We chat with Elemental writers John Hoberg (HeidiHidyHoberg) & Kat Likkel (klikkonthis) about the Pixar process, a more crime-focused version of the movie, and how Wade could have stayed dead:
Elemental stars with the four elements of water, air, earth, and fire co-existing peacefully in Element City. However, they live relatively separate lives, with Ember, a hot-headed fire element, and her family running a store in Firetown. When Wade, an overly emotional water element and city inspector, is sucked through the pipes and notes a number of violations, Ember's family legacy is in danger.
Kat Likkel: What's also interesting about the Pixar process, it is so iterative. At one point, there was a villain in this story. You go through so many funny little characters that you remember, at one point, there were two little villains called Singe and Scorch, that were just like these hilarious sort of three stooges kind of idiot villains trying to bring the shop down.
John Hoberg: It was a lot of talking. So we showed up, I think, January 2020 and we spent six weeks talking about everything and different iterations, but really getting to the core of it. He knew he wanted to tackle this, but I think it wasn't as personal at first, and it became more and more personal, the deeper we dug.
John Hoberg: This was really fascinating. It occurred to us two years into the process. We had never heard someone say, would kids like this? For two years that was never brought up and it was always trying to find the truth and motivations and what characters felt. But there was never a, well would kids find this interesting? I think their secret sauce in a lot of ways is they just try to find the truth in there and it's so human that it speaks to all ages.
John Hoberg: They do this thing, it's an exploration. Basically you have the director, you have the writer or writers. I think we were one of the first teams ever to come to Pixar. And then they have the head of story, who is the head of all the story artists, and then your story team, and the story artists they're not storyboard artists. They're part of the story breaking process. So they're coming up with story too.
So you might have a sequence that has Bernie is asleep at the desk, and then they have this whole other idea that then comes in that's completely different. It just kind of jumpstart stuff and gets you thinking differently. So you can't hold on tight to anything there. You have to be comfortable with we wrote this. Now we'll see what happens and we'll rewrite.
Kat Likkel: The thing that's interesting about Pixar is you have all of these long discussions and although so much else changed in that movie, like John is saying that ending stayed the same. You have these big meetings, you do versions on animatic, and stuff, and then you have these big gosh I can't remember what they were called, but it was like all the head, people at Pixar would watch it on a big screen, even though it was just rough drawings.
Kat Likkel: You can see a feeling of it in that dream that Ember has, that fantasy and Ember has, of the two of them together. That's how that ended up. It was a road we went down that didn't work, but you can still see that the flavor of it stayed. John Hoberg: We were talking to Pete about it last night. And we were all like, "We kind of like that version too. It was pretty cool.
Kat Likkel: It was the coming together of styles and languages in a way. They use the language of art, pen on paper and we use pen on paper, but just with words instead of pictures. So that ended up being a lot of fun and it sparked so many things that I'm not sure we all would have come up with otherwise, having that really quick back and forth.
Usually you would watch each of those hand drawn versions, in the movie theaters there to get the full theater experience. Our first theater experience as a crew was the audience preview, which was a really interesting thing, because you learn so much just hearing people and you can feel when an audience gets restless or when an audience is engaged. That was really interesting that we didn't have that up until the audience preview.
John Hoberg: Do you want to hear another thing that didn't make the cut that was so funny and weird. It was based on what Kat's talking about. It was when we got sucked into the pipe, you saw him down there testing the water. When the wave came one of the story artists had him looked down, it might have been Pete, and see a little earth element, a tiny little earth element, he goes, "Be free!" He threw him to the side and saved his life.
Oh my gosh, I love it. Just commentary on his life as he's going through really rough things. That's so much fun. Kat Likkel: It's also fun. It's like, what would the happiest people in the world what would their game be? Or the the most emotional people in the world, I should say. It was also such a nightmare for Ember. It's not based on me and John, but we related to it because John comes from this very happy welcoming.
John Hoberg: I think we wanted people to think it was ridiculous and exactly how you felt. Just knowing that was gonna come back at the very end to it. I don't know if that's the part you're talking about, but that was so funny. That was a great moment when you know the audience is with you when he's died.
Kat Likkel: There was actually one moment, and I can't remember if this came up when John and I were there or if it was something that was a holdover from before. There was a big cloud character, who ended up being sort of changed to the cloud character now, but there was one cloud character that when Wade was evaporating, was sitting on top of the chimney, and absorbed Wade. And could basically kind of rain him back down again.
John Hoberg: It was interesting, because it's sort of like standing on two canoes trying to do like a romantic comedy, but then also this family drama at the same time. Keeping the tone in the right place was really tricky. It took a long time to kind of get that tone where you could get away with kind of that, "Oh, is somebody going to die?" But also you needed to be a love story. So you can't go too far one direction or the other direction.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Senators John Cornyn, Ted Cruz accept Dallas mayor's invite to attend inauguration ceremonySen. Cornyn said before the inauguration that he was here to support the mayor, who despite their different political parties have formed a friendship.
Read more »
John Mulaney’s Rolex Story Is Even Worse Than We ThoughtIt involves … well, $3,000 getting lost in the garbage.
Read more »
Elton John says America is going backward with ‘disgraceful’ anti-LGBTQ+ lawsBritish singer Elton John has criticized anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the United States, singling out “laws enacted in Florida” as “disgraceful,” and says he will no longer hold residencies in America.
Read more »
Fights in Tight Spaces Is What John Wick Hex Should Have Been - PlayStation LifeStyleThe Fights in Tight Spaces PS4 port is another reminder of how disappointing and poorly balanced John Wick Hex was.
Read more »