Carl’s Date, a new “Up” short in the “Dug Days” family, will screen in theaters before showings of Pixar feature Elemental beginning June 16th. It’s directed by Bob Peterson (co-writer and co-director of “Up” and the voice of Dug), and it’s produced by Kim Collins (production manager on Toy Story 4). Carl is going on a date — his first since losing the love of his life, Ellie. Dug will help Carl get ready in humorous and heartwarming ways.

Today Disney/Pixar announces that tickets are now on sale for their next feature Elemental, which opens in exactly one month, on June 16th. It’s directed by Pete Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) and focuses on water boy Wade and fire girl Ember. Are they truly meant to be together? When I visited Pixar Animation Studios for the first time in March, I had the chance to screen select footage from the film, watch a special presentation and speak with several of the film’s talented makers. (These interviews were edited for length and clarity.)

Let’s begin with my chat with Production Designer Don Shank, a two-time Emmy winner (for The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack) who actually started his career at Pixar and met his wife in the same week.

Jackson Murphy: Tell me about the matching between the elements and certain items.

Don Shank: We really wanted, and [Pete] would always talk about, immaculate realities. For me, it was about making it feel like each element had their own culture and history that they were bringing to the world — and also making it sort of modern. That was the high level target we were after. And at some point you say you want to make sure you do something that feels fun and entertaining. It really boiled down to packing as many fun elemental transformations as we could. Air people weren’t as easy as others — fire and water have a certain movement. Air is clear. It was really tough to show movement, so we relied a lot on things that were themed with air, like propellers. As far as the matching goes, it was like diving into the deep end.