Good Chemistry: The Story of Elemental (2023) Movie Script
[whistling]
[Peter] The best stories draw
from elements of real life.
I remember learning the violin.
I was terrible, but there is a moment
when you find C, and the violin will hum.
'Cause you've hit it on the mark.
It can happen with stories as well.
Some stories can hit that C so well
that it can vibrate through everyone.
Like the universal chord.
To do that,
a storyteller pulls from real life.
-Hey, how ya doing?
-[vendor] Hello.
Can I get a hot dog, please?
I grew up in New York.
I was born in the Bronx.
My dad had two grocery stores.
In school, when I was learning
about the periodic table of elements,
when you see that chart, it always
looked like an apartment complex to me.
People that live on top of each other
just like in New York.
Each one of those little blocks
was a different culture.
Copper living next to Zinc, but don't sit
next to Helium, 'cause they're gassy.
Giving each one of those elements
a character made me laugh.
And that became
the beginnings of Elemental.
[announcer]
Please keep all limbs and branches inside.
[no audible dialogue]
[train crossing bell rings]
[no audible dialogue]
[Peter] Elemental is a movie
where earth, air, water and fire
are the characters in our community.
And within this world of elements,
there's a fire family
that immigrated from Fire Land,
and they're trying to find their place
in a crowded city
that's not so sure about fire.
Dry leaves.
[Peter]
Bernie is a shop owner like my father,
and he's brought his homeland with him,
and he wants to connect that
with the community.
Cinder, his wife, is very traditional
and believes that there's a certain way
fire people should behave.
It's true love.
[both gasp]
Which is more than
I ever smelled on this one.
Oh, goody, this old chestnut.
[Peter] In this family,
there would be a young fire girl
who would fall in love
with someone outside of her community.
But water and fire don't get along well
because they can put each other out
or boil each other away.
Here at Pixar, you're always bringing
your life to whatever that you're doing.
And for Elemental, the two sides of me
that I was pulling from
were of my relationship with my parents
and their shop.
And then my relationship with my wife
who wasn't Korean.
And the clash that that created
within my family.
I'm Wade.
I'm Ember.
[Peter] New York City has gotta be one of
the most diverse places in the world.
[Salvo]
If you go through the five boroughs,
you could literally experience
the cultures of the entire world.
More languages, I think,
are spoken in New York
than any other city in the country.
Immigrants and migrants, by and large,
come to this country for work.
[Salvo] They have resources
in the form of motivation to do well,
and, most importantly,
to do well for their children.
[Peter] My brother and I grew up
in the grocery stores that my parents ran.
[horns honking]
[Peter]
Anytime we made any money from the store,
my mom would take my brother and I
to the movies in the Bronx.
Most of the movies were American movies
that were in English.
My mother absolutely loved Kevin Costner.
His hair did something for my mom.
She just could not get enough
of Mr. Costner.
You'd be sitting next to her,
and she'd whisper [speaking Korean]
Like, "What did they say?"
And I'd be like
[in Korean]
[in English] But then I remember
my mom taking me to the public library
to see Dumbo for the first time.
And I remember not having to translate
anything for her.
That these animals,
she totally connected to.
I remember her getting very emotional
over the jailing of the mother elephant.
I always loved
that animation could be so universal.
I just remember that feeling of connecting
to something wholly in that way
that it could be your story.
We are in White Plains.
We're just leaving
to go back to my mom's place.
In my mom and dad's car that, uh,
I don't know what we're gonna do with
now that they're passed away.
My parents were from Korea.
They both came to the United States
in the late '60s, early '70s.
My father decided to try his luck
in business in New York.
My mom came as a nurse.
My parents were not supportive at all
for my love for the arts
when I was growing up.
It's a clich amongst Asian Americans
of a certain generation
that our parents never saw
a job in the arts as a practical career.
You're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer,
but you're never gonna be an artist
'cause you can't live off of that.
Elemental is not an autobiography
by any means,
but it was absolutely inspired
by my life experiences in New York
and my parents' stores.
[movie reel clicking]
All I wanted to be was an animator.
That was the dream.
The first spark,
the thing that started it all,
I saw a flip-book when I was a kid.
I remember flipping it
over and over again.
There was such a magic, that idea that
this motion was made up of still images.
And that blew my brain as a kid.
These are the books
that I did some drawings in
when I was seven or eight.
Cannot believe my brother found these.
That's all I did
in the corner of my textbooks.
In the corner of any book
that I ever read,
there would be a flip-book.
This corner is so dirty
from flipping this thing so many times.
This kid could've animated
this bat better.
[laughs]
[sniffs] Oh, my God.
They smell like childhood.
I finally convinced my parents
to let me go to art school.
I went to high school in New York
and then CalArts in Southern California.
And out of school, got a job in LA
that got me up to Pixar in 2000.
I started off in the art department
on Finding Nemo.
Each show that I was on
was either in the art department
Spot falls back out. Arlo catches him.
or story. Sometimes animation.
-With the kiss?
-Yeah. It's good.
Then, once in a while, doing voice work.
Look, lady.
My first one was
Hey, look.
a mugger in The Incredibles
-[grunts]
-that Helen Parr knocks out.
Hey, look-- [grunts]
Emile would be the next one
in Ratatouille.
I'm hungry.
And I don't need the inside food
to be happy.
All right, okay, okay.
I think I'm getting something there.
Might be the nuttiness.
Could be the tang.
Will you defend Oozma Kappa?
And Scott Squibbles
in Monsters University.
My name's Scott Squibbles.
My friends call me Squishy.
I'm undeclared, unattached and unwelcome
pretty much everywhere but here.
Then I will meditate on this.
I was also the voice of the Pet Collector
in The Good Dinosaur.
[hums] I name 'em, I keep 'em.
From there, Sox in Lightyear.
I can provide sleep sounds if you like.
I have several options.
Ocean Paradise, Lower East Side,
ooh-- Dental Waiting Room.
Good night, Buzz.
[hisses]
[hisses]
On the movie Up,
I was on the character development team.
I drew a bunch of
different designs of Russell.
One of them was sort of like
a chubby version of myself.
[laughs]
A chubbier version, to be kind.
Russell isn't exactly me
-[gasps]
-[Peter] but some of me got in there.
The hat, for sure.
It was something I'm very proud of,
being Asian American,
is that he's an Asian kid
without an accent.
There isn't any stereotypes
to what being Asian is.
He was just an Asian American.
And I love being a part of that.
It was a lucky path for me.
All I wanted to be was an animator.
That's it. Period. For my whole life.
But I love telling stories.
Like some sort of, like, cloud pulse
that goes up.
I had pitched an idea for a short,
and, uh, they gave me a shot at it.
So that was my first directing gig.
And from there, I got to work as
a director on The Good Dinosaur.
And now Elemental.
It all just came from loving the work
and getting really lucky
with the opportunities.
One of the inspirations
to make this film was this award
that I luckily received in the Bronx
right after The Good Dinosaur.
My family and I had never been
to anything like that before.
They were all dressed up
in really nice outfits.
My dad put on his fanciest toupee.
When it was my time to go up on stage,
looked out to the audience,
in front were my mom, dad
and my brother and his wife.
My dad was stoic,
doing that sort of heavy breathing
that he's not gonna cry.
And my mom was-- had, you know,
all that mascara ru--
like tire marks all over her face
from crying,
and it really hit me really hard.
"Oh, my goodness."
How much they had sacrificed,
and look at them now.
I put that speech away, tore it up,
and I just thanked them.
I came back from New York, and I was
describing the ceremony to people here
and the relationship with the parents
and some of the cultural clashes
that one has
being first generation
versus second generation.
Pretty much everyone said,
"That's the heart of the film.
That's the heart of the next thing
that you're doing."
-[panting]
-Huh?
-[announcer] Next stop, Element City.
-[scoffs]
[Peter] Element City itself
was based off many cities
from San Francisco to Amsterdam to Venice.
But because I grew up in New York,
there were a lot of places
that inspired moments in the film.
[ship horn blowing]
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
were huge inspirations to our film.
This idea of a hopeful place where people
all were welcomed was a big piece.
Many Americans today
trace their roots to Ellis Island.
[Salvo] It was a tremendous celebration
of what this country is all about,
and it holds a special place in history
for so many groups.
[Polland] So many Americans are
either immigrants themselves now
or the children of immigrants
or the descendants of immigrants.
Whether it was people
brought here voluntarily or not.
Immigrants are always new blood
to a culture.
They shake things up in a good way.
They bring an edginess.
They bring ambition.
They bring creativity.
They bring resourcefulness.
Ooh. Aw.
[cheering]
[Polland] This country has
always been composed of people
who have come
from a variety of different places.
My family's originally
from Southern Italy.
I was born in Moscow.
Mom's side is from Finland.
-From Korea.
-China.
From Harlem.
-Her mom is from Puerto Rico
-[sniffs]
and her dad is from Dominican Republic.
European mutt.
You know, sixth-generation somethin',
somethin', somethin', somethin'.
But that's what makes
New York City so special.
[man over PA] Welcome to Element City.
Please have your documents ready.
-Your names?
-[speaking Firish]
[speaking Firish]
Great. And how do we spell that?
[speaking Firish]
How about we just go with
Bernie and Cinder?
Welcome to Element City.
[horns honking]
[Peter] My parents came
to the United States separately.
They would meet each other in the Bronx,
there, at a church.
My mother was very tall.
My father was very short.
Somehow my dad managed to be
the same height as my mom in every photo.
My mother didn't want to have anything
to do with him when they first met,
but my father's reputation
sort of won her over.
A priest said, "He's a very hard worker.
He will provide you with a good life."
After their first meeting,
five weeks later, they would get married.
I'm a honeymoon baby,
and so nine months later, I was born.
When I was a kid,
I didn't really emotionally understand
what it took for them
to come here with nothing
and then build a life in New York City,
especially at that time.
The world of the 1970s in New York City
was a very difficult one.
The population of New York
was actually decreasing.
People were moving to suburbs
or getting out of the city.
[Salvo] The people who stayed,
many of them struggled to make a living.
[Peter]
My father came to New York with $150.
He came here with nothing.
In '70s of New York,
$75 would get you three months' rent
in an apartment in Harlem.
The other $75, he rented a hot-dog cart.
He saved up enough money to get
a grocery store in the North Bronx.
[Polland]
Opening up a grocery store in the Bronx
in the 1970s would be very arduous work.
[Salvo] And there was a lot of racial
and ethnic change and a lot of hostility.
[Peter] Rocks get thrown at you.
Or other times
when you get robbed at gunpoint.
[Salvo] But immigrants still came here
in the 1970s,
because the situation
and the conditions here
were far better
than in their countries of origin.
And they saw opportunity,
even in the midst of a fiscal crisis,
the likes of which we have not seen
in quite a long time.
[customers chattering]
-Jo-Joseph?
-Yousef.
Yousef? Nice to meet you.
Yeah, my dad used to own this shop.
-And, uh--
-Been a while.
Yeah, it's been a long-- So sorry.
This is my dad's first grocery store
that he had built from scratch.
This is so amazing.
My dad built all of this.
This was all by his hands.
It hasn't changed much.
Um, definitely,
it's got a nice new life in this.
My father had an insane work ethic
that a lot of immigrants have.
He'd have to get up in the morning,
go to Hunts Point Market,
bring the produce in.
It would be these long days
from 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning
till like 11:00 at night,
seven days a week.
You know, my mom was the cashier
in the center here.
They had built this big wooden box,
the nest of the shop.
Now, that was something that
we were trying to recreate in the film.
[car honks]
[both] Welcome.
[Peter] There would be this hub
where our main characters sort of live.
Kol-nuts, coming up.
Kol-nuts, coming up.
[Peter] That shop is not only
the place that Ember grew up in,
not only a place for the community,
but Dad's dream.
To give Ember, like my father
to my brother and I, a new life.
This shop is dream of our family.
Someday, it'll all be yours.
My dad was building all of this stuff
for my brother and I.
And by the time I was getting into,
you know, middle school and high school,
um, it would soon become a reality where
he would talk about learning the business.
I am so proud to have you
take over my life's work.
[Peter]
"This can be a possible future for you."
[crowd cheering]
[Peter] The places that they worked,
they didn't see how someone could
get a job in the arts and have a life.
In their protective way,
it was always a "no."
Ember is our main protagonist.
[laughs] Winner, winner, charcoal dinner.
[Peter] She's a twentysomething,
young fire woman.
She is a really dutiful daughter.
She loves her parents,
and she's very appreciative for
the sacrifices that they've made for her.
-[coughing]
-Are you okay?
Just tired. [sighs]
Let me help.
[Peter]
One of her main issues is her temper.
No. [blows] No, no, no, no. [blows]
Just give me one for free!
That's not how this works!
[Peter]
And it's sort of an obstacle for her.
[inhales deeply]
[Peter] But she has a talent
that becomes more of her identity.
Done.
[Peter] And that gets triggered
by someone that she meets.
[screams] Fire! Fire!
-[screams] Fire!
-[Ember] Hey! Hey!
Oh, sorry!
You're so hot.
Excuse me?
No, I mean, like, you're smoking!
-No, I didn't mean it like that.
-Are you done yet?
-Yes, please.
-Come this way.
[Peter] Wade Ripple comes
from a world of privilege.
Water is most of the Earth, so the city
should feel like water's the majority.
Water was there first,
and then earth came second,
and air would be there,
and then fire, last.
So he would come from privilege,
and he wouldn't know that feeling
that the world isn't built for you.
I was born here and lived
a very culturally Korean life at home.
But at school, it was very American.
This is my dad's second grocery store.
I have not been here in over 20 years.
I can't believe how it has not changed,
and changed.
Growing up, I just wanted to be American.
And at that time, I remember feeling
ashamed of, like, my heritage
'cause it was made fun of all the time,
and I didn't want to be that.
Took me a long time to understand
these two parts of myself,
being Korean and being American.
There was so much a part of me
that wanted to fit in,
but it's a part of
those developmental milestones
that I've learned, when you assimilate,
the phase of being
ashamed of one's culture
and then the evolution
of when that turns into pride.
[Ngai] Assimilation is associated
with the idea of the melting pot,
that immigrants become Americans.
And that often implies
a kind of cultural whitewash.
Literally, whitewashed.
It assumes that there is some
static American thing to assimilate into.
And that presupposes in a way that
that thing stays constant.
[Peter] What I love about New York is
that everyone sort of keeps their culture.
Keeps what they bring here
from their respective countries.
And so it's more of like a salad bowl
of different sort of vegetables
living together
versus a melting pot where, you know,
you're sort of stripping away things
and sort of becoming
more homogenized in one thing.
My dad started as a hot-dog-cart guy.
Saved his money. Bought one building.
Saved his money. Bought another one,
until he bought half this block out.
It's just the American dream for sure,
but, like, I remember walking with him,
you know, going from shop to shop
to check out each shop,
and, um,
some people were throwing rocks at us.
And telling us to like,
"Go back to China!"
And I remember we were like,
"We're not Chinese!"
Silence!
-[gasps]
-Yeah, great.
Can we talk about 102A and 104E
when they get to the back of the line?
Good morning. Where do I see you?
Yo, Carolyn.
Thanks for doing this one.
This one is a--
a real close one to my heart.
The xenophobia that Ember
and her father experience.
Um, it's taken many forms in the film,
meaning it comes from a real place for me
in terms of growing up in New York
and experiencing things like this.
I had gum thrown in my hair.
I remember that.
And I didn't know it at the time,
but I remember, like,
my father getting super angry
at the people that were yelling at us.
It's always shocking anytime this kind of
xenophobia comes up 'cause every time
In terms of this film of, like,
fire and water not being able to,
you know, be together,
there was-- this is one moment where
the world says that it's not meant to be.
The security guard--
He's not just doing his job,
he not only believes the bureaucracy of--
of at that time in the city, he's saying
-[speaks Firish]
-Go back to Fire Land!
Because she's so young, I feel like
it's more like, "What is going on?"
-Burn somewhere else!
-Get out of here!
[Peter] Before she goes to the shame,
she's beginning to have that, like,
inception of the idea of like,
"We-- Yeah, we're not wanted here
for some reason." You know?
As a kid, you don't know what that is.
You don't know that it's hate.
You don't know that it's ignorance.
You just think that that's what life is.
-[Kaiser] I know what that feels like.
-[Peter] Yeah.
-I really appreciate you doing this one.
-Yeah.
-[Peter] Thank you very much.
-Thank you for trusting me with it.
[Peter] Yeah, thank you.
The pieces of xenophobia and racism,
they weren't, you know, some concept that,
you know, there's a message
that I need to talk about.
They're just experiences.
But this was always a love story
from the very beginning.
It was the heart.
No. Wade, we-we can't touch.
And those darker experiences,
at the right amount,
could help us understand
who the characters were
and the holes that they had
in their lives.
I think I'm failing. [sobs]
[Peter] And then how the love would begin
to fill those holes
in each of the characters.
[cries]
When I was in high school,
my father found
this art supply shop that he took over.
He didn't want to do the--
the six to 11 hours anymore.
My brother now runs my father's shop.
Growing up as the older brother,
it was my job to beat him up
and give him a very tough life.
And wherever we would go,
I would just cram him in a box.
-Would you say that that's how--
-You did very well.
[laughs]
[Peter] Because our parents
were saying "no" to a career in the arts,
this shop was gonna be mine.
In Korean culture, like,
that's a responsibility
that befalls the older sibling.
That's right.
And-- [laughs]
And I left and I went to California,
and to this day, I'm so grateful.
Still have so much guilt over it.
Like, "Man."
[Phillip] Because of the art supply store,
our father got to meet artists
that were actually
making a living for themselves.
And that idea of like,
"Wait, you're an artist?
And you can make money?
Like, you-- This actually works?"
I think that was the moment
where our father accepted it.
And actually started pushing.
"If you're gonna do this,
you're going all in."
[Peter] Because my parents
didn't speak English very well,
my brother and I would become
essentially like cultural brokers.
[Salvo] For most immigrants,
the children are born here.
They learn the language very, very quickly
and act as interpreters for their parents.
And act as a segue
into the larger culture.
Between going to the supermarket
or going to the movies,
there was always
some amount of translation.
[Phillip] I don't know how
they purchased houses or signed contracts.
It's amazing that they were able
to navigate that part of the world.
My Korean isn't great, so I'm, like,
translating at a third-grade level.
And so there's always some level
of miscommunication.
You're just always translating
not only language but,
"No, no. That's called sarcasm, Mom."
That would be the source of
a lot of arguments,
where, as a young kid, telling my mother
what we can or cannot do in this culture.
Without speaking the language,
my father had a charm
where he could make connections.
Oh. [laughs]
-Happy birthday!
-[grunts]
[Peter] He always told us, as a kid,
that he learned English
from Star Trek and Bonanza.
He had this gregarious nature,
and he would always--
He couldn't pronounce words and stuff,
but he would say 'em like
that's the way that they should be.
He would say the word "nuclear,"
"Nicaragua."
That's right.
And he would just be like,
"Ah, there's a Nicaragua reactor."
And you're like, "Dad, it's nuclear."
"Ah, same thing. Whatever." You know?
I came home once, and he was watching,
um, the Spanish channel.
And I was like, "Dad,
you're watching the Spanish channel."
He's like, "It is?"
Hmm. I think he's lying through his feet.
-Teeth.
-Whatever.
-[Peter] He didn't care about the details.
-[Phillip] Yeah, yeah.
Those details were not important
when the world was so shifted for them.
[Phillip]
I married my wife who is from Korea.
It was interesting,
when she first met my parents,
they were conversing so freely.
Just watching Heather talk to my parents,
making them laugh.
My parents never laughed.
And I'm like, "This is so bizarre."
And I was like,
"Peter, you have to see this."
The idea of how bad
our language barrier was
-Mm-hmm.
-didn't really come into play
until you see
what it looks like without it.
That was the office that my brother and I
hung out in after school.
[Phillip] And they had a little TV
up there with a busted speaker.
So we would be watching cartoons
with no sound.
I think that's where probably
my brother learned how to draw.
We'd get these big pads, and then
we would be drawing on both ends of it.
And then there was a day where, you know,
we were just drawing basic stickmen.
And my stickmen are just like your--
your basic hangman stickmen
with, like, straight lines, and his--
They weren't really.
They were really good.
No. His had, like, character.
Like they were dancing on the page,
and you could feel emotion and expression
from a little stupid stickman.
And you're like,
"Wow, that's-- that's different. That's"
I guess that's what you call talent.
[laughs]
My childhood was trying to help my father
with each one of these places.
-Oh!
-[both laughing]
-Water. Keep an eye on them.
-[water person] Hey.
[laughs] Oops.
[Peter] So my first job was security.
You splash it, you buy it!
[screaming]
The whole job would be like,
"I think this guy stole something!"
There were no cameras,
so you would just stand in a lane.
Yeah. There were mirrors
you would be eyeballing.
I wasn't helping anything. I was terrible.
I was just playing in the aisles
most of the time.
My brother, when he did art, 200%,
stays up late, would constantly draw.
But when you're at the art supply store
and you have to work,
he'd find a nice place to sleep.
[both laugh]
Between, like,
walls that were, like, two feet,
and I'd just wedge myself
on top of the mat boards.
Secret places
that my mother would be like,
-"What are you doing here?"
-[laughs]
-"This is where you're at? Not working."
-[laughs]
This is the same right here. Oh, my God.
What we used to do here
was hang out in the fridge
and scare the crap out of people.
If someone was grabbing the milk,
you'd push the milk cartons to the edge
so they couldn't--
They'd have a tough time, and we'd giggle.
Uh, the bologna life.
That's what this was.
We lived in every section of the store.
We'd do our homework.
We eat lunch in different aisles,
or we'd grab food.
There's still some of that junk food
from the '80s
still somewhere around here, and here.
You know, this is Sara Lee.
You know, this is Hostess.
The proudest thing for him,
as a dad, was like,
"My two sons are tall. Look at this."
We're not that tall, you know, but, like,
he was a short man, and so, like,
there was always like,
"Eat good. Grow." You know?
I assume him allowing us to eat
all this stuff was, uh, you know,
to get us, like, nice and big.
And so congratulations, Dad.
You were successful.
I don't know if it was
just that time period
or how crazy helicopter parenting
has gotten today,
but wasn't a lot of day care going on.
We'd bike everywhere. Busy streets and
"What's the next street we can get to?"
And if you got to this other neighborhood
that you hadn't been before,
there were kids there that are like,
"You don't belong here!"
-That's right.
-"Get outta here!"
We're like, "This is our country too,
but let's go! Let's get outta here!"
-[Phillip] That's right.
-Yeah.
We would both ride together. One bike.
[Peter] There were no parents.
Like a urban Lord of the Flies,
but instead of Piggy with the glasses,
it was, like,
Ramn with the banana-seat bike.
Now, as a parent and having kids,
I've become very nostalgic.
Walking around my dad's shops
triggers those old memories.
My mom would have these wood pallets,
put cardboard on top of it,
and we would just sit there playing cards.
My dad would mind the store,
and then he would come in
when there were no customers
and eat with us very quickly.
Simple foods with my mom and dad.
Yeah.
Yeah, my boy, I'm feeling that.
[Chambers] If this makes you happy,
I'm not gonna be--
[Peter] I owe Phillip a lot.
I did fall in love
with someone who wasn't Korean.
It is.
We met at CalArts.
She was this amazing artist.
It was my second year,
and it was your first year.
Mm-hmm.
[Peter] When I first heard her laugh,
it melted my heart.
I just fell in love with her.
I think of that time as,
like, the best time.
[Chambers] That was a good era.
[Peter] Yeah.
Our grandmother's dying words were,
"Marry Korean."
[speaking Korean]
You know? And then she passed, you know?
-And--
-Freedom!
[laughs]
Promise me one thing.
Marry Fire.
[grunts]
[Peter] Anyone, if they weren't Korean,
wasn't good enough.
The pressure's for real.
["Steal the Show" starts]
This is gorgeous.
How long were we together
before we got engaged?
It was, like, seven years?
[Chambers] Probably. Yeah.
[song continues]
[Peter] I had kept you a secret.
My dad was very welcoming,
but my mom was still unsure.
Who is this guy?
It was love that kept us together.
-[chuckles]
-No? Too cheesy. I'm sorry.
It's totally cheesy.
[song continues]
[Peter] I think she became more welcoming.
Did you feel that?
She would tell me things,
how I'm good for you, like--
-[chuckles]
-Uh-huh.
"Anna's good with money. You're not."
-Like, 'cause you're
-[laughs] Yeah.
[Peter] But I remember it was a slow burn
for her to open up.
I remember your dad, he was very nice.
He would make me
a special giant salad bowl to myself.
-Yeah.
-[laughs]
[Peter] Right. 'Cause we don't eat salad.
That was very nice of him to do.
-[Peter] Yeah, I miss that about him.
-Yeah.
[song continues]
-Let me take a picture of you here.
-[chuckles]
[Peter] My mom and dad never said,
"I love you."
They never said those words.
Only later in my life,
did I understand that they didn't need to.
In Korea,
there is an understanding, culturally,
taking care of each other,
that was the "I love you."
[Chambers]
Your mom loved to buy me jackets.
[Peter] I know. That was her way of saying
how much she really loved you.
[shutter clicks]
[song ends]
[Peter] I've never really
done anything personal like this.
This film is all about gestures of love.
There was a moment in Ember's past
where there was some xenophobia,
and she wasn't allowed to enter
this station to see this beautiful flower.
Wade finds a way for Ember to see it.
It's very much
Wade's gesture of love to Ember.
[Ember] Whoa.
Elemental is not just a love story
between a boy and a girl, fire and water.
It was about a parent and child as well.
[both speaking Firish]
[Peter] There were constant
gestures of love from my parents.
Taking care of each other,
that was the "I love you."
Good daughter.
[Peter] Having lost my parents
while making this movie,
it became a way to honor them.
It became my gesture.
It was the best way
that I can say, "I love you."
[jazzy piano plays]
Uh, we would like to get
two hot dogs, please.
Thank you.
Cheers.
-[laughs]
-[mutters]
I'd eat two bites probably.
The Twinkie wrappers
are, like, stuck in this.
[Peter] The best stories draw
from elements of real life.
I remember learning the violin.
I was terrible, but there is a moment
when you find C, and the violin will hum.
'Cause you've hit it on the mark.
It can happen with stories as well.
Some stories can hit that C so well
that it can vibrate through everyone.
Like the universal chord.
To do that,
a storyteller pulls from real life.
-Hey, how ya doing?
-[vendor] Hello.
Can I get a hot dog, please?
I grew up in New York.
I was born in the Bronx.
My dad had two grocery stores.
In school, when I was learning
about the periodic table of elements,
when you see that chart, it always
looked like an apartment complex to me.
People that live on top of each other
just like in New York.
Each one of those little blocks
was a different culture.
Copper living next to Zinc, but don't sit
next to Helium, 'cause they're gassy.
Giving each one of those elements
a character made me laugh.
And that became
the beginnings of Elemental.
[announcer]
Please keep all limbs and branches inside.
[no audible dialogue]
[train crossing bell rings]
[no audible dialogue]
[Peter] Elemental is a movie
where earth, air, water and fire
are the characters in our community.
And within this world of elements,
there's a fire family
that immigrated from Fire Land,
and they're trying to find their place
in a crowded city
that's not so sure about fire.
Dry leaves.
[Peter]
Bernie is a shop owner like my father,
and he's brought his homeland with him,
and he wants to connect that
with the community.
Cinder, his wife, is very traditional
and believes that there's a certain way
fire people should behave.
It's true love.
[both gasp]
Which is more than
I ever smelled on this one.
Oh, goody, this old chestnut.
[Peter] In this family,
there would be a young fire girl
who would fall in love
with someone outside of her community.
But water and fire don't get along well
because they can put each other out
or boil each other away.
Here at Pixar, you're always bringing
your life to whatever that you're doing.
And for Elemental, the two sides of me
that I was pulling from
were of my relationship with my parents
and their shop.
And then my relationship with my wife
who wasn't Korean.
And the clash that that created
within my family.
I'm Wade.
I'm Ember.
[Peter] New York City has gotta be one of
the most diverse places in the world.
[Salvo]
If you go through the five boroughs,
you could literally experience
the cultures of the entire world.
More languages, I think,
are spoken in New York
than any other city in the country.
Immigrants and migrants, by and large,
come to this country for work.
[Salvo] They have resources
in the form of motivation to do well,
and, most importantly,
to do well for their children.
[Peter] My brother and I grew up
in the grocery stores that my parents ran.
[horns honking]
[Peter]
Anytime we made any money from the store,
my mom would take my brother and I
to the movies in the Bronx.
Most of the movies were American movies
that were in English.
My mother absolutely loved Kevin Costner.
His hair did something for my mom.
She just could not get enough
of Mr. Costner.
You'd be sitting next to her,
and she'd whisper [speaking Korean]
Like, "What did they say?"
And I'd be like
[in Korean]
[in English] But then I remember
my mom taking me to the public library
to see Dumbo for the first time.
And I remember not having to translate
anything for her.
That these animals,
she totally connected to.
I remember her getting very emotional
over the jailing of the mother elephant.
I always loved
that animation could be so universal.
I just remember that feeling of connecting
to something wholly in that way
that it could be your story.
We are in White Plains.
We're just leaving
to go back to my mom's place.
In my mom and dad's car that, uh,
I don't know what we're gonna do with
now that they're passed away.
My parents were from Korea.
They both came to the United States
in the late '60s, early '70s.
My father decided to try his luck
in business in New York.
My mom came as a nurse.
My parents were not supportive at all
for my love for the arts
when I was growing up.
It's a clich amongst Asian Americans
of a certain generation
that our parents never saw
a job in the arts as a practical career.
You're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer,
but you're never gonna be an artist
'cause you can't live off of that.
Elemental is not an autobiography
by any means,
but it was absolutely inspired
by my life experiences in New York
and my parents' stores.
[movie reel clicking]
All I wanted to be was an animator.
That was the dream.
The first spark,
the thing that started it all,
I saw a flip-book when I was a kid.
I remember flipping it
over and over again.
There was such a magic, that idea that
this motion was made up of still images.
And that blew my brain as a kid.
These are the books
that I did some drawings in
when I was seven or eight.
Cannot believe my brother found these.
That's all I did
in the corner of my textbooks.
In the corner of any book
that I ever read,
there would be a flip-book.
This corner is so dirty
from flipping this thing so many times.
This kid could've animated
this bat better.
[laughs]
[sniffs] Oh, my God.
They smell like childhood.
I finally convinced my parents
to let me go to art school.
I went to high school in New York
and then CalArts in Southern California.
And out of school, got a job in LA
that got me up to Pixar in 2000.
I started off in the art department
on Finding Nemo.
Each show that I was on
was either in the art department
Spot falls back out. Arlo catches him.
or story. Sometimes animation.
-With the kiss?
-Yeah. It's good.
Then, once in a while, doing voice work.
Look, lady.
My first one was
Hey, look.
a mugger in The Incredibles
-[grunts]
-that Helen Parr knocks out.
Hey, look-- [grunts]
Emile would be the next one
in Ratatouille.
I'm hungry.
And I don't need the inside food
to be happy.
All right, okay, okay.
I think I'm getting something there.
Might be the nuttiness.
Could be the tang.
Will you defend Oozma Kappa?
And Scott Squibbles
in Monsters University.
My name's Scott Squibbles.
My friends call me Squishy.
I'm undeclared, unattached and unwelcome
pretty much everywhere but here.
Then I will meditate on this.
I was also the voice of the Pet Collector
in The Good Dinosaur.
[hums] I name 'em, I keep 'em.
From there, Sox in Lightyear.
I can provide sleep sounds if you like.
I have several options.
Ocean Paradise, Lower East Side,
ooh-- Dental Waiting Room.
Good night, Buzz.
[hisses]
[hisses]
On the movie Up,
I was on the character development team.
I drew a bunch of
different designs of Russell.
One of them was sort of like
a chubby version of myself.
[laughs]
A chubbier version, to be kind.
Russell isn't exactly me
-[gasps]
-[Peter] but some of me got in there.
The hat, for sure.
It was something I'm very proud of,
being Asian American,
is that he's an Asian kid
without an accent.
There isn't any stereotypes
to what being Asian is.
He was just an Asian American.
And I love being a part of that.
It was a lucky path for me.
All I wanted to be was an animator.
That's it. Period. For my whole life.
But I love telling stories.
Like some sort of, like, cloud pulse
that goes up.
I had pitched an idea for a short,
and, uh, they gave me a shot at it.
So that was my first directing gig.
And from there, I got to work as
a director on The Good Dinosaur.
And now Elemental.
It all just came from loving the work
and getting really lucky
with the opportunities.
One of the inspirations
to make this film was this award
that I luckily received in the Bronx
right after The Good Dinosaur.
My family and I had never been
to anything like that before.
They were all dressed up
in really nice outfits.
My dad put on his fanciest toupee.
When it was my time to go up on stage,
looked out to the audience,
in front were my mom, dad
and my brother and his wife.
My dad was stoic,
doing that sort of heavy breathing
that he's not gonna cry.
And my mom was-- had, you know,
all that mascara ru--
like tire marks all over her face
from crying,
and it really hit me really hard.
"Oh, my goodness."
How much they had sacrificed,
and look at them now.
I put that speech away, tore it up,
and I just thanked them.
I came back from New York, and I was
describing the ceremony to people here
and the relationship with the parents
and some of the cultural clashes
that one has
being first generation
versus second generation.
Pretty much everyone said,
"That's the heart of the film.
That's the heart of the next thing
that you're doing."
-[panting]
-Huh?
-[announcer] Next stop, Element City.
-[scoffs]
[Peter] Element City itself
was based off many cities
from San Francisco to Amsterdam to Venice.
But because I grew up in New York,
there were a lot of places
that inspired moments in the film.
[ship horn blowing]
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
were huge inspirations to our film.
This idea of a hopeful place where people
all were welcomed was a big piece.
Many Americans today
trace their roots to Ellis Island.
[Salvo] It was a tremendous celebration
of what this country is all about,
and it holds a special place in history
for so many groups.
[Polland] So many Americans are
either immigrants themselves now
or the children of immigrants
or the descendants of immigrants.
Whether it was people
brought here voluntarily or not.
Immigrants are always new blood
to a culture.
They shake things up in a good way.
They bring an edginess.
They bring ambition.
They bring creativity.
They bring resourcefulness.
Ooh. Aw.
[cheering]
[Polland] This country has
always been composed of people
who have come
from a variety of different places.
My family's originally
from Southern Italy.
I was born in Moscow.
Mom's side is from Finland.
-From Korea.
-China.
From Harlem.
-Her mom is from Puerto Rico
-[sniffs]
and her dad is from Dominican Republic.
European mutt.
You know, sixth-generation somethin',
somethin', somethin', somethin'.
But that's what makes
New York City so special.
[man over PA] Welcome to Element City.
Please have your documents ready.
-Your names?
-[speaking Firish]
[speaking Firish]
Great. And how do we spell that?
[speaking Firish]
How about we just go with
Bernie and Cinder?
Welcome to Element City.
[horns honking]
[Peter] My parents came
to the United States separately.
They would meet each other in the Bronx,
there, at a church.
My mother was very tall.
My father was very short.
Somehow my dad managed to be
the same height as my mom in every photo.
My mother didn't want to have anything
to do with him when they first met,
but my father's reputation
sort of won her over.
A priest said, "He's a very hard worker.
He will provide you with a good life."
After their first meeting,
five weeks later, they would get married.
I'm a honeymoon baby,
and so nine months later, I was born.
When I was a kid,
I didn't really emotionally understand
what it took for them
to come here with nothing
and then build a life in New York City,
especially at that time.
The world of the 1970s in New York City
was a very difficult one.
The population of New York
was actually decreasing.
People were moving to suburbs
or getting out of the city.
[Salvo] The people who stayed,
many of them struggled to make a living.
[Peter]
My father came to New York with $150.
He came here with nothing.
In '70s of New York,
$75 would get you three months' rent
in an apartment in Harlem.
The other $75, he rented a hot-dog cart.
He saved up enough money to get
a grocery store in the North Bronx.
[Polland]
Opening up a grocery store in the Bronx
in the 1970s would be very arduous work.
[Salvo] And there was a lot of racial
and ethnic change and a lot of hostility.
[Peter] Rocks get thrown at you.
Or other times
when you get robbed at gunpoint.
[Salvo] But immigrants still came here
in the 1970s,
because the situation
and the conditions here
were far better
than in their countries of origin.
And they saw opportunity,
even in the midst of a fiscal crisis,
the likes of which we have not seen
in quite a long time.
[customers chattering]
-Jo-Joseph?
-Yousef.
Yousef? Nice to meet you.
Yeah, my dad used to own this shop.
-And, uh--
-Been a while.
Yeah, it's been a long-- So sorry.
This is my dad's first grocery store
that he had built from scratch.
This is so amazing.
My dad built all of this.
This was all by his hands.
It hasn't changed much.
Um, definitely,
it's got a nice new life in this.
My father had an insane work ethic
that a lot of immigrants have.
He'd have to get up in the morning,
go to Hunts Point Market,
bring the produce in.
It would be these long days
from 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning
till like 11:00 at night,
seven days a week.
You know, my mom was the cashier
in the center here.
They had built this big wooden box,
the nest of the shop.
Now, that was something that
we were trying to recreate in the film.
[car honks]
[both] Welcome.
[Peter] There would be this hub
where our main characters sort of live.
Kol-nuts, coming up.
Kol-nuts, coming up.
[Peter] That shop is not only
the place that Ember grew up in,
not only a place for the community,
but Dad's dream.
To give Ember, like my father
to my brother and I, a new life.
This shop is dream of our family.
Someday, it'll all be yours.
My dad was building all of this stuff
for my brother and I.
And by the time I was getting into,
you know, middle school and high school,
um, it would soon become a reality where
he would talk about learning the business.
I am so proud to have you
take over my life's work.
[Peter]
"This can be a possible future for you."
[crowd cheering]
[Peter] The places that they worked,
they didn't see how someone could
get a job in the arts and have a life.
In their protective way,
it was always a "no."
Ember is our main protagonist.
[laughs] Winner, winner, charcoal dinner.
[Peter] She's a twentysomething,
young fire woman.
She is a really dutiful daughter.
She loves her parents,
and she's very appreciative for
the sacrifices that they've made for her.
-[coughing]
-Are you okay?
Just tired. [sighs]
Let me help.
[Peter]
One of her main issues is her temper.
No. [blows] No, no, no, no. [blows]
Just give me one for free!
That's not how this works!
[Peter]
And it's sort of an obstacle for her.
[inhales deeply]
[Peter] But she has a talent
that becomes more of her identity.
Done.
[Peter] And that gets triggered
by someone that she meets.
[screams] Fire! Fire!
-[screams] Fire!
-[Ember] Hey! Hey!
Oh, sorry!
You're so hot.
Excuse me?
No, I mean, like, you're smoking!
-No, I didn't mean it like that.
-Are you done yet?
-Yes, please.
-Come this way.
[Peter] Wade Ripple comes
from a world of privilege.
Water is most of the Earth, so the city
should feel like water's the majority.
Water was there first,
and then earth came second,
and air would be there,
and then fire, last.
So he would come from privilege,
and he wouldn't know that feeling
that the world isn't built for you.
I was born here and lived
a very culturally Korean life at home.
But at school, it was very American.
This is my dad's second grocery store.
I have not been here in over 20 years.
I can't believe how it has not changed,
and changed.
Growing up, I just wanted to be American.
And at that time, I remember feeling
ashamed of, like, my heritage
'cause it was made fun of all the time,
and I didn't want to be that.
Took me a long time to understand
these two parts of myself,
being Korean and being American.
There was so much a part of me
that wanted to fit in,
but it's a part of
those developmental milestones
that I've learned, when you assimilate,
the phase of being
ashamed of one's culture
and then the evolution
of when that turns into pride.
[Ngai] Assimilation is associated
with the idea of the melting pot,
that immigrants become Americans.
And that often implies
a kind of cultural whitewash.
Literally, whitewashed.
It assumes that there is some
static American thing to assimilate into.
And that presupposes in a way that
that thing stays constant.
[Peter] What I love about New York is
that everyone sort of keeps their culture.
Keeps what they bring here
from their respective countries.
And so it's more of like a salad bowl
of different sort of vegetables
living together
versus a melting pot where, you know,
you're sort of stripping away things
and sort of becoming
more homogenized in one thing.
My dad started as a hot-dog-cart guy.
Saved his money. Bought one building.
Saved his money. Bought another one,
until he bought half this block out.
It's just the American dream for sure,
but, like, I remember walking with him,
you know, going from shop to shop
to check out each shop,
and, um,
some people were throwing rocks at us.
And telling us to like,
"Go back to China!"
And I remember we were like,
"We're not Chinese!"
Silence!
-[gasps]
-Yeah, great.
Can we talk about 102A and 104E
when they get to the back of the line?
Good morning. Where do I see you?
Yo, Carolyn.
Thanks for doing this one.
This one is a--
a real close one to my heart.
The xenophobia that Ember
and her father experience.
Um, it's taken many forms in the film,
meaning it comes from a real place for me
in terms of growing up in New York
and experiencing things like this.
I had gum thrown in my hair.
I remember that.
And I didn't know it at the time,
but I remember, like,
my father getting super angry
at the people that were yelling at us.
It's always shocking anytime this kind of
xenophobia comes up 'cause every time
In terms of this film of, like,
fire and water not being able to,
you know, be together,
there was-- this is one moment where
the world says that it's not meant to be.
The security guard--
He's not just doing his job,
he not only believes the bureaucracy of--
of at that time in the city, he's saying
-[speaks Firish]
-Go back to Fire Land!
Because she's so young, I feel like
it's more like, "What is going on?"
-Burn somewhere else!
-Get out of here!
[Peter] Before she goes to the shame,
she's beginning to have that, like,
inception of the idea of like,
"We-- Yeah, we're not wanted here
for some reason." You know?
As a kid, you don't know what that is.
You don't know that it's hate.
You don't know that it's ignorance.
You just think that that's what life is.
-[Kaiser] I know what that feels like.
-[Peter] Yeah.
-I really appreciate you doing this one.
-Yeah.
-[Peter] Thank you very much.
-Thank you for trusting me with it.
[Peter] Yeah, thank you.
The pieces of xenophobia and racism,
they weren't, you know, some concept that,
you know, there's a message
that I need to talk about.
They're just experiences.
But this was always a love story
from the very beginning.
It was the heart.
No. Wade, we-we can't touch.
And those darker experiences,
at the right amount,
could help us understand
who the characters were
and the holes that they had
in their lives.
I think I'm failing. [sobs]
[Peter] And then how the love would begin
to fill those holes
in each of the characters.
[cries]
When I was in high school,
my father found
this art supply shop that he took over.
He didn't want to do the--
the six to 11 hours anymore.
My brother now runs my father's shop.
Growing up as the older brother,
it was my job to beat him up
and give him a very tough life.
And wherever we would go,
I would just cram him in a box.
-Would you say that that's how--
-You did very well.
[laughs]
[Peter] Because our parents
were saying "no" to a career in the arts,
this shop was gonna be mine.
In Korean culture, like,
that's a responsibility
that befalls the older sibling.
That's right.
And-- [laughs]
And I left and I went to California,
and to this day, I'm so grateful.
Still have so much guilt over it.
Like, "Man."
[Phillip] Because of the art supply store,
our father got to meet artists
that were actually
making a living for themselves.
And that idea of like,
"Wait, you're an artist?
And you can make money?
Like, you-- This actually works?"
I think that was the moment
where our father accepted it.
And actually started pushing.
"If you're gonna do this,
you're going all in."
[Peter] Because my parents
didn't speak English very well,
my brother and I would become
essentially like cultural brokers.
[Salvo] For most immigrants,
the children are born here.
They learn the language very, very quickly
and act as interpreters for their parents.
And act as a segue
into the larger culture.
Between going to the supermarket
or going to the movies,
there was always
some amount of translation.
[Phillip] I don't know how
they purchased houses or signed contracts.
It's amazing that they were able
to navigate that part of the world.
My Korean isn't great, so I'm, like,
translating at a third-grade level.
And so there's always some level
of miscommunication.
You're just always translating
not only language but,
"No, no. That's called sarcasm, Mom."
That would be the source of
a lot of arguments,
where, as a young kid, telling my mother
what we can or cannot do in this culture.
Without speaking the language,
my father had a charm
where he could make connections.
Oh. [laughs]
-Happy birthday!
-[grunts]
[Peter] He always told us, as a kid,
that he learned English
from Star Trek and Bonanza.
He had this gregarious nature,
and he would always--
He couldn't pronounce words and stuff,
but he would say 'em like
that's the way that they should be.
He would say the word "nuclear,"
"Nicaragua."
That's right.
And he would just be like,
"Ah, there's a Nicaragua reactor."
And you're like, "Dad, it's nuclear."
"Ah, same thing. Whatever." You know?
I came home once, and he was watching,
um, the Spanish channel.
And I was like, "Dad,
you're watching the Spanish channel."
He's like, "It is?"
Hmm. I think he's lying through his feet.
-Teeth.
-Whatever.
-[Peter] He didn't care about the details.
-[Phillip] Yeah, yeah.
Those details were not important
when the world was so shifted for them.
[Phillip]
I married my wife who is from Korea.
It was interesting,
when she first met my parents,
they were conversing so freely.
Just watching Heather talk to my parents,
making them laugh.
My parents never laughed.
And I'm like, "This is so bizarre."
And I was like,
"Peter, you have to see this."
The idea of how bad
our language barrier was
-Mm-hmm.
-didn't really come into play
until you see
what it looks like without it.
That was the office that my brother and I
hung out in after school.
[Phillip] And they had a little TV
up there with a busted speaker.
So we would be watching cartoons
with no sound.
I think that's where probably
my brother learned how to draw.
We'd get these big pads, and then
we would be drawing on both ends of it.
And then there was a day where, you know,
we were just drawing basic stickmen.
And my stickmen are just like your--
your basic hangman stickmen
with, like, straight lines, and his--
They weren't really.
They were really good.
No. His had, like, character.
Like they were dancing on the page,
and you could feel emotion and expression
from a little stupid stickman.
And you're like,
"Wow, that's-- that's different. That's"
I guess that's what you call talent.
[laughs]
My childhood was trying to help my father
with each one of these places.
-Oh!
-[both laughing]
-Water. Keep an eye on them.
-[water person] Hey.
[laughs] Oops.
[Peter] So my first job was security.
You splash it, you buy it!
[screaming]
The whole job would be like,
"I think this guy stole something!"
There were no cameras,
so you would just stand in a lane.
Yeah. There were mirrors
you would be eyeballing.
I wasn't helping anything. I was terrible.
I was just playing in the aisles
most of the time.
My brother, when he did art, 200%,
stays up late, would constantly draw.
But when you're at the art supply store
and you have to work,
he'd find a nice place to sleep.
[both laugh]
Between, like,
walls that were, like, two feet,
and I'd just wedge myself
on top of the mat boards.
Secret places
that my mother would be like,
-"What are you doing here?"
-[laughs]
-"This is where you're at? Not working."
-[laughs]
This is the same right here. Oh, my God.
What we used to do here
was hang out in the fridge
and scare the crap out of people.
If someone was grabbing the milk,
you'd push the milk cartons to the edge
so they couldn't--
They'd have a tough time, and we'd giggle.
Uh, the bologna life.
That's what this was.
We lived in every section of the store.
We'd do our homework.
We eat lunch in different aisles,
or we'd grab food.
There's still some of that junk food
from the '80s
still somewhere around here, and here.
You know, this is Sara Lee.
You know, this is Hostess.
The proudest thing for him,
as a dad, was like,
"My two sons are tall. Look at this."
We're not that tall, you know, but, like,
he was a short man, and so, like,
there was always like,
"Eat good. Grow." You know?
I assume him allowing us to eat
all this stuff was, uh, you know,
to get us, like, nice and big.
And so congratulations, Dad.
You were successful.
I don't know if it was
just that time period
or how crazy helicopter parenting
has gotten today,
but wasn't a lot of day care going on.
We'd bike everywhere. Busy streets and
"What's the next street we can get to?"
And if you got to this other neighborhood
that you hadn't been before,
there were kids there that are like,
"You don't belong here!"
-That's right.
-"Get outta here!"
We're like, "This is our country too,
but let's go! Let's get outta here!"
-[Phillip] That's right.
-Yeah.
We would both ride together. One bike.
[Peter] There were no parents.
Like a urban Lord of the Flies,
but instead of Piggy with the glasses,
it was, like,
Ramn with the banana-seat bike.
Now, as a parent and having kids,
I've become very nostalgic.
Walking around my dad's shops
triggers those old memories.
My mom would have these wood pallets,
put cardboard on top of it,
and we would just sit there playing cards.
My dad would mind the store,
and then he would come in
when there were no customers
and eat with us very quickly.
Simple foods with my mom and dad.
Yeah.
Yeah, my boy, I'm feeling that.
[Chambers] If this makes you happy,
I'm not gonna be--
[Peter] I owe Phillip a lot.
I did fall in love
with someone who wasn't Korean.
It is.
We met at CalArts.
She was this amazing artist.
It was my second year,
and it was your first year.
Mm-hmm.
[Peter] When I first heard her laugh,
it melted my heart.
I just fell in love with her.
I think of that time as,
like, the best time.
[Chambers] That was a good era.
[Peter] Yeah.
Our grandmother's dying words were,
"Marry Korean."
[speaking Korean]
You know? And then she passed, you know?
-And--
-Freedom!
[laughs]
Promise me one thing.
Marry Fire.
[grunts]
[Peter] Anyone, if they weren't Korean,
wasn't good enough.
The pressure's for real.
["Steal the Show" starts]
This is gorgeous.
How long were we together
before we got engaged?
It was, like, seven years?
[Chambers] Probably. Yeah.
[song continues]
[Peter] I had kept you a secret.
My dad was very welcoming,
but my mom was still unsure.
Who is this guy?
It was love that kept us together.
-[chuckles]
-No? Too cheesy. I'm sorry.
It's totally cheesy.
[song continues]
[Peter] I think she became more welcoming.
Did you feel that?
She would tell me things,
how I'm good for you, like--
-[chuckles]
-Uh-huh.
"Anna's good with money. You're not."
-Like, 'cause you're
-[laughs] Yeah.
[Peter] But I remember it was a slow burn
for her to open up.
I remember your dad, he was very nice.
He would make me
a special giant salad bowl to myself.
-Yeah.
-[laughs]
[Peter] Right. 'Cause we don't eat salad.
That was very nice of him to do.
-[Peter] Yeah, I miss that about him.
-Yeah.
[song continues]
-Let me take a picture of you here.
-[chuckles]
[Peter] My mom and dad never said,
"I love you."
They never said those words.
Only later in my life,
did I understand that they didn't need to.
In Korea,
there is an understanding, culturally,
taking care of each other,
that was the "I love you."
[Chambers]
Your mom loved to buy me jackets.
[Peter] I know. That was her way of saying
how much she really loved you.
[shutter clicks]
[song ends]
[Peter] I've never really
done anything personal like this.
This film is all about gestures of love.
There was a moment in Ember's past
where there was some xenophobia,
and she wasn't allowed to enter
this station to see this beautiful flower.
Wade finds a way for Ember to see it.
It's very much
Wade's gesture of love to Ember.
[Ember] Whoa.
Elemental is not just a love story
between a boy and a girl, fire and water.
It was about a parent and child as well.
[both speaking Firish]
[Peter] There were constant
gestures of love from my parents.
Taking care of each other,
that was the "I love you."
Good daughter.
[Peter] Having lost my parents
while making this movie,
it became a way to honor them.
It became my gesture.
It was the best way
that I can say, "I love you."
[jazzy piano plays]
Uh, we would like to get
two hot dogs, please.
Thank you.
Cheers.
-[laughs]
-[mutters]
I'd eat two bites probably.
The Twinkie wrappers
are, like, stuck in this.