MUMBAI: Pixar’s upcoming animated feature Elio explores the cosmos not through fear, but through wonder and longing. At the center of the story is a boy who doesn’t quite fit in on Earth and actively wants to be abducted by aliens—not to escape, but to find a place where he finally belongs.
The film was originally conceived by Adrian Molina, who based the character Elio partly on himself. Speaking to Animation Magazine, director Domee Shi said, “His mother worked for the military. He always felt like an odd kid on the military base." When Molina left to co-direct Coco 2, he passed the reins to Madeline Sharafian and Shi, who brought their own emotional experiences to the project. “Our inspiration, when we approached Elio, was tapping into our own childhoods of feeling lonely and wanting connection and wanting to feel belonging somewhere in the universe,” Shi explains.
The film’s creative lineage draws from sci-fi classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Thing, and Alien, but instead of suspense or horror, Elio channels hope, curiosity, and emotional resonance. “In the beginning, Elio is obsessed with getting abducted by aliens and with going into space,” Shi notes. “I think that is how a lot of us have felt at that age… dreaming of finding a place where you belong.”
Shi shares her own parallel experience: “I’m not a space nerd, but I’m a huge animation nerd, anime nerd. I remember when I first went to my first anime convention in high school, I felt the way Elio feels in the movie when he’s abducted and he meets the aliens. I felt like I was finally in the right place, I’m with my people.”
Visually, this emotional journey is supported by a dramatic shift in the film’s color palette. Sharafian explains, “We both love really bold color choices… we gave him this really electric kind of alien, classic little green man look” during his time on Earth, emphasizing how out-of-place he feels. “Once he’s in space, we really needed it to feel like his own personal heaven… It’s super saturated. It’s just this beautiful, kaleidoscopic place.”
One of the film’s biggest technical and creative challenges was bringing Elio’s alien companion Ooooo to life. Animator Jude Brownbill admits, “The Ooooo character probably was the one that scared us the most.” But inspiration struck when an animator delivered a demo that suddenly “solved” the character’s look and movement. “Because of the endless possibilities of animating a character that was sort of liquid in a way but also had other elements, it opened up so many ideas.”
VFX supervisor Claudia Chung-Sani describes Ooooo as “Pixar’s first topology-free character rig.” She elaborates: “She is an arrangement of implicit shapes (i.e., she exists only in math equations)… This would be impossible in real life, but very much a reality in the Communiverse!” The team’s innovation allowed for fluidity and expressiveness never seen before in a Pixar character, making Ooooo a standout both visually and emotionally.
For all its spectacle and sci-fi creativity, Elio remains grounded in its message. “We definitely hope kids who might feel alone or out of place take something from this,” says Shi. The film isn’t just about finding where you belong, but about creating that connection yourself. “Belonging isn’t arriving at a place where everyone immediately gets along with you,” she adds. “It’s actually reaching out… It’s seeing your journey as a way to connect with others and find your place with others.”
Elio is ultimately a journey through space that leads inward—to the desire we all share: to be seen, to be understood, and to find where we belong.
Disney Pixar's Elio releases in India on June 20 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
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