SPOILER SPECIAL
Elio
GOING DEEPER INTO THE OFF-WORLD SECRETS OF PIXAR’S SCI-FI
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
IT’S EASY TO dismiss Elio. With a worldwide take of just $153 million, the latest Pixar movie has not reached the heights of its studio siblings commercially, and it’s made little cultural impact. Perhaps that’s as a result of an unsettled production process, which saw directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian parachuted in to take over from Adrian Molina, or perhaps audiences just weren’t interested in an original story about a young boy (Yonas Kibreab) who finds that his dream of becoming abducted by aliens comes true. But while it’s not top-tier Pixar, there’s a great deal of charm and heart here. We asked Shi, Sharafian and producer Mary Alice Drumm to talk us through some key moments…
NOW, VOYAGER
In the opening moments, we are introduced to Elio, an orphan living with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña). Disconnected and disconsolate, Elio stumbles upon a museum exhibition dedicated to Voyager 1, the NASA space probe that, even now, is still hurtling through space. “We were super-inspired by Voyager,” says Shi. “All these nations came together to do this really cool thing, and it felt like a beautiful symbol of hope. Elio’s really connecting with Voyager and feeling, ‘I am Voyager, I am this little satellite, I’m gonna go look for life out there.’”