American filmmaker (born 1977)
Peter Sohn (born October 18, 1977) is an American filmmaker, animator, storyboard artist, and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. He directed the short film Partly Cloudy (2009) and the feature films The Good Dinosaur (2015) and Elemental (2023). He has also been the voice of Emile in Ratatouille (2007), Squishy in Monsters University (2013), and Sox in Lightyear (2022).
Early life
Sohn was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Korean immigrants Yung Tahk Sohn and Hea Ja Sohn. He has one brother. He was raised in New York.[2]
While studying at CalArts, he landed a summer job working on Brad Bird's animated feature film, The Iron Giant.
Career
After graduating from school, he worked at The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. before coming to Pixar in the art and story departments for Finding Nemo.[3] He also worked on The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E. Sohn performed the voice of Remy's brother, Emile in Ratatouille. He made his directorial debut with the short film Partly Cloudy in 2009 which he also wrote. Partly Cloudy was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2009. Sohn co-directed the English-language version of Ponyo in 2009 with John Lasseter and Brad Lewis (fellow Pixar workers).[4] Russell, the boy in Up, was based on Sohn's appearance.[5] He voiced Russell in the corresponding short, George & A.J., and Squishy in the feature Monsters University.
Sohn directed The Good Dinosaur, which was released in November 2015. He voiced its Styracosaurus character Forrest Woodbush.[6] The film is notable for being Pixar's first film to be a box office flop.[7] Emily St. James at Vox praised the films for its "gorgeous visuals" but criticized its story writing, "The film's story isn't just derivative — it actively rips off other, better movies."[8] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian agreed writing, "It may be visually impressive, but this Jurassic outing lacks the passion and sophistication that we’ve come to expect from Pixar".[9]
Sohn was set to voice the Marvel Comics character Ganke Lee in the Sony Pictures Animation feature film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but his lines were ultimately deleted from the final film.[10] However, he eventually voiced Ganke in the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Sohn provided the voice of Sox, a robotic kitten, in the Pixar film Lightyear (2022).[11]
Sohn's sophomore effort as a director at Pixar, Elemental, is based on his experience growing up in New York. The film incorporates the classical elements of fire, water, air, and earth as the sentient residents of a city. The film debuted out of competition to initially mixed reviews at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.[12][13] It was released June 16, 2023 to positive reviews. The film is the 27th feature film made by Pixar.[14][15]
The film originally underperformed on opening weekend.[16][17] However, its performance improved in the following weeks following positive word-of-mouth that led the movie to become a sleeper hit.[18][19][20][21] Alison Willmore of Vulture says, "Elemental is the second feature from Peter Sohn, a Pixar stalwart who has been with the company since 2000 but as a director is now 0 for 2 ... the visuals are there but the storytelling lately falls flat".[22] David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote "It's so busy trying to pen an op-ed that it forgets to give it a narrative structure and make it emotionally resonate. That’s just elementary."[23] Audiences received the film much more positively, praising its emotional story and charming romance.
Personal life
Sohn is married to artist Anna Chambers, whom he met at CalArts.[24] During the production of The Good Dinosaur, they welcomed two children.[25]
