60 Fun Facts About Elemental

Who directed Pixar's Elemental (2023)?

He also co-wrote the story and pitched the concept himself.

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

The director wanted a smoky voice for Ember and a cooler one for Wade.

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

His ability to cry convincingly on cue helped win him the part.

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

The city was built water-first: water elements arrived first, then earth, then air, with fire among the last to come.

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

The store shutdown threat is what throws Ember and Wade together in the first place.

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

They arrive to open prejudice from the other elements, which mirrors the immigrant story behind the film.

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

He turns up after Ember's outburst bursts a pipe in the store basement, and reluctantly reports the faulty plumbing.

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?

Cinder shares her husband's distrust of water elements, which makes Ember's romance a family problem.

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

Her surname is not in the credits, but Fern says it out loud in the film.

Which actress voices Wade's air-element boss?

She is best known as Beverly Goldberg on The Goldbergs.

Which actress voices Brook Ripple, Wade's mother?

One critic noted she was arguably the highest-profile name in a cast of mostly lesser-known voices.

What is Clod, the young character with a crush on Ember?

He is voiced by Mason Wertheimer, making his feature film debut.

What are the Vivisteria that Wade takes Ember to see at Garden Central Station?

As a child, Ember and her father were turned away from seeing them, so the visit means a lot to her.

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

Saving it during the flood is what traps Ember and Wade in a sealed room together.

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?

The runoff from ships through that hole is what was flooding the city's plumbing.

When the first fix on the dam fails, what does Ember melt the sand into for a sturdier fix?

The same skill impresses Wade's mother, who recommends Ember for an internship.

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

Wade's brother's voice actor also plays Lutz, a player for the home team, the Windbreakers.

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

Ember later realizes he has condensed in the stone ceiling and coaxes 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, voiced by Ava Kai Hauser, is Wade's younger sibling and Ghibli's partner.

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

Fern's surname is never in the credits, but it sits on his desk nameplate in the film.

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?

The fictional city was modeled on it as a series of immigrant neighborhoods, each built from materials suiting its element.

The director's parents emigrated from which country in the early 1970s?

They ran a bustling grocery store in the Bronx, an obvious ancestor of the shop in the film.

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

The director has said the film is about thanking your parents and understanding their sacrifices; both of his died during production.

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?

She had already produced the director's first feature, so this was a reunion.

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

He is the man behind Dothraki and High Valyrian.

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?

The team finished the story while working remotely from home during the pandemic.

Two writers pitched an ending in which Ember and Wade had a baby made of what?

The idea was dropped from early cuts to keep the ending focused on the couple.

Who composed the score for Elemental?

It was his fourth Pixar score after Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Finding Dory, and his first not directed by Andrew Stanton.

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

The single came out on June 2, 2023, two weeks before the film opened.

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

It screened out of competition, then had its worldwide premiere at Tribeca in June.

Which Pixar short film played before Elemental in theaters?

It made Elemental the first Pixar feature preceded by a fully Pixar-produced theatrical short since Incredibles 2 in 2018.

Which classic Pixar character returned in the short film that opened for Elemental?

It was Ed Asner's final acting role, recorded before his death in 2021.

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

It was the second-lowest three-day opening ever for a Pixar film, behind only Toy Story in 1995.

What was Elemental's approximate final worldwide gross?

After a disastrous opening, the turnaround was so strong that analysts labeled it a sleeper hit.

What was Elemental's reported production budget?

Variety wrote in July 2023 that there was no hope of recouping it domestically, before the film's overseas legs kicked in.

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?

The producer, not just the director, is named on the nomination.

Elemental was billed as which numbered Pixar feature film?

It followed Lightyear and came before Inside Out 2.

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

It played before Up and follows a gray cloud who makes the babies nobody wants to deliver.

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

It became Pixar's first box office failure, so his second feature's slow start felt ominous.

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

He also voiced the character in the follow-up short George & A.J.

Which character did the director voice in Ratatouille?

He was working in the story department on the film at the time.

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

He also voiced Ciccio in Luca the year before.

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

Brad Bird, who made The Iron Giant, later picked him to direct a sequel in the Incredibles series.

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

Brad Bird handed it over because of his commitments to Ray Gunn.

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

The director felt she could be hot-tempered but still very appealing.

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

A clip shown there had Wade running across water on a date and leaving a rainbow behind him.

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

His earlier Pixar work was Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Finding Dory.

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.

Fans compared Elemental's first concept art to which series of browser games?

Polygon noted the comparisons to the six-game series developed by Oslo Albet.

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

Projections of $35 to 40 million fell short as it debuted to $29.5 million, second place that weekend.

What grade did CinemaScore audiences give Elemental?

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