Latest news with #DomeeShi
The Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Deep heart, cosmic originality
PIXAR's Elio is the kind of animated film that sneaks up on audiences and gently blows them away with a telescope-sized dose of heart, humour and originality. In an era when sequels and spin-offs dominate, this charming standalone story arrives like a beam of light from the stars, refreshingly weird, wildly imaginative and deeply sincere. Beneath the glow-in-the-dark alien creatures and intergalactic hijinks lies a story that is grounded in the universal struggles of identity, belonging and the very human desire to be understood. And in true Pixar fashion, wraps all that emotion in a wonderfully absurd adventure involving alien ambassadors, unlikely friendships and one 11-year-old boy's very big misunderstanding. Genuine sense of wonder Elio is a film best approached with an open heart and no expectations, just the willingness to embrace the unknown. For those who do, a pleasant surprise awaits: this is one of Pixar's most original and emotionally rewarding stories in recent years. There is a genuine sense of wonder that pulses through every scene, thanks to the direction of Turning Red 's Domee Shi, Coco co-director Adrian Molina and Burrow 's Madeline Sharafian. The trio crafts a cinematic world that does not just look vibrant, it feels lived-in, alien yet oddly familiar. The Communiverse, home to dozens of eccentric extraterrestrials, is bursting with personality, from bureaucratic chaos to moments of surprising tenderness. Still, it is not just the visuals or the worldbuilding that wins over the audience. It is the characters. They are the heart and heartbeat of this cosmic journey. Unforgettable characters Elio Solis, voiced with wide-eyed charm by Yonas Kibreab, is the kind of protagonist one cannot help but root for. Awkward, imaginative and full of quiet courage, Elio brings a fresh energy to Pixar's line-up of young heroes. His personal growth throughout the story is subtle yet powerful, unfolding naturally amid all the outer space absurdity. Alongside him is Aunt Olga, voiced by Zoe Saldaña, whose recent Oscar-winning status only reinforces what is already clear: she brings soul to every character she plays. As Olga, she balances warmth, strength and vulnerability in a way that makes her more than just a side character, she is the emotional anchor of the film. Then there is Glordon (Remy Edgerly), a squidgy alien companion whose comedic timing and unwavering loyalty easily secure him a spot among Pixar's most lovable oddballs. Along with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), Ambassador Questa (Jameela Jamil) and the hilariously cryptic OOOOO (Shirley Henderson), the ensemble forms a cosmic council of weirdness that somehow makes perfect sense. Each character contributes something unique and together, they create a symphony of voices that echo the film's core message: differences are not just accepted, they are celebrated. There is a moment, no spoilers, of course, when the story unexpectedly pivots from quirky fun into something far more emotionally profound. That is the Pixar magic at work. One second, the room is full of laughter, the next, silence. The kind where the throat tightens, the eyes sting and suddenly, there is a very real need to pretend that it is just allergies. It is these emotional pivots that set Elio apart from standard family fare. The film is unafraid to dig deep and it earns every tear with genuine storytelling, not manipulative sentimentality. Deserving wider audience Despite being nestled within Pixar's prestigious legacy, Elio does not carry the same built-in hype as the Toy Story or Inside Out franchises. And that is precisely why more people should be talking about it. It is a film that takes a risk by being new, by not banking on nostalgia and by speaking directly to those who have ever felt like an outsider even on their own planet. It is a reminder that original stories still matter and that animated films can do more than entertain, they can teach, heal and connect. At just over an hour and a half, Elio does not overstay its welcome. It says what it needs to say clearly, beautifully and with a healthy dose of cosmic chaos. Whether watching it alone, with family, or simply as someone who loves meaningful storytelling, it is hard not to walk away from Elio feeling just a little more connected to the universe. This is a must-watch film, not just for kids, but for anyone who remembers what it felt like to be misunderstood, to be scared of being different and to finally find a place where being different is the best thing one can be. In short, Elio is so good. It is heartfelt, funny, wildly imaginative and proof that Pixar still knows how to pull off an emotional haymaker in a sea of sequels. Just give it a try, you will not regret it.
Gizmodo
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
One of the Most Surprising Moments in ‘Elio' Feels Right Out of a Horror Movie
Pixar's latest is a sci-fi gem that homages the genre in a surprisingly dark way. Elio directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian even dip into space horror for one of the film's most memorable scenes. It was so unexpected for a Disney family film and worked so cleverly in the context of the movie, it left me wanting more of this tone in the future of Pixar in the film, an Elio clone made by the Comuniverse is sent to Earth so his aunt doesn't notice the real Elio is gone. The clone pretends to no longer be interested in aliens, knows how to cook, and is a model boy—totally not sus, right? It makes this subplot with Elio's Aunt Olga more hilarious as she's catching on and realizing the truth, in a very Invasion of the Body Snatchers way. We at least know Elio is off having space adventures, but she thinks he's been abducted. The clone Elio ends up confessing and teaming up with Olga to find her real nephew. But then you're left wondering how the very lifelike and adorably cute clone's fate will play out. They're not going to kill it, right? There's going to be an ending where there's two Elios, surely. The clone will probably go live back in space or something to that effect. This is a Pixar movie, after all. That question gets cleverly answered near the end of the film when the real Elio and his aunt Olga need to infiltrate the base where Glordon is being held. As part of the plan, clone Elio offers to essentially self-destruct as a distraction. And you think it will be cutesy and he'll just go poof or something. No, no… he starts to shudder and melt into a gelatinous goo, something teased earlier in the film to ease kids into the way it ultimately will play out. And it's so gross and amusingly unsettling, but also the perfect set up for gateway horror. When it happens, the clone Elio appears to soldiers in a red cast shadow along the building where Glordon is, while the real Elio sneaks in. Clone Elio calls out to the soldiers for help and they fall for it. Yes, the total 'creepy kid standing in the dark move'—an immediate nope. It then does a bone crunching skitter toward the soldier, in an eyebrow-raising moment. The clone falls into the soldier's arms with its bones melting and its eyes expanding like bubbles. It's truly Pixar's most grotesque moment, yet it's so silly it outweighs the scary with a perfect punch-line to answer that clone Elio went out like a G. It's so effective because kids know the clone did it on its own to help, but still captures the Goosebumps era of kid horror that doesn't hold back. It felt like an homage to John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg sci-fi films as well as a return to letting kids get exposed to horror early. In the past quarter of a century, bigger family films have held back when it comes to scary moments, so seeing Pixar go there felt like a step in the right direction. Fairytales and folklore for children have historically had scary elements to help them understand the horrors of the world; somewhere along the way, after the heyday of Amblin films, the art form got lost. Jurassic Park's raptor kitchen scene is such a core memory for me as my first exposure to scary but exciting elements in movies. Elio's horror film moment is nowhere near as frightening as that, but it does offer a delightful taste of what Pixar could do if it went the spooky route for a film. Give us Pixar's take on dark fairytales, a haunted house film, or even a horror anthology of campfire tales from different Pixar creatives scored by Michael Giacchino, the Oscar-winning composer of Up. It may take Elio awhile to find its audience, but we're confident it will. The voices behind Elio really delivered a fantastically fun and freaky first foray into sci-fi for a new generation—the last time Pixar was this terrifying was when we saw Woody's head spin around while warning Sid that toys see everything. With clone Elio's dramatic end, Shi and the rest of the Pixar team hit that style of '90s-era R.L. Stein camp horror with frightful finesse. It's a testament to the rest of the film's many bold and original choices that stand to inspire more future sci-fi fans. Pixar's Elio is now in theaters. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Edmonton Journal
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Canadian Oscar-winning filmmaker draws from childhood for Elio, a tale about lonely boy's search for life in the universe
Article content Domee Shi may have signed on to co-direct the new Pixar Animation Studios movie, Elio, about halfway through its lengthy production schedule, but it didn't take her long to identify with the film's protagonist. Shi, who currently lives in California but spent most of her life in Toronto, co-directed the animated film with Madeline Sharafian after original director Adrian Molina amicably left the production to work on Pixar's Coco 2. (Shi, Sharafian and Molina are all credited as co-directors.)
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘People Are Going To See Something They've Never Seen Before': How Pixar's Next Hit Film Was Made
Fans of laughing out loud one moment and crying into your popcorn bucket the next are in for a treat with Pixar's latest release. Elio is the newest offering from the award-winning animation studio, centring around a lonely boy who becomes obsessed with the idea of being abducted by aliens – and gets more than he bargained for when his dream comes true. As has come to be expected from the studio that gave us the likes of Inside Out, Coco and Toy Story 3, Elio dives into some pretty hefty themes, exploring everything from loneliness and grief to toxic masculinity, all with Pixar's signature sense of humour and adventure to keep younger viewers as gripped as everyone else in the cinema. In the lead-up to the film's release, we spoke to directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi about how sci-fi horror had a surprising influence on Elio, creating something people have 'never seen before' with their unique take on space and releasing an original film in the current sea of sequels and live-action remakes at Walt Disney Studios… Right at the beginning of the film, there's a key scene soundtracked by Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime. Why was that song chosen, and how easy was it to get? Madeline Sharafian: That scene and that song were in the film from the beginning that Domee and I started. That montage of Elio going out to the beach every day, desperately trying to be abducted, was almost the way that we explored his character as we changed his motivations to wanting to be abducted by aliens. And I think the song was [Domee's] idea of just a way to showcase that he's stuck in this cycle, and he wants to get out. It was a great idea. Domee Shi: Yeah, I always loved that song, I always felt like David Byrne kind of gave off alien boy vibes as well. And the way that the song starts always sounded kind of synthy and celestial and spacey in some way. I felt like there was a connection between Byrne and Elio, and it felt like a cool needle drop choice to put in this montage where we're introduced to Elio's obsession with getting abducted, but being unable to, every single day that went by. MS: It helped a lot that Pete Docter and Jim Morris, our company leadership, really like that song. So I do think that kind of helped us hang onto it and get it for the final, and we're very grateful that we got to keep it. It adds so much to the scene. DS: There was one moment where we did try another song… MS: Oh god, yeah… DS: I was like, 'what about Beastie Boys' Intergalactic?'. And then we tried that for a minute and we were like, 'no, I think we miss Talking Heads', and we went back to that. And also I feel like I haven't really seen [Once In A Lifetime] used a lot in media, in like TV or movies, whereas Intergalactic is used quite a lot. I love that song, though! But yeah… Something else people are going to pick up on is Elio's eyepatch. It really works as a plot device later in the film, but was that always going to be there, or were other ideas explored? MS: It was always an eyepatch, I'm pretty sure. I mean, the eyepatch was there in Adrian Molina's original version [Coco writer and director Adrian Molina originally conceived the idea of Elio to helm the film himself, but left the project halfway through to focus on Coco 2, at which point Madeline and Domee took over as lead directors]. When we took the story, we loved [the eyepatch], just as a way that it supports Elio's feeling of otherness, when he's on Earth, he feels even more out of place. And when he goes to space, all of a sudden, he looks like a dashing space sci-fi captain with this cape and his eyepatch, and the aliens love it, it's like '[you have] one eye, [I have] one eye, this is amazing'. All of a sudden it's accepted and loved. DS: Yeah, it's been great seeing the response to Elio's eyepatch online and with audience members that have come up to us and thanked us for including a kid with an eyepatch – it is something that kids do deal with, and it makes them feel othered. And it sucks! To have a sci-fi hero in a Pixar movie sporting one and looking cool I think is very empowering. Let's talk about the look of the film – sci-fi is a huge genre and even within the Disney and Pixar canon, we've been to space a few times. How did you decide what your version of space was going to look like, and what was going to set the Elio universe apart? MS: Pixar has done two sci-fi movies already [2008's Wall-E and 2022's Lightyear] and Harley Jessup, our production designer, really wanted to shoot for a version that we've never seen. So, he knew that the Communiverse needed to be this sort of beautiful almost Utopia, that there would be aliens from all over the universe gathering there, and almost designed it, one of his very first pieces of production art that I saw that I fell in love with, it was kind of glittering in the sky, almost like a disco ball – the way the lights shimmer on it were like a disco ball. We ended up taking that and putting it in the [finished film], we were like, 'we need to hang onto that'. So, it's bright, it's colourful, it's also softer and round, which I do think is very different from other sci-fi movies. And everything – even the technology – feels very organic, and kind of squishy and alive, which I think gives it a very unique identity. DS: Yeah, all of it points to Elio just truly feeling like he belongs there, and that he doesn't want to leave when he first arrives. And I also love that Harley challenged our character designer to design non-humanoid-looking aliens, and kind of look at deep-sea, underwater creatures for reference. We went with designs that you couldn't possibly do with humans in a costume, right? MS: Yeah, because live-action, especially some of the classics are a little bit limited by that. Like, the alien in Alien is a guy. Really awesome, though, but we were like, 'we're in an animation, we can do whatever we want, so let's make sure that our aliens are taking advantage of what we can do'. Some parts of the film are quite intense and surprisingly quite scary – especially for a Disney film. Was there much pushback because of that? DS: I mean, we were excited to explore other aspects of the sci-fi genre that maybe you don't usually see in a Disney and Pixar movie. We're both sci-fi horror fans, and I think there's a good balance between scary and fun – like a fun scary. There's a sweet spot that you can hit, and we tried to do that with all the scenes with Elio's clone, really pushing the clone's friendliness, but also upping the weirdness and the horror surrounding him, from Olga's point of view where she's slowly realising, 'am I living with a clone?'... MS: …which is a pretty crazy realisation for her! Especially since she starts off the movie as a sceptic of aliens, she doesn't really believe that they're out there, so to take her to becoming a believer… we almost talked about her B-story as in, 'she's in a totally different kind of movie', she is in a pod person movie, and I thought it was fun that we treated her sections almost like a different genre, a little bit. DS: And you know… we'll fine-tune the execution of it, just to make sure that the music isn't too crazy and the sound effects don't give you too much of a heart attack and we release the tension immediately with a joke or a gag or something. But I don't know – I remember being a kid and loving movies like A Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, where there is like a fun scare. I feel like the original Monsters Inc. taps into that a little bit, too. Elio is coming out at an interesting time for Walt Disney Studios, where there area lot of films coming up that are either sequels, live-action remakes and other ideas based on existing IP, so it's great to see an original story coming from the studio, too. Is that something that's important to you both as filmmakers? MS: Yeah! DS: Definitely. MS: And it's important to Pixar, too, I think. Even though we release our own sequels [Inside Out 2 was the biggest film of 2024, with follow-ups to Toy Story, Coco and The Incredibles currently in the works at the studio], we do talk a lot about how important originality is to us, just as a filmmaking culture, we have a lot of originals coming [Pixar's next release, Hoppers, is slated for 2026, followed by Gatto in 2027] and I would say, whether they're sequels or originals, we hold ourselves to the same standard for both. And our main goal is just to make incredible movies, and amazing stories. I love originals – but Toy Story 3 is one of my favourite movies that Pixar has ever made! So, as long as we're holding that standard of storytelling, hopefully we can make any kind of movie great. But it is exciting to have an original coming out. I think we're the only original [Disney film] coming out this summer, which is so wild [the studio also has sequels to Freaky Friday and Tron coming later in 2025, with live-action remakes of Snow White and Lilo & Stitch having also been released earlier in the year, while Marvel projects have included Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* (which featured a main cast of existing characters) and the new reboot of The Fantastic Four]. I hope people enjoy [Elio] and they're going to see something they've never seen before – and that's really exciting, and worth seeing in a theatre. Elio is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer for yourself below: Lilo & Stitch Remake Director Addresses Backlash Over The New Film's Changed Ending 'Sobbing, Screaming, Traumatised': Frozen's Josh Gad Opens Up About Olaf's Axed Death Scene Snow White Remake Faces Yet More Criticism Over CGI Characters
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘People Are Going To See Something They've Never Seen Before': How Pixar's Next Hit Film Was Made
Fans of laughing out loud one moment and crying into your popcorn bucket the next are in for a treat with Pixar's latest release. Elio is the newest offering from the award-winning animation studio, centring around a lonely boy who becomes obsessed with the idea of being abducted by aliens – and gets more than he bargained for when his dream comes true. As has come to be expected from the studio that gave us the likes of Inside Out, Coco and Toy Story 3, Elio dives into some pretty hefty themes, exploring everything from loneliness and grief to toxic masculinity, all with Pixar's signature sense of humour and adventure to keep younger viewers as gripped as everyone else in the cinema. In the lead-up to the film's release, we spoke to directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi about how sci-fi horror had a surprising influence on Elio, creating something people have 'never seen before' with their unique take on space and releasing an original film in the current sea of sequels and live-action remakes at Walt Disney Studios… Right at the beginning of the film, there's a key scene soundtracked by Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime. Why was that song chosen, and how easy was it to get? Madeline Sharafian: That scene and that song were in the film from the beginning that Domee and I started. That montage of Elio going out to the beach every day, desperately trying to be abducted, was almost the way that we explored his character as we changed his motivations to wanting to be abducted by aliens. And I think the song was [Domee's] idea of just a way to showcase that he's stuck in this cycle, and he wants to get out. It was a great idea. Domee Shi: Yeah, I always loved that song, I always felt like David Byrne kind of gave off alien boy vibes as well. And the way that the song starts always sounded kind of synthy and celestial and spacey in some way. I felt like there was a connection between Byrne and Elio, and it felt like a cool needle drop choice to put in this montage where we're introduced to Elio's obsession with getting abducted, but being unable to, every single day that went by. MS: It helped a lot that Pete Docter and Jim Morris, our company leadership, really like that song. So I do think that kind of helped us hang onto it and get it for the final, and we're very grateful that we got to keep it. It adds so much to the scene. DS: There was one moment where we did try another song… MS: Oh god, yeah… DS: I was like, 'what about Beastie Boys' Intergalactic?'. And then we tried that for a minute and we were like, 'no, I think we miss Talking Heads', and we went back to that. And also I feel like I haven't really seen [Once In A Lifetime] used a lot in media, in like TV or movies, whereas Intergalactic is used quite a lot. I love that song, though! But yeah… Something else people are going to pick up on is Elio's eyepatch. It really works as a plot device later in the film, but was that always going to be there, or were other ideas explored? MS: It was always an eyepatch, I'm pretty sure. I mean, the eyepatch was there in Adrian Molina's original version [Coco writer and director Adrian Molina originally conceived the idea of Elio to helm the film himself, but left the project halfway through to focus on Coco 2, at which point Madeline and Domee took over as lead directors]. When we took the story, we loved [the eyepatch], just as a way that it supports Elio's feeling of otherness, when he's on Earth, he feels even more out of place. And when he goes to space, all of a sudden, he looks like a dashing space sci-fi captain with this cape and his eyepatch, and the aliens love it, it's like '[you have] one eye, [I have] one eye, this is amazing'. All of a sudden it's accepted and loved. DS: Yeah, it's been great seeing the response to Elio's eyepatch online and with audience members that have come up to us and thanked us for including a kid with an eyepatch – it is something that kids do deal with, and it makes them feel othered. And it sucks! To have a sci-fi hero in a Pixar movie sporting one and looking cool I think is very empowering. Let's talk about the look of the film – sci-fi is a huge genre and even within the Disney and Pixar canon, we've been to space a few times. How did you decide what your version of space was going to look like, and what was going to set the Elio universe apart? MS: Pixar has done two sci-fi movies already [2008's Wall-E and 2022's Lightyear] and Harley Jessup, our production designer, really wanted to shoot for a version that we've never seen. So, he knew that the Communiverse needed to be this sort of beautiful almost Utopia, that there would be aliens from all over the universe gathering there, and almost designed it, one of his very first pieces of production art that I saw that I fell in love with, it was kind of glittering in the sky, almost like a disco ball – the way the lights shimmer on it were like a disco ball. We ended up taking that and putting it in the [finished film], we were like, 'we need to hang onto that'. So, it's bright, it's colourful, it's also softer and round, which I do think is very different from other sci-fi movies. And everything – even the technology – feels very organic, and kind of squishy and alive, which I think gives it a very unique identity. DS: Yeah, all of it points to Elio just truly feeling like he belongs there, and that he doesn't want to leave when he first arrives. And I also love that Harley challenged our character designer to design non-humanoid-looking aliens, and kind of look at deep-sea, underwater creatures for reference. We went with designs that you couldn't possibly do with humans in a costume, right? MS: Yeah, because live-action, especially some of the classics are a little bit limited by that. Like, the alien in Alien is a guy. Really awesome, though, but we were like, 'we're in an animation, we can do whatever we want, so let's make sure that our aliens are taking advantage of what we can do'. Some parts of the film are quite intense and surprisingly quite scary – especially for a Disney film. Was there much pushback because of that? DS: I mean, we were excited to explore other aspects of the sci-fi genre that maybe you don't usually see in a Disney and Pixar movie. We're both sci-fi horror fans, and I think there's a good balance between scary and fun – like a fun scary. There's a sweet spot that you can hit, and we tried to do that with all the scenes with Elio's clone, really pushing the clone's friendliness, but also upping the weirdness and the horror surrounding him, from Olga's point of view where she's slowly realising, 'am I living with a clone?'... MS: …which is a pretty crazy realisation for her! Especially since she starts off the movie as a sceptic of aliens, she doesn't really believe that they're out there, so to take her to becoming a believer… we almost talked about her B-story as in, 'she's in a totally different kind of movie', she is in a pod person movie, and I thought it was fun that we treated her sections almost like a different genre, a little bit. DS: And you know… we'll fine-tune the execution of it, just to make sure that the music isn't too crazy and the sound effects don't give you too much of a heart attack and we release the tension immediately with a joke or a gag or something. But I don't know – I remember being a kid and loving movies like A Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, where there is like a fun scare. I feel like the original Monsters Inc. taps into that a little bit, too. Elio is coming out at an interesting time for Walt Disney Studios, where there area lot of films coming up that are either sequels, live-action remakes and other ideas based on existing IP, so it's great to see an original story coming from the studio, too. Is that something that's important to you both as filmmakers? MS: Yeah! DS: Definitely. MS: And it's important to Pixar, too, I think. Even though we release our own sequels [Inside Out 2 was the biggest film of 2024, with follow-ups to Toy Story, Coco and The Incredibles currently in the works at the studio], we do talk a lot about how important originality is to us, just as a filmmaking culture, we have a lot of originals coming [Pixar's next release, Hoppers, is slated for 2026, followed by Gatto in 2027] and I would say, whether they're sequels or originals, we hold ourselves to the same standard for both. And our main goal is just to make incredible movies, and amazing stories. I love originals – but Toy Story 3 is one of my favourite movies that Pixar has ever made! So, as long as we're holding that standard of storytelling, hopefully we can make any kind of movie great. But it is exciting to have an original coming out. I think we're the only original [Disney film] coming out this summer, which is so wild [the studio also has sequels to Freaky Friday and Tron coming later in 2025, with live-action remakes of Snow White and Lilo & Stitch having also been released earlier in the year, while Marvel projects have included Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* (which featured a main cast of existing characters) and the new reboot of The Fantastic Four]. I hope people enjoy [Elio] and they're going to see something they've never seen before – and that's really exciting, and worth seeing in a theatre. Elio is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer for yourself below: Lilo & Stitch Remake Director Addresses Backlash Over The New Film's Changed Ending 'Sobbing, Screaming, Traumatised': Frozen's Josh Gad Opens Up About Olaf's Axed Death Scene Snow White Remake Faces Yet More Criticism Over CGI Characters
