Ah, Pixar. The legendary animation studio has whisked us off to far off worlds and innovative concepts, the latest of which just debuted in the trailer for Elemental, a story set in a world in which the elements themselves live amongst each other. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen—except, well, wait, is that Dubai’s Burj Khalifa?
If you spotted the UAE’s most iconic building in the opening of the new trailer, following a story in which fire falls in love with water, you weren’t alone. And in fact, it’s no coincidence, as Pixar’s animators drew from inspiration across the world in order to craft Element City.
The idea for the film came from director Peter Sohn, who wanted Element City to be broken down into different elemental communities, such as Firetown. He tasked production designer Don Shenk to find inspiration from across the globe to create the city in all its thriving complexities.
First, came the water part of town, as the water residents were the first to settle in the city and built its basic infrastructure.
“It was a more difficult challenge than we thought,” says Shank. “We were looking at big cities all over the world—in particular those based on canal systems like Venice and Amsterdam. And while Peter said it was not based on New York—it’s an immigrant story and New York is his hometown. We all fall back on what we know when discovering our stories.”
From there, they build each element that came after—earth, air, and fire last of all—and how they blended together.
“It’s not supposed to be a melting pot, really,” Shank says. “We didn’t want to create
this homogenous world. We wanted to celebrate all these different cultures and characters
living and working together.”
The story was drawn from the personal experience of director Sohn, who drew upon the idea of a fire and water character because of his own relationship.
“I started layering in my relationship with my wife—I’m Korean and she’s American, half Italian,” Sohn says. “I hid the relationship from my parents at first because they—in an old-school way—wanted me to marry someone Korean. My grandmother’s dying words were literally ‘Marry Korean!’”
While his parents eventually accepted his marriage, he still drew from their initial disapproval to craft the story.
“It’s about understanding our parents as people. From that understanding comes an appreciation for the sacrifices that they make for their kids. My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s, so I was born there and raised with Korean traditions, language, culture in the very American New York City. That led to some culture clashes along the way between first and second generation. I took for granted the trials and tribulations they must’ve experienced.”
Whether Dubai, the UAE or the broader Middle East will make further cameos in Elemental is anyone’s guess, but for now, this is quite the ode to the building that keeps getting better with age.
Pixar’s Elemental is in cinemas across the Middle East on June 15, 2023