Disney have unveiled the first official trailer for Pixar’s summer sci-fi adventure Elio. The movie marks the studio’s 28th feature, and is the first original since 2023’s Elemental. Per the studio’s synopsis, the film is a “comedic misadventure” and centers on a “space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession.” Adding, “Elio’s all in for an epic undertaking when he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide. When Elio is mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader, he must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions, and somehow discover who and where he is truly meant to be.”
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Elio features the voice talents of 13-year-old newcomer Yonas Kibreab as Elio, Avatar’s Zoe Saldaña as Aunt Olga, Sing 2’s Remy Edgerly as Glordon, Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon, The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil as Ambassador Questa and Harry Potter’s Shirley Henderson as OOOOO.
The outer space sci-fi is directed by Madeline Sharafian (Burrow Sparkshort), Domee Shi (Bao short, Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (co-screenwriter/co-director of Coco); and is produced by Mary Alice Drumm (associate producer of Coco).
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Riding that PG line
In a subscriber interview with Empire, the co-directors revealed that Elio will have “some sci-fi horror references,” citing some the genre’s most iconic moments — from John Carpenter’s The Thing, to Ridley Scott’s Alien. Specifically, “The Thing with the spider-head, and the arm-chomping defibrillation scene, and a flame-throwing Kurt Russell.” Sharafian added it will also feature “the scary parts” of Close Encounters and Carpenter’s “icy terror”.
“It’s one of our best surprises, so I don’t want to give away too much,” she teased. “I’m always trying to push it to be weirder and a little creepier, to ride that line of the PG movie.”
While Pixar + sci-fi may normally make fans think of WALL·E (no offense Lightyear), Sharafian promises the same sweet sentiment but with a different message. She told the outlet that the eponymous character is “this little boy who feels like an alien on Earth,” and when Elio is beamed into the ‘Communiverse’, the alien ambassadors regard him as Earth’s leader. “His sense of loneliness is the heart of the movie, wanting so desperately to be wanted,” she said. “It’s propelling him through lying about who he is, in order to fit into this amazing alien world.”
The upcoming feature comes fresh off the heels of 2024’s blockbuster Inside Out 2, which became Hollywood’s highest grossing animated film of all time for several months, until Chinese animated fantasy adventure Ne Zha 2 recently supplanted the title. And despite the former crossing $1 billion globally, Inside Out 2 recently lost to Latvian film Flow at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature. As such, Elio must prove to be out of this world to make a dent in the box office, and absolve Disney of its longest Oscar drought.
Pixar’s Elio beams into theatres June 13th.
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