352: The Team Behind Disney and Pixar’s ‘Elemental’

In this week’s episode of the Black Girl Nerds podcast we drop a bonus episode to feature the animation team behind the upcoming film Elemental from Disney and Pixar Studios. Featured in the interviews are director Peter Sohn, producer Denise Ream as well as directing animators Gwendolyn Enderoğlu and Allison Rutland.

Director Peter Sohn joined Pixar Animation Studios in September 2000
and has worked on Academy Award®-winning feature films including Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and “WALL•E.” Sohn made his directorial debut on the Pixar short “Partly Cloudy”, before going on to direct his first feature The Good Dinosaur. He was also an executive producer on Luca, which debuted on Disney+ in June 2021.

Denise Ream joined Pixar Animation Studios in October 2006 as the associate producer on the Academy Award®-winning feature film Up. Ream continued on to produce 2011’s Cars 2, working alongside director John Lasseter, and
Pixar’s original November 2015 feature film, The Good Dinosaur, with director Peter
Sohn. Currently, Ream is serving as the producer on Disney and Pixar’s upcoming feature Elemental, again alongside Director Peter Sohn.

Gwendolyn  Enderoğlu joined Pixar Animation Studios in July 2013. She has worked as an animator and character development artist on Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Coco, Onward and Luca. As a directing animator, Enderoğlu helps oversee the animation team. Along with the two other directing animators, Enderoğlu’s role was to test and help develop the show’s unique character rigs and animation style, as well as give notes, feedback and advice to the animators to help them execute the director’s vision and elevate each shot in the film.

Allison Rutland joined Pixar Animation Studios in April 2009. She worked as an animator on several Academy Award-winning feature films including
Toy Story 3, Brave, Inside Out, and Coco. Rutland also served as the Directing
Animator on Onward.

Disney and Pixar’s Elemental is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City,
where fire, water, earth 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 and the person she wants to be.

Elemental premieres in theaters nationwide June 16th.

Host: Jamie 
Edited by: Jamie Broadnax
Music by: Sammus