit: the earth kid plucks a fresh bloom from under his arm, wincing, every time he tries a corny line on Ember, and she sends him off with a smile.

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

Turning Red debuted directly on Disney+ in March 2022; Elemental drew 26.4 million views in five days despite having already played for months in cinemas.

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

The Boy and the Heron won Hayao Miyazaki the category for a second time, 21 years after Spirited Away, and at 83 he was not there to collect it, so the presenters accepted for him.

Elemental was billed as Pixar's 27th feature; which sequel from the studio followed it a year later?

Inside Out 2 arrived in June 2024 and took about $1.7 billion worldwide, more than three times Elemental's total, a swift turnaround for a studio whose previous film had been written off in its first weekend.

Which 2009 short film was Elemental director Peter Sohn's directorial debut?

Partly Cloudy follows Gus, a lonely gray cloud who makes baby crocodiles, porcupines and rams while other clouds make cuddly ones, leaving one battered stork to deliver them; it played before Up.

Which 2015 Pixar feature was Elemental director Peter Sohn's first full-length film?

The Good Dinosaur was a rescue job: hired to co-direct, Sohn was handed the whole film when its story stalled and its first director was removed, then had to rewrite, recast and remake it on a tight deadline.

Which Pixar character was modeled on Elemental director Peter Sohn?

Russell in Up began with Sohn's effusive personality: the filmmakers borrowed his enthusiasm and fearlessness, added a few design nods, and even had him record the boy's temporary dialogue.

Which character did Elemental director Peter Sohn voice in Ratatouille?

Emile began as Sohn's temporary scratch recording; when Brad Bird took over the film he kept the storyboard artist's voice, telling him he was perfect for the part.

Which robotic cat did Elemental director Peter Sohn voice in Lightyear (2022)?

Sox is the robot companion cat issued to Buzz, and while decades slip by during Buzz's test flights it is the cat who quietly works out the fuel formula that finally succeeds.

At which school was Elemental director Peter Sohn studying when he landed a summer job on The Iron Giant?

CalArts: the summer job put Sohn on Brad Bird's crew, and Bird later gave him a voice part in Ratatouille.

Which Pixar sequel was Elemental director Peter Sohn announced to direct in 2025?

Incredibles 3 passes from its creator Brad Bird, who stays on as writer, to the former student Bird once hired for a summer on The Iron Giant.

Elemental's director cast the voice of Ember after seeing her in which 2020 film?

The Half of It showed Sohn an actress whose anger felt real but fun rather than scary, and her smoky voice sealed it for a character made of fire.

Where were Elemental's two lead voice actors first revealed to the public in September 2022?

D23 Expo, Disney's own fan convention in Anaheim, saw the director bring both leads on stage, then show an unfinished teaser and one fully finished clip, nine months before the film opened.

In Elemental, what do Ember and Wade do together just before she breaks things off?

Share a dance: after a whole film of being told that elements don't mix, the pair find fire and water can hold hands unharmed, though Ember ends things minutes later out of duty to her family.

How does Ember bring Wade back at the end of Elemental?

She makes him cry: Ember repeats the sad little stories from his family's tear-jerking game, and her parents join in, her father lifting his ban, until Wade weeps himself back into one piece.

At the Ripple family dinner in Elemental, what is Ember told Wade is deathly afraid of?

Sponges: his brother brings it up at the table, Wade admits he once got stuck inside one for hours, and his mother still can't use one around him, a fair thing to dread when you are made of water.

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

The Flash and The Blackening both opened that Friday; the superhero film won the weekend with $55 million, yet it faded so fast that the Pixar film ended up far ahead worldwide.

In Elemental's opening scene, who gives Ember's parents the names Bernie and Cinder?

An immigration official asks how to spell the couple's real names, gives up, and says they will just go with Bernie and Cinder, so the family starts its new life under names a stranger chose.