Elemental filmmakers, Peter Sohn and Denise Ream, discuss working with Lauv to include his song, Steal The Show in the new Pixar film and more.
Elemental often feels like classic Pixar. It goes back to its roots creating a story that will pull every drop of emotion out of viewers. It simultaneously tells a love story between Ember and Wade, and a parent-child relationship story between Ember and her parents — and Wade and his mother. There is a lot to love about this film.
One of my personal favorite scenes is a montage in which Ember and Wade get to know each other a little bit more. They start to connect on a deeper level, all of which is shown through a montage while Lauv’s Steal The Show is playing. Yeah, cue the waterworks.
When I sat down to talk with the Elemental filmmakers, Director Peter Sohn and Producer Denise Ream, I just had to let them know that was the first (and definitely not last) time I cried while watching the film. That moment in the movie is truly something special.
Related: Pixar Elemental Filmmakers Discuss Inspiration & Challenges
Elemental Filmmakers On Lauv’s Song “Steal The Show”
Director Peter Sohn immediately says that he is glad we are talking about that moment because they love the song as well. “That montage was one of the first things I storyboarded. That was super early and barely changed.”
He goes on to explain just how important that moment is to the story being told in Elemental. “It was about fire and water connecting and what were the possibilities of where they don’t and what they do.” Peter reveals that when he first pitched that scene in board form, he had originally used a Lauv song, but never thought they would be able to actually work with him.
“It was funny, because when I when I first heard the other song that we had, it had much more of a poppier beat to it, but he captured something that went beyond what we were feeling and the fact that you’re resonating with it. That makes me emotional, Tessa, because so much of the heart of the film is to see these two opposites and that there a possibility of this impossible thing.”
Related: Designing Element City & Its Residents
Producer Denise Ream recalls the first time that she heard Steal The Show, and that she instantly loved it. “We heard it on the way from our first scoring day on the movie, on the way back to the airport. I loved it. I remember getting back in my car and playing it all the way home.”
Denise goes on to explain that she doesn’t often instantly like a song, but this one she did. Both Peter and Denise say they are extremely lucky with the score they ended up with. The music in general in this film is fantastic, so they aren’t wrong.
Elemental hits theaters on June 16th and you don’t want to miss it. Just be sure you have some tissues with you.
NEXT: Elemental Movie Review
About Pixar’s Elemental
Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental,” an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- 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 will be exclusively in theaters June 16th, 2023.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.
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