Elio

The function of an animated film like Elio, co-directed by Madeline Sharafian, Turning Red's Domee Shi, and Coco co-director Adrian Molina, very much seems to be one of affirmation; specifically a message to its young audience (and perhaps a chiding to the less attentive adults within earshot) that all children deserve to feel not just safe but absolutely adored in their home. Pixar's latest then treads similar ground to Disney stablemate Lilo & Stitch - recently promoted to live action status with much of its indigenous identity chipped away - in that a child can become so lonely that the only person who is capable of understanding them lies not just outside the family but might, in fact, be an extraterrestrial silk worm. Elio, voiced by Yonas Kibreab, is an orphan living with his childless, Air Force Major aunt who, after having wandered into a museum exhibit about the Voyager probes, becomes obsessed with the idea of contacting somebody else out there in the void of space. 

Any dangling insinuation that the endless night above us might roughly equate to the afterlife in the mind of a naïve youngster isn't explored here but the kinds of self-aggrandizing fabrication that provide shallow comfort for that same child are everywhere. Contacted by a peaceful federation of lounging aliens, Elio plays along with their assumption that he is Earth's galactic ambassador, eventually agreeing to broker a deal with Brad Garrett's warlike Lord Grigon, while a suspiciously well-behaved clone stands in for Elio on Earth. The latter entertains because its gooey military base antics prickle (presumably) inadvertent memories of Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers while Grigon, the sourpuss father to Elio's unearthly friend, gets to physically demonstrate the idea that absolutely everything - even bespoke power armour bristling with pistols - pales to nothing when judged against the health and well-being of your child. As with co-director Shi's Turning Red, Elio also looks to be taking further cues from Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball era Akira Toriyama, which is to say Pixar's film is packed with bemused but elasticated figures tinkering around with their obsessively detailed gadgetry.