美国国家公共电台 NPR--Earth, air, fire, water — and family — are all 'Elemental' for Pixar's Peter Sohn

Earth, air, fire, water — and family — are all 'Elemental' for Pixar's Peter Sohn

Transcript¹

The seeds of the idea for Elemental came to Peter Sohn many years ago, in a middle school science class, looking at the periodic table.

"All I saw were apartment buildings," he says. "These blocks and the atomic number and the name to me was like a family or a person that lived there. I would come up with jokes like, 'Copper² lives next to helium. But don't trust helium because they're gassy.'"

Coming up with jokes for boron and argon was trickier³ so, in the interest of storytelling possibilities, Sohn boiled the elements down to the classics: fire, water, earth and air.

Growing up in New York as the son of Korean immigrants, "There was a beautiful metaphor⁴ for me in this table of elements. There are all these disparate cultures mixing together."

Sohn is one of Pixar's MVPs. He joined the company in 2000, working in the art and story departments. His credits include WALL-E, Brave and The Incredibles. It was Sohn who helped design such memorable⁵ scenes as the dentist's office in Finding Nemo and the gazillion balloons lifting Carl's house over the city in Up.

"He can do everything," says Pete Docter, Pixar Animation⁶ Studio's chief creative officer and Elemental's executive producer. "He's a genius story guy, a brilliant designer. He's an amazing animator."

Sohn's Pixar colleagues have also recruited him to voice some of their characters including Emile in Ratatouille, Scott "Squishy" Squibbles in Monsters University and Sox in Lightyear.

In The Good Dinosaur⁷, which Sohn also directed, he plays Forrest Woodbush (a.k.a. the Pet Collector). His physical appearance even inspired the character Russell in Up.

I recently met Peter Sohn in Chinatown where he and his family celebrated⁸ special occasions. I thought we'd be talking about the ins and outs of filmmaking. We did, but we also talked a lot about his parents.

"My mother's love for movies was this weird⁹ way that we could communicate because she didn't speak English very well," he remembers. "I spoke¹⁰ English better than I did Korean, and so much of growing up was this battle to try to understand each other. But when it came to the movies, there's this Venn diagram where we could connect."

New York City's different cultures inspired the metropolis¹¹ in Elemental. Element City, as it's called in the movie, is "very much based off of these immigrant neighborhoods," including Little Italy and Koreatown, "I was so inspired by that," says Sohn.

Elemental was a chance to put his family's story on screen

Sohn's father emigrated to New York from Korea in 1969 with $150.

"$75 of that would go to rent in, I guess it would be like a prostitute apartment because, [when I was] a kid, he would just say, 'hooker house, hooker house.'" Sohn says he and his brother "had no idea" what their dad was talking about. "And then the other $75 would go to renting a hotdog cart," selling hotdogs, pretzels and icies in Manhattan.

Between the cart and other odd jobs, Sohn says his father saved enough money to buy a bodega-style grocery store in the Bronx.

"My mother was the cashier and my father kept working this four in the morning 'till 11:00 at night job, seven days a week." In Elemental, the father also works long hours.

When the shop did well, Sohn's family would go to Chinatown, especially the restaurant Hop¹² Kee. "It was my parents' happy place," he recalls.

Inside the restaurant, Sohn recognizes the waiter. He tells him that his mother's favorite dish was the crab¹³.

Sohn's memory is vivid. "The funny thing about my mom is that she's so loud eating the crab," he tells the server. Almost like he's voicing a character in a Pixar movie, Sohn mimics¹⁴ his mom smacking¹⁵ her lips together in delight. It's a "very exciting" dish, the server agrees.

Attention to detail and a wild imagination

Elemental is like a fantastical, kid-friendly, Romeo and Juliet. The Fire parents have emigrated to Element City where they open a grocery store. Their daughter, Ember, meets a Water character named Wade¹⁶. She's a bit of a hothead. He's weepy.

Naturally, fire and water isn't a good mix but, through the magic of animation, they make it work. In one scene Ember shows off how she can turn the landscape different colors. Wade responds by making a rainbow.

Sohn says the idea is, "What would happen if they could get along?"

In the movie, Ember's Fire family hates the idea she's falling in love with Water.

Sohn says that tension mirrors his own experience.

"I fell in love with someone that wasn't Korean," he says, "I grew up in a family where they were like marry Korean. My grandmother's dying words were ... marry Korean ... there was a lot of pressure from that. But I fell in love with someone that wasn't."

Sohn gets a bit quiet when he says, "All the fun culture clash stuff from that and also the dark stuff from that became ingredients to the film."

When he was doing research for the movie, he asked his mom if they could walk around Chinatown together. She was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

"She wasn't doing great. She had been going through chemo," he says, "I remember her in her little knit cap that she was wearing." They went to Hop Kee — she had the crab — and strolled Chinatown's bustling¹⁷ streets. It was, Sohn says, "one of the last things I got to do with her."

Elemental took nearly seven years to make. During that time, both of Sohn's parents died. He says making this movie provided a degree of closure but, "There's still some open hole that I'm feeling that I don't know how to close up yet."

Heartache, family, falling love. Sohn says Elemental is about finding connection.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

3 trickier   

adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的

参考例句：

• This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则，但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
• The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低，问题就越复杂。 来自互联网

4 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

5 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

6 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

7 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

12 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

13 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

14 mimics   

n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员，滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 )；善于模仿的人或物v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 )；酷似

参考例句：

• Methods:Models were generate by CT scan,Mimics software and Abaqus software. 方法：采用CT扫描，Mimics软件和Abaqus软件的CAD进行三维有限元模型的创建。 来自互联网
• Relaxing the mind and body mimics the effect that some blood-pressure pills would have. 放松身心会产生某些降压药才能产生的效果。 来自辞典例句

15 smacking   

活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的

参考例句：

• He gave both of the children a good smacking. 他把两个孩子都狠揍了一顿。
• She inclined her cheek,and John gave it a smacking kiss. 她把头低下，约翰在她的脸上响亮的一吻。

16 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

17 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。