An alien adventure

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation explore the space in ‘Elio’, but the basic tenets remain the same, revolving around human emotions. The film is a wonderfully-crafted journey that has all the right ingredients to appeal to a universal audience. Directors Molina, Sharafian and Domee Shi pool their experience to create a grand alien adventure that delivers all the emotional, fun and beautiful animation that Pixar is better known for.

‘Elio’ is an ambitious attempt, a coming-of-age tale married to an intergalactic diplomatic mission. Written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones, it is full of heart and imagination.

Elio (Yonas Kibreab) is an 11-year-old boy who has lost his parents and is now living with his aunt, Olga (Zoe Saldana). He is shy and has no friends. Olga is an army major working at the Montez Air Force Base. She is ambitious and hopes to join the space programme to become an astronaut. She loves Elio, but doesn’t seem to understand what he truly needs.

Elio’s obsession with space gives some meaning to his life. He tries to make contact with the aliens in the hope of being abducted by them.

The screenplay has Elio, the space fanatic, send a message into space. He receives an answer and a ship arrives to pick him up. Elio, who now calls himself leader of the Earth, meets up with the members of the Communiverse. But Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), who’s been refused membership in the Communiverse, gets aggressive in his outrage. Elio is tasked with getting rid of the hostile aggressor and is offered a permanent ambassadorship if he is successful in doing so.

During his visit, Elio gets friendly with Glordon (Remy Edgerly), Lord Grigon’s son. The two become close and work up a plan to avoid revealing their true selves.

Elio meets OOOOO (Shirley Henderson), a gelatinous supercomputer that assists Elio by creating his clone, which is sent to the Earth to take his place. Their relationship gets stronger but harsh reality plays spoilsport.

The script has many ideas — it explores the concerns of parenthood, friendship and alien tech — but not all of them come to fruition. The Communiverse inhabitants are quite individualistic and unique. The aliens in the film are distinct, particularly Glordon (Remy Edgerly) and Questa (Jameela Jamil). Each creature has a personality and colour that is visually engaging.

There’s a good balance of humour and pathos; the animation is striking, colourful and designed to charm. The voice work is solid and generates entertaining moments.

There are many laughs to keep you engaged and interested along the way.