How sci-fi classics like ‘Alien’ and a director change shaped Pixar’s ‘Elio’

The premise for Pixar’s latest film, Elio, sounds as zany and off-the-wall as anything the animation juggernaut has ever created: A young boy is accidentally summoned to the Communiverse, an intergalactic organization where he’s forced to represent the human race as an ambassador for Earth.

It’s somewhat surprising to learn, then, that the film began as a deeply personal reflection on the lonely childhood of its original director, Adrian Molina. 

“When he was first coming up with the story, Adrian talked about the moment where he went to animation college at CalArts for the first time, and how all of a sudden he felt like he’d found his people, he’d found his world,” director Madeline Sharafian tells Entertainment Weekly. “That’s like Elio’s journey from Earth up into the Communiverse, which is this magical space with aliens from everywhere.”

Molina provided Elio with the same backdrop as his own childhood: a military base. “There’s a really interesting dichotomy between these two worlds — this very structured, controlled place that Elio feels is not the right world for him, and then this beautiful, organic, colorful space world,” Sharafian explains.

However, after a couple of years working on the project, Molina ultimately wasn’t the one to see it to the finish line, as he was beamed up to co-direct Coco 2 (after co-directing its 2017 predecessor). Upon his new assignment, the filmmaker handed off his passion project to Domee Shi, who told a similarly personal story with 2022’s Turning Red, and Sharafian, a longtime Pixar vet and first-time feature director who helmed the 2020 short Burrow.

“We were just on the side, but kind of involved a little bit creatively in the beginning when Adrian was first developing it,” Shi says. “Then he entrusted Maddie and myself to finish what he started. It’s like we were handed a box of toys and we had to figure out how to tell the best story in the most meaningful and entertaining way with ’em.”

Sharafian explains that Molina had already developed Elio‘s characters and world by the time she and Shi came aboard as directors. “It did feel like very big shoes to fill, because he’d done such a great job of creating these strong, goofy personalities,” the filmmaker says. However, the new directors immediately empathized with the film’s central character. “It came from a place that Domee and I both relate to, this feeling of just being a total loner weirdo on this planet.”

Despite joining the project late, the filmmaking duo still injected Elio with their own voices and aesthetics. Sharafian says she feels particularly attached to Elio’s aunt and guardian, Olga, voiced by Zoe Saldaña, following America Ferrera’s departure from the project due to scheduling conflicts. “She’s very control-oriented and her hair’s pulled back tight — sometimes I’d be watching the movie and be like, ‘Oh, dang it, that is me,'” the director says. “She’s an uptight perfectionist who wants to raise a kid for the first time but doesn’t know how, and is sort of dropped into this huge responsibility without knowing what she’s doing.”

Sharafian explains that Saldaña helped ensure that Olga remained the “rich, juicy character” that the creators envisioned. “She brought so much nuance to this character, which I feel like is a bit of a tricky character,” she says. “People don’t always like seeing non-perfect parental figures on screen, but she did this incredible job of threading the needle of vulnerability. You can tell she cares at her core, but she’s not perfect when you first meet her.”

On the other hand, Shi, who’s a “huge fan of sci-fi horror and Star Trek,” feels her voice shining through the film’s science fiction and horror elements. She cites two Carl Sagan projects, Contact and Cosmos, as key inspirations. “We love the idea of space being hopeful, and that humanity’s answers could be out there somewhere,” she says. “I just love how in Contact, they show aliens in such an aspirational and positive way, and not something really scary that’s coming to get us or coming to replace us.” 

Another inspiration was John Carpenter’s The Thing, which builds tension from the threat of a shape-shifting alien replacing some of the characters. “We have a B-plot that I was really excited we were able to do where we’re following Olga,” Sharafian reveals. “The idea is: What if you slowly realize that you’re living with a kid who might not be your kid, but if you tell anybody, you might be seen as crazy? And just really having fun with that concept and pushing it to its limits and just having a lot of fun scaring audiences, but also luring them along for the ride.”

Sharafian also shouts out Close Encounters of the Third Kind as an important example for helping set the tone. “It isn’t really horror, but has this sort of underlying menace to it of, ‘What’s wrong with this guy? Why is he forming stuff out of foam?'” she says. “It’s ominous, and the musical tone from the aliens that you hear is mysterious, a little scary. You don’t know if it’s good or not good yet.”

And the filmmaking duo didn’t forget the most iconic sci-fi-horror film of all. “Visuals-wise, we love Alien as well,” Sharafian explains. “Elio‘s not going to have horror moments the same way Alien has gooey teeth coming out at you, but I feel like we had a lot of fun with a little bit of that sci-fi menace.”

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The directing duo knew that Elio‘s audience was already familiar with sci-fi tropes, so they took the opportunity to embrace the genre’s conventions, “but also twist them in an unexpected way,” Shi says. 

“For example, we have an abduction scene in our movie that you probably have seen in so many other movies,” she continues. “But the twist is that when those lights go on and Elio sees the spaceship, he cheers, and he’s whooping and hollering — this is the best day of his life. The light’s green, and it’s eerie, and time is frozen, but he cannot wait to leave his planet.”

Sharafian concurs. “Usually, abductions are scary,” she says. “But character-wise, he’s stoked. And I feel like that’s surprising and fun and really puts a stake in the ground for us, as far as, ‘This has to happen in this movie. This is the movie, this is the character. How do we then build off of this?'”

Elio hits theaters on June 20.