The Magic of Peter Sohn.

Emile, Squishy, Sox, Ciccio and Forrest Woodbush. What do all these Disney characters have in common? They all were voiced by Korean American animator, director and filmmaker, Peter Sohn. But Disney wasn't his first stop. His first break into the animation world started back in 1999 with working on "The Iron Giant" and then again in 2001 with "Osmosis Jones." His first Pixar film he created however, I believe might be exactly what Disney needed to spice thing up at headquarters. And it did just that.

Born in 1977, in The Bronx, New York, a child of immigrant parents, Peter Sohn knew early on that he wanted to do more with his creative side. Even if his parents didn't see the point of it. Sounds like a lot of us, am I right? Sohn wanted to prove himself worthy of his parents' respect to become an animator. He studied and graduated from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he worked a summer job on Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. He also met his wife there! Once he graduated, Sohn focused on his craft and work with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers before deciding to come to Pixar. That was Sohn's dream, his only dream, he stated once "All I want to do is be an animator. Period. That's it." Love him for that! His first piece of work to be his directorial debut was on Pixar Short, Partly Cloudy back in 2009. Sohn expressed once in an interview that he got his inspiration from the scene in Disney's 1941 film, Dumbo. Expressing that the scene where the elephant is brought down from the sky by a stork, Sohn wondered, 'what if the clouds were making the babies and that's how the storks were able to bring them down.' So he made a short out of it, which played before Pixar's Up, where Sohn was involved in. The main character, Russell, had his design based on Sohn. But let me not get ahead of myself, Sohn shared his creative mind with Pixar Animation Studios originally in both the art and story departments for Finding Nemo, both as well as the animation department for The Incredibles, and was a story artist for WALL.E. Sohn is an absolute legend and it doesn't stop there. He also helped with other Pixar hits by lending his voice, as I mentioned earlier, in Ratatouille, Monsters University, Luca, The Good Dinosaur, and Lightyear. However, his new film, Elemental, changed the game in my opinion from what Sohn was able to incorporate from his own personal life and society itself.

June 2023, Pixar's 27th feature, Elemental, was Sohn's first movie where he directed, wrote, and gave personal insight to his own life. In short, the movie is a love story, but within it tells the story of two different communities(cultures) meshing. Sohn expressed in multiple interviews that the main characters, Ember and Wade(voiced by Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie), were based on himself and his wife, Anna Chambers. Expressing that it was difficult at first bringing her around the family because his family didn't full accept her for not being Korean. But over time Sohn's father came around and then later his mother as well. We can see the similarities with Ember and her father when Wade decided to "water down" a cultural dish that the fire people (as well as Ember and her family) eat on the regular on their first meet. Lets just say it didn't go so well and he ends up getting 'panned', oops, banned but, learns to like Wade for his daughter. Another comparison to Sohn's life was the love for the shop and the need to have to always please your parents. In the movie, Ember grows up wanting to take over her father's shop (that he left his hometown for and came to Element City with nothing), but, once she's older in her mid 20s, she wants to branch out to focus on making art. As did Sohn. Sohn's parents came to The Bronx, New York(the inspiration for Element City) with almost nothing, and were able to build and run not one but two successful stores, which now his other son runs. Sohn expressed through the documentary for the Pixar film, Good Chemistry: The Story of Elemental, that this was gift to his family, his culture but most importantly, his parents. Sohn dedicates this movie to his folks after losing them both during the making of it. Peter Sohn not only has my absolute respect and love for not just his art but representation he brings out for our children of the world.

Elemental and all of Sohn's other movies that he lent a hand in are all streaming on Disney+!