Is there life on Mars? Or anywhere besides our pale blue dot? In April, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet 124 light years from Earth.
On our own planet these compounds are produced by marine micro-organisms such as phytoplankton. The findings are by no means conclusive, but they are considered the strongest evidence yet for extraterrestrial life. Or at least extraterrestrial plankton.
Maybe it’s these headline-making biosignatures. Or maybe it’s a way to escape the trials of contemporary life on Earth. But aliens are experiencing a moment in the movieverse.
Steven Spielberg is beavering away on a top-secret ET-themed science-fiction adventure, his first consideration of outer planets since he made War of the Worlds, in 2005. Alien: Earth, a new series serving as a prequel to Alien, Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, will premiere in the US in August.
Younger sky-watchers can head to see Elio, Pixar’s new alien-populated movie, in which a young orphan – voiced by the 15-year-old Filipino-American actor Yonas Kibreab – struggles with grief, an overly vivid imagination and a deep sense of otherness. His guardian and aunt, a major in the US military – voiced by the Oscar-winner Zoë Saldaña – specialises in tracking space debris. That gives Elio the idea to use a ham radio.
He’s hoping to be abducted, but when an interplanetary misunderstanding leads a cosmic delegation to believe that Elio is Earth’s official ambassador, he is teleported across the galaxy to represent humanity at the Communiverse, a sprawling congress of alien civilisations.
When his good-natured hosts Questa (Jameela Jamil), Tegmen (Matthias Schweighöfer) and OOOOO (Shirley Henderson), a gelatinous supercomputer, draw the wrath of the warlord Grigon (Brad Garrett), it falls to Elio to use his nonexistent diplomatic skills to save the day.
“Elio’s overall personality is like a superpower,” Yonas says. “He doesn’t care about what other people think. His personality is amazing. He’s so cool. He wears capes. He’s not worrying about what his classmates are going to say about him. And I think that’s a very important message. Be yourself.”
In a welcome flourish, Elio is book-ended by references to the Voyager mission. Launched in 1977, Voyager I and II were sent hurtling billions of kilometres to the outer limits of our solar system to gather information about far-flung planets before sailing out into deep space. In 2012 Voyager I slipped through the heliopause and officially became the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.
Both probes carry two golden records: 12-inch discs containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, including greetings in 55 languages, birdsong, music and a message from the late Jimmy Carter, who was president of the United States at the time.
“I’ve always found it fascinating,” Garrett – a towering presence even sitting down – says. “It can’t just be us in the universe. That’s just man’s vanity, right?”
Garrett’s career began in the 1980s, when, as a young comedian, he became a grand champion on the American talent show Star Search; he subsequently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and performed alongside Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis jnr.
His breakout acting role came in 1996, when he played the bumbling, henpecked cop Robert Barone in the TV comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, a part that earned him three Emmy awards. A Pixar regular, he has voiced characters in Finding Nemo and Ratatouille. Elio, he says, is a bit different.
“This is the first time I played a villain,” he says. “What I liked about it is that he is one of the few villains where you get to see him evolve in an emotional way. He’s a dad and he gets to show a parental side that he’s never had before. That happens just in time when his son really needs it.”
Yonas is also a voice-acting veteran, following his portrayal of Phinny in the Disney Junior series Pupstruction and Damian Wayne/Little Batman in Merry Little Batman. He has also appeared in Silicon Valley, Blumhouse’s Blood Moon and the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“With voice work you have to communicate emotions through the mic,” he says. “It’s hard to do that at times, because other actors don’t really see your face and you don’t see theirs. But what I love about it is just how free you are to do whatever. You can go in the studio and, because there’s no cameras on you, you don’t have to perform with your face.”
Despite the teenager’s extensive work across various franchises, it was the Pixar film – the 29th animated feature to emerge from the studio – that won him over to both science fiction and watching the skies.
“When I started Elio I did a lot of research on extraterrestrial life, aliens and sci-fi,” Yonas says. “That gave me an excuse to watch a lot more sci-fi movies. I think it definitely got me into anything that has to do with space. I really enjoy all that now.”
Elio is part of Pixar’s renewed push for theatrical dominance. Last summer its animated feature Inside Out 2 took a staggering $1.7 billion at the box office, to become the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time. The numbers are especially promising following the direct-to-streaming releases of the Pixar films Soul (2020), Luca (2021) and Turning Red (2022), on Disney+, and the poor theatrical showing of Lightyear, Pixar’s underwhelming Toy Story spin-off.
Since its founding, in 1986, and breakthrough with Toy Story, in 1995 – that film was the first fully computer-animated feature – Pixar has consistently combined technical innovation with emotionally impactful storytelling. But recent box-office wows, notably the Spider-Verse sequence and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, trumpet the return of traditional hand-drawn animation.
Pixar films are changing. The current American aversion to the values of diversity, equity and inclusion have made a dent in Pixar’s commitment to culturally sensitive storytelling. In response to external pressures, Disney removed a transgender storyline from the Pixar series Win or Lose in advance of its debut on Disney+ last February.
Behind the scenes, the company is restructuring. In May 2024, Pixar laid off 175 employees – about one in seven of its workforce – as part of the broader cost-cutting programme at Disney, its parent company.
Under its chief executive, Jim Morris, the animation studio is prioritising films with “clear mass appeal”, moving away from director-driven, autobiographical narratives such as Turning Red and towards existing intellectual property: Toy Story 5, Incredibles 3 and Coco 2 are all in development; Toy Story 5 will premiere on March 6th, 2026.
Brad Garrett, for one, is not worried.
“I started working with them early on,” he says. “A Bug’s Life was my first Pixar film, which is remarkable. I’ve been doing cartoons since the 1980s. But when Pixar came along, me and everyone else thought, wow, this is the new frontier. They do it like no one else. They’re so incredibly collaborative. The work the animators do is unprecedented. It’s an honour to be part of it.”
“I’ve been telling everyone how surreal it is for me,” Yonas adds. “Because, when I was four or five, I saw my first Pixar movies, Toy Story and Up. And those are still two of my favourite movies to this day. So to be in one, especially an original Pixar film, and to be the lead, is a big, big deal for me, and I’m very grateful for it.”
Elio is in cinemas from Friday, June 20th
