Elio is familiar territory for Pixar – but still plenty of heartwarming fun

To the groove of Talking Heads’s “Once in a Lifetime”, orphaned 11-year-old Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) adjusts his homemade cape affixed with plastic stars, carves the words “ALIENS, ABDUCT ME” into sand, and spreads out on the beach like a starfish. In other words, Pixar is back in the zone, relishing its brief freedom before being dragged back to its desktops to make an umpteenth Toy Story sequel (number five, coming 2026).

Elio is witty, sweet, and ready to shred your heartstrings like a teething puppy. It posits that we’re all conducting our own kind of intergalactic exploration, entering other people’s orbits in the hope of finding that elusive element we call friendship.