Elio

Kate Mulgrew voices the museum narrator who talks about the Voyager space probe. Mulgrew is best known for playing Captain Kathryn Janeway of the starship USS Voyager in the science fiction series Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

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A sand drawing by Elio states that "Aliens! Abduct Me!" is a rough sketch of the Pixar campus, including the amphitheater.

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The film, like most Pixar films of the first half of the 2020s, was originally to be directed by Coco (2017) co-director Adrian Molina and to tell a more autobiographical story. It was specifically meant to recount Molina's lonely childhood and how he overcame that loneliness when he attended animation school at CalArts. This version of the film was in development and a trailer was released publicly in June 2023. However, after Pixar CCO Pete Docter decided to move away from personal stories in favor of films with universal appeal, Elio was heavily reworked to reach this new goal. Most notably, Molina stepped down as director to help co-direct Coco 2 (2029), entrusting the project to Turning Red (2022) director Domee Shi and Burrow (2020) director Madeline Sharafian. Molina still retains Story credit on the film, however, since much of his work, such as all the character designs, was kept for the new cut.

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Elio's phone case features the rabbit from Pixar Animation Studios' short film Burrow (2020).

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Elio's clone gives a perfect score as it decays, just as the Terminator does while sinking into molten metal in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

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The hidden A113 Easter egg is found on Elio's backpack. It is the patch reading Area 113, a reference to Area 51 and the base where aliens are supposedly housed.

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Mr. Melmac is a reference to the TV series ALF (1986), in which Melmac is the name of ALF's home planet. ALF stands for Alien Life Form, which is exactly what Mr. Melmac is looking for in Elio. As an added Easter egg, Mr. Melmac's computer screensaver (1:15:24) consists of cats, considered a nod to ALF and a running joke in the ALF TV series.

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The original art book implied that the Other Elio is actually the film's antagonist.

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Olga Solis was initially to be voiced by America Ferrera and was planned to be Elio's mother. Due to scheduling conflicts, however, Olga was rewritten as Elio's aunt and Zoe Saldaña took over the voice role.

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Adrian Molina based much of Elio's character on his own childhood, including having a mother in the military.

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Shortly after being abducted, OOOOO lifts Elio's shorts and reveals his boxers using an X-ray. They feature a Luxo Jr Ball print.

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Some of the posters in Elio's room are the Frida Kahlo posters from Coco (2017).

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As seen in the original teaser, Grigon was an envoy of Communiverse and the character Elio befriended as a heroic comedic sociopath. He was later reimagined as the big bad who is denied the embassy by Communiverse when Elio befriends his reluctant son.

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The outline of the Luxo lamp can be found in the stars.

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In the teaser for the new version, when Elio is found by two teenagers who ask if he is okay, Elio states that he is trying to be abducted. Seeing the teenagers' confused looks, he immediately clarifies that he means abduction by aliens. He then lifts his shirt to reveal a birthmark shaped like the Orion Nebula, and they suggest it was checked by a doctor. This scene is not in the actual film. This may be because Elio saying he wants to be abducted (before clarifying that he means aliens) carried uncomfortable implications.

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The credits acknowledge that the United States Air Force assisted the production staff with their research.

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At around 16 minutes, Maui's fishhook constellation can be seen as Elio watches the stars on a rooftop.

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One of the items on Elio's homemade cape is a Spork that resembles Forky from Toy Story 4 (2019).

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The film was originally scheduled for release on March 1, 2024, but the actors' strike affected voice recording and the animation stage, so the release date was pushed to June 13, 2025. It was then delayed by one week to June 20, 2025, to avoid direct competition with the live-action How to Train Your Dragon (2025). However, it would end up opening the same day as 28 Years Later (2025).

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This is the first Pixar film that Adrian Molina directed as lead director, after having previously co-directed Coco (2017).

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It is Pixar Animation Studios' third science fiction film; the first two were WALL·E (2008) and Lightyear (2022).

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It is the first Pixar Animation Studios film to feature intelligent aliens.

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An ofrenda in their home shows a Papel picado, as in Coco (2017). Co-director Adrian Molina directed Coco (2017).

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It is the first Pixar Animation Studios film to include mistakes since Toy Story 2 (1999).

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This is the last film that veteran Pixar production designer Harley Jessup worked on before retiring.

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Elio's storyline, in which he becomes Earth's ambassador, resembles that of the direct-to-video animated film Leroy & Stitch (2006), in which Lilo takes the same title. While working hard to earn it, Elio accidentally becomes one of them.

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Glordon tells Elio that his species wears shell armor to hide their real, soft, worm-like bodies both in battle and in public places, and that being seen without one's armor is considered dishonorable. The use of the shell armor becomes more metaphorical when Glordon nearly succumbs to hypothermia and Grigon, showing fatherly love, tears open his own shell armor so he can swaddle and warm his son. By breaking apart his body armor and revealing his real worm-like body, letting himself be vulnerable, Grigon reveals his love for Glordon and his acceptance of Glordon's decision not to be a warlord.

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It is Ana de la Reguera's second animated film to be released in theaters, after The Book of Life (2014), which also starred Zoe Saldaña.

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This marks Brad Garrett's first role in a Pixar Animation Studios film since Finding Dory (2016).

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It is Brad Garrett's fifth Pixar Animation Studios film, after A Bug's Life (1998), Finding Nemo (2003), Ratatouille (2007) and Finding Dory (2016).

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Another inside reference the creators included was the name they gave Elio's radio. Producer Mary Alice Drumm explained that they combined the directors' two names, Shi and Sharafian, to broadcast the radio.

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The film's cast includes many veterans of Star Trek/science fiction alien films. Kate Mulgrew (Fleet Narrator) played Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and Star Trek: Prodigy (2021); Zoe Saldaña (Olga Solís) not only played Nyota Uhura in J. J. Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot series but also played the Na'vi Neytiri in James Cameron's "Avatar" series; Jameela Jamil (Questa) played the villain Ascencia in Star Trek: Prodigy (2021).

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It is Madeline Sharafian's first feature-length directorial effort.

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The Communiverse meeting room resembles the Senate's in Star Wars.

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Elio's own spaceship is red and spherical. This may be a reference to the 1985 science fiction adventure film 'Explorers', in which three teenagers find a way to go into space and are in fact captured by aliens. Their spacecraft is also a small red sphere.

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As Elio and his aunt leave Earth, they must dodge debris from old launches. The last one looks like it was taken directly from the video game Kerbal Space Program.

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Elio is a Mexican-Dominican boy. Yonas Kibreab, the actor who voices Elio, is Filipino-American, but Elio's character was not intended to represent Filipino culture.

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At one point, a magazine poster for Lifted, the 2006 Pixar short film that also features alien characters, can be seen.

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Helix is voiced by Brandon Moon, one of the film's story artists.

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This is the first Pixar film role in which Brad Garrett plays the villain.

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Elio's name resembles the word "helio" or "helium" in Spanish, among other languages. Helium is an element that is relatively rare on Earth but abundant in space. It takes its name from the Sun, which is also a celestial body. Helium is a natural gas that can escape the atmosphere. Helium is also known for filling balloons, which suits someone whose head is constantly in the clouds.

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The film was a commercial and box-office failure.

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Zoe Saldaña became the 24th Oscar winner to provide a voice in a Pixar film. Others who have done so are: * Tom Hanks in Toy Story (1995) and its sequels. * Kevin Spacey in A Bug's Life (1998). * James Coburn in Monsters, Inc. (2001). * Allison Janney in Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel. * Geoffrey Rush in Finding Nemo (2003). * Holly Hunter in The Incredibles (2004) and its sequel. * Brad Bird in The Incredibles (2004). * Paul Newman in Cars (2006). * Ben Burtt in WALL·E (2008). * Christopher Plummer in Up (2009). * Michael Caine in Cars 2 (2011). * Emma Thompson in Brave (2012). * Helen Mirren in Monsters University (2013). * Frances McDormand in The Good Dinosaur (2015). * Anna Paquin in The Good Dinosaur (2015). * Diane Keaton in Finding Dory (2016). * Chris Cooper in Cars 3 (2017). * Jordan Peele in Toy Story 4 (2019). * Mel Brooks in Toy Story 4 (2019). * Octavia Spencer in Onward (2020). * Jamie Foxx in Soul (2020). * Finneas O'Connell in Turning Red (2022). * Taika Waititi in Lightyear (2022).

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This is Brad Garrett's second Pixar Animation Studios film, after Ratatouille (2007), that is not directed or co-directed by Andrew Stanton.

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There are numerous references to Star Trek, including Kate Mulgrew's narration of the Voyager museum exhibit (the ship she captained), but the Voyager mentioned was the one that returned in the original Star Trek feature film.

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The film was released in the Philippines on June 18, 2025, two days before its release in the United States.

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Its premiere in theaters took place the day after Zoe Saldaña's 47th birthday.

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