‘Elio’ Directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi Never Intended to Make a Sci-Fi Movie, but They’re Glad They Did

Pixar’s “Elio” is almost here.

The beloved animation studio’s latest sci-fi adventure, after “WALL-E” and “Lightyear,” follows the title character (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), a lonely little boy who dreams of being abducted by aliens. He finally gets his wish, when a group of aliens (residing in a glittery space station known as the Communiverse) mistake him for the ambassador from Earth.

TheWrap previewed 25 minutes of the movie, which debuts on June 20 (tickets are on sale now), during a recent visit to Pixar’s Emeryville, California campus and can attest that Elio’s abduction is just the beginning of a wild, wooly romp. It features all of the mind-boggling character designs and environments you would expect from a Pixar feature, with an underlying tenderness and message about loneliness that felt genuinely new (and deeply impactful). You can watch some of the magic yourself in the trailer below.

Just as Elio (the character) met false starts and dead ends on his way to outer space, the production of “Elio” (the movie) went through a similarly bumpy trajectory. The film was announced at the D23 Expo in 2022, with “Coco” co-director Adrian Molina directing, and Mary Alice Drumm producing. A teaser trailer was released the following year, with a spring 2024 release date announced. Afterwards, though, Molina left the project (it was later revealed he is working on “Coco 2”) and a pair of filmmakers stepped in to shepherd “Elio” towards completion – “Turning Red” director Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, whose incredibly charming short film “Burrow” was meant to play theatrically before Pete Docter’s Oscar-winning “Soul.” (When “Soul” wound up a direct-to-Disney+ project, “Burrow” premiered alongside it.)

Not that a change like this was totally unique to Pixar.

“I think at Pixar, all the movies are always changing,” Drumm said. “But I think when we think about ‘Elio’ as it started, and ‘Elio’ as it finished, there’s so many building blocks that are the same. Maddie and Domee had both been along the ride this whole time. I think that they have this shared sensibility. And they brought a lot of themselves to the movie as well.”

When we asked if it was hard taking on a project that they didn’t originate, Sharafian said, “I felt fortunate that Adrian and I already had an understanding, that we had shared sensibilities, that he was entrusting me with this responsibility because he believed that our visions were similar.” She said that when she felt self-doubt, she would lean on the idea that her gut instincts were closely aligned to what Molina had envisioned. She said that throughout the process of directing, when “people are throwing options at you,” Sharafian said she “learned to trust my gut.”

Shi said that, initially, it was challenging to jump onto an already-moving train. “It took me a minute to find my way into the character in this story,” Shi said. When Sharafian presented the idea of “a lonely boy who wants to get abducted, who is searching for belonging,” she found her connection. “I clung to it and I think that’s when I found my way into it,” Shi said. She had never worked on a sci-fi movie either, which was also exciting. “This was a really fun opportunity to play in a sandbox that I’ve never played in before,” Shi said. They were able to pay homage to their favorite sci-fi movies, including John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (when Elio is in space, the Communiverse sends a clone to replace him).

The filmmaking team didn’t have the time to second-guess and constantly redo and refine sequences. “It was a lot of trusting each other and trusting this team that has been working on the movie for a really long time,” Sharafian said. She and Shi already had a relationship and “shared taste and experience” working together on “Turning Red,” which also helped out immensely. “I feel like it was always important for us to be on the same page in the room,” Shi added.

They also found solace in watching Docter, Pixar’s chief creative officer, who helped guide the film. “He seemed pretty calm,” Sharafian said. She soon realized that it was because he’s seen it all – directors fired and replaced, projects that were ultimately canceled or abandoned, eleventh hour reworkings that led to a film’s success. “He’s talked about having his own brick walls,” Sharafian said. It helped remind the team that what they were experiencing was totally normal.

Shi remembered a moment when “you get to a point where you’ve exhausted all options.” It was a sequence they were working on months ago, and Shi remembered watching as Sharafian referred to an earlier sequence that they had worked on. “I saw her evolve,” Shi marveled. “Her third eye opened.” Sharafian asked their editor to call up the earlier sequence. “Cut it with this music, take the ed of this and put that there and let’s watch it together,” Sharafian commanded, as Shi looked on. “I was like, Whoa,” Shi said. “You have to get to that place and then you’re unlocking something.”

It was for a scene early in the movie, which we watched at Pixar, which sees Elio, having just lost his parents, wandering into a museum exhibit and learning about the Voyager space probe, with the golden record. (It’s so beautiful.) Once Sharafian pulled the scene together, they got feedback from Docter (who suggested letting the music take over) and Pixar director Andrew Stanton (who gave Elio two little LEGO-like figures to hold).

Sharafian said that the sequence was an example of “the magic of Pixar – watching Pete and Andrew, these legends, come in and help us deliver that final blow, to smelt into something that just works.”

You can find out just how much “Elio” works when it beams down on June 20.

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