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. 

Inside Out 2

Amy Poehler, and hardly anybody else from the original cast, return for Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2, another Pixar adventure set amongst the personified emotions that rule the interior landscape of an adolescent girl named Riley. Whereas before the action focused on a depressive episode for the child, one made possible thanks to disruption caused by the absence of Poehler's Joy and Phyllis Smith's Sadness to oversee a cross-country move from somewhere in Minnesota to San Francisco, Inside Out 2 revolves around a coup d'état engineered by new, invading emotions led by Maya Hawke's Anxiety. Explosively energetic and teeming with schemes, Anxiety initially seems better placed to traverse the creep of puberty, and the interpersonal complications that come with it, than the comparatively one-note Joy. This sequel, something of a star vehicle for Poehler and the fusspot persona she cultivated on television's Parks and Recreation, organises the little yellow sprite as the foundational tenant of Riley. 

Joy is the aspect that rules all the other emotions and holds sway in times of crisis, vanquishing negative thoughts and feelings to the darkened rear of Riley's mind. Whereas the central clash between Joy and Anxiety would seem to suggest that a more unified, complementary approach might result in the most complete being, Inside Out 2 still ends with Joy ruling the roost. This despite Anxiety being equally able to conjure up an incandescent flower that pulses with Riley's (wavering) inner monologue. Really the only real challenge to Joy's continued governance is the inner turbulence suggested by a brief meltdown in which the emotion reveals a self-awareness that seems to indicate that she herself is being piloted by competing senses of self. Unfortunately, Inside Out 2 isn't particularly interested in pursuing these kind of farcical, metatextual concepts, preferring instead to treat a prolonged hockey try out with the paralysing solemnity being experienced by a youngster taking their first steps into a wider world. 

"Who's ready for Ken's dream tour?"

International trail for future Academy Award winner Toy Story 3. Looks like Andy's toys have to cope with a sinister discarded playthings Illuminati; that chuckling Masters of the Universe reject looks like he could really start some shit. Background fans! Look out for the Totoro cameo.

Disaster Year 2004: The Incredibles

Bob Parr is a former superhero slumming it in the suburbs thanks to an ungrateful public. Every day he squeezes himself into a satirically small vehicle and commutes to and from an awful cubicle farm. His evenings are spent gazing into the middle distance, ignoring his family, and dreaming of the past. His only remaining connection to a hero identity is the odd night spent listening to a Police scanner with a former super-colleague.

Parr yearns for his past life, although not as an alternative to his new role as a provider. He loves his family, and delights in his children's fledgling abilities. His wife Helen, formerly Elastigirl, has adapted well to normal life, causing Parr to further subsume and conceal his discomfort. Rather than a middle-aged virility tantrum, Parr's longing is more about the knowledge that he has a very special gift but is unable to use it. In his current position he is completely unable to help people. It torments him.

The first act of The Incredibles is suffused with an almost overpowering sense of sadness. The denial is destroying Parr. His hair is lank, his eyes pitted, and gut hanging. In the absence of heroics, Parr has taken a position at an insurance company, a body ostensibly tasked with comfort. Instead it is ruled by a vicious grey lump who worries about his shareholders' margins, and slanders Parr for his instinct to help.

Salvation eventually arrives not in escape, but sharing his dreams and aspirations with his family. They become a unit, each member's skill-set complimenting the other. The Incredibles is the most emotionally sincere examination of costumed adventuring in a functional human context. Writer / Director Brad Bird is able to compliment the usual Pixar wonder with a craft honed after years of service on heyday The Simpsons. The Parrs are much more than zippy cartoon facsimiles, like their Springfield set antecedents, they're a rounded, believable group of people.

One Million Horse-Power?

Latest dreary hawk for Imagi's upcoming Astro Boy. Look out for blink-brief cameos by a rather young looking Osamu Tezuka; and Grant Morrison's Tyrant Sun Solaris, from DC One Million and All-Star Superman, who looks to be pitching in on jobbing heavy duty. If Atom really must be awkwardly transplanted into a Western centric animation adventure, why couldn't Pixar have come sniffing for the rights? I know they're not usually hip to adaptation, but this is Osamu Tezuka for God's sake. At the very least John Lasseter could have conspired with a cackling Hayao Miyazaki to bring some maximum density to the fondest creation of the limited animation mindset originator. That'd be a victory for their way of life. In my head cinema I'm imagining Brad Bird directing a take on The Greatest Robot on Earth episode: a young person-bot struggling to understand the true implications of his power, whilst battling a serial-killer robot. David Fincher could shoot some live action Pluto inserts on gloomy weekends, and there you have it: something perfect.

They Lingered There...

More summer film spam.

WALL-E 1

A cute little slave robot potters around a rubbish (garbage, not qualitative) planet tidying up. Riveting! By the looks of it, Wall-E will be a environmental parable about mankind's destructive legacy. I'll wager there's some unrequited love in there too. Wall-E himself looks like a mechanical ET by way of Short Circuit's Johnny 5, all squashed up and super deformed (Japan, beware) for toy markets. Thankfully, it's against Pixar law for their films to be sub-par. It's rumoured that both Cars and Ratatouille stunk up the place in their original forms before substantial delays and superstar directors were drafted in to salvage the projects. The most exciting news about Wall-E is the involvement of sound design superman Ben Burtt - he designed basically any noise you hear in any of the Star Wars films. Mr Burtt is recording 'voices' for the robots, these will no doubt be all manner of interesting blips and clicks. I am not being sarcastic. I find that exciting.

Speed Racer 1

The big action offering from the now resolutely gender non-specific Wachowskis. No doubt only vaguely based on Tatsuo Yoshida's (also responsible for Gatchaman / Battle of the Planets and Casshan) manga Mach GoGoGo, instead formed from a collective nostalgic bubble thought about the late 60s (limited) animation series. Judging by the trailers, Speed Racer is a madcap Spy Kids 3 alike with visual overtones suggestive of Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik and Mariho Maeda's kaleidoscope Count of Monte Cristo animated series: Gankutsuou. Phew! Add a heaped tablespoon of candy-colour Hot Wheels loop de loops, and a Chimp (oh yes), and you might be somewhere close to how excited I am. Hopefully the sleeper "awesome!" film of the summer. The Wachowskis demonstrated a firm understanding of car crash clap prompts in Matrix 2, successfully apeing and extending ideas from the Godfathers of sci-fi car crashin': Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Terminator 2. No-one else I know is even slightly interested. I shall go on my own if need be!

Hulk 2

Ang Lee's film wasn't quite good enough apparently. Oh well I thoroughly enjoyed it. Edward Norton heads up this instead-of-quel, which again seems patterned towards nostalgia - the first trailer was dripping with boring "remember how much you loved this when you were 5!" visual cues from the Bill Bixby TV series. As is routine with his projects, Norton has his grubby mitts all over this, not only acting but script re-writing too (probably bullied the director to death as well). Norton's presence is undoubtedly a positive though, without him this re-boot of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's Hyde monster would seem all-sop to the TV series. Disappointingly though Hulk's birth through medicinal Gamma radiation application is retained, rather than the original comics caught-in-an-atomic-explosion womb. Hulk himself looks darker and nastier than Ang Lee's chubby child muscler - Norton Hulk is patterned after an in-house design I can't ascribe a particular artist too, that was popular in the 80s. He looks mean. Shame the big bad Abomination looks like you typical crude video game bruiser (Gears of War's Berserker most especially). Notron's Banner is wire thin and sporting a goatee, he looks like your typical seething neurosis driven Steve Ditko render. Norton would've made an excellent Dr Strange. We have missed out.

Hellboy 2

After the fun but uninspiring first stab at Mignola's baby, Guillermo Del Toro returns with a hidden nation clash that looks much more in keeping with his oeuvre. It's Ron Pearlman vs all manner of supernatural children of the earth. Take that elves! Departing rapidly from the comic series' plotlines is probably for the best, not because the comics are in any way anything other than superb, rather it allows Del Toro to flex his own considerable imagination gland without having to reign himself in to fit a prescribed narrative. The undernation teased in the trailers is the Fairy kingdom of Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth in all but name, it'd be pulp perfect to see the big red beast of the apocalypse vandal his way through, dropping quips and chumps left and right.