Elio Footage Revealed at Disney’s Special Preview Event
At the press preview earlier this week, Disney unveiled some exclusive footage for their original release, Elio. The latest animation movie from Disney will come out on the 20th of June, but we were lucky enough to be treated to a special preview of 25 minutes of the film.
As the title suggests, the film focuses on none other than Elio Solis, played by Yonas Kibreab, a teenage boy who is abducted by aliens and mistaken to be the ambassador for planet Earth. At the beginning of the film, a recently orphaned Elio is taken in by his aunt Olga Solis (Zoe Saldaña) who finds herself balancing her career with the sudden responsibilities that come with being a new parent.
The premise of the movie is relatively simple: what if a nerdy, somewhat weird, and lovely 11-year-old gets abducted by aliens? But in its simplicity, Elio manages to be a breath of fresh air. In fact, Disney goes further with this concept by making the protagonist somebody who actively wants to be abducted by aliens. After losing his parents, the main character Elio finds himself out of place on Earth, so much so that he becomes obsessed with aliens and space where he hopes to forge the friendships he lacks on Earth.
His wish ends up coming true in the sense that Elio does get to travel to space, but he may soon realise that what he had been looking for was right in front of him the whole time. In space, he is mistaken for the ambassador of Earth by the of the Communiverse, an intergalactic organisation that attempts to maintain peace across the planets, virtually the alien version of the United Nations.
During the Q&A with Mary Alice Drumm, the producer of the film, she emphasized that the themes at the core of the film are those of family, friendship and belonging, all of which we will see play an important part in Elio’s journey of personal growth throughout the movie. The main character represents the loneliness that many people in the audience will be able to relate to in the same way that the viewers were able to empathise with the emotions shown in Pixar’s recent films, like Inside Out 2. The theme of loneliness, in particular, was inspired by the Covid pandemic and the widespread feeling of isolation that many felt around that time.
During the presentation, Drumm also reflected back on her journey with Pixar from the very beginning with Brave in 2012 to today and the many technological advancements she saw in the animation industry since then. While sharing some interesting behind-the-scenes facts, Drumm talked about the reality of working on this project, including what sounds like an especially fun cape-making competition to design the costume for the main character whose signature colour green represents his struggle for a sense of belonging.
It was especially fascinating to see the test shoots for Elio as well as the inspiration behind what we see in the movie. For example. Drumm spoke about how the character design for the aliens were inspired both by insects and deep sea creatures and about the very specific vibrant colour palette for the alien universe, and the Communiverse in particular.
From what we have seen so far, the film is definitely promising. From the moment Elio travels to the Communiverse, the audience is transported into an entirely new universe made up of vibrant colours and a diverse and exciting variety of aliens who all look unique and different to one another. From the first footage, it is refreshing to see Disney going back to original stories as opposed to remakes, live actions, or sequels that seem to have taken over mainstream filmmaking in the last few years.
Elio is in UK cinemas on June 20th.
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