Disney Pixar’s latest movie,   follows the cosmic misadventure of 11-year-old Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession. So, when he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organisation with representatives from galaxies far and wide, Elio’s all in for the epic undertaking. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader, Elio must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions, and somehow discover who and where he is truly meant to be.

Directed by Madeline Sharafian (), Domee Shi () and Adrian Molina (co-screenwriter/co-director of ), the film features the voices of Yonas Kibreab (), Zoe Saldaña (), Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett (), Jameela Jamil () and Shirley Henderson  (The ).

I think there were different stages. The first pitch, when Adrian [Molina] said: What if the world’s weirdest 11-year-old gets abducted by aliens and mistaken as a leader of Earth? You just see the funny potential, right?! And as we got more into it, I think that feeling of not belonging, and not feeling like people get you, is so relatable. I think we’ve all felt sad and lonely and wanted to run away. This is a movie that I really resonate with, and it’s really satisfying.

All the time, at Pixar, we’re asking ourselves those questions. I think the process at Pixar is to force ourselves to share wherever we are, as messy as it might be, every three or four months with everyone else, and they’ll give you feedback. I think sometimes there are pieces in the film that we thought were funny, and other people would be like ‘I think that’s too much, just a little too scary for my kids.’ So trying to pull it back, always trying to define that right balance, and talking about what kids and adults will like… The compass of these movies is, for us, do we want to see them and tell our friends and family that this is a good movie? So if you keep that in mind, I think that’s a good barometer for yourself.

When the idea came up, it was just a fun idea and then a second later it occurred to us, oh, this would be a sci-fi movie at Pixar and I’m a huge fan of . It’s super fun!

We all love . I was just at Disneyland, at Star Wars Land and I’m excited about the new movie. I can’t get enough of , and we’re scoring at Skywalker Sound. So it’s such a part of all of our lives.

But we wanted it to feel like a different world, a different space you’ve never seen before, and try to be that Pixar movie. Try to be that movie that’s for adults and kids, these characters that you’re going to love forever, having jokes for adults and kids. We wanted to find the right balance of feeling different and having some fun inside jokes for sci-fi fans and still feel part of the Pixar world.

I think. and are big influences in the film, even some John Carpenter’s . We watched, and . We tried to watch a tonne of sci fi films. Someone said they thought they saw a little , which I think is a small reference. , certainly with Glordon – you see his whole mouth. So hopefully there’s a little bit of a lot of movies in there.

One area, I would say, was with music, with Rob Simonsen, who’s so great and really helped us. And the sound design team at Skywalker, really created the sound of space. What does the music sound like in space? But really trying to have those two worlds – Earth and the Communiverse – be really different. Then just the design, we really wanted the Communiverse to be a space where you want to go. A wish fulfilment for a kid with aliens to be just people you want to hang out with and be curious about.

That’s always the challenge of Pixar – we want to go bigger and bigger, and then, we’re like, what’s really feasible? One example is the aliens in . We wanted to feel this rich world and how big the Communiverse is. Then we need to fill it with a lot of aliens. But then we didn’t want these characters to just be bipedal, so we have a ton of different shapes, which would then need a ton of different rigs. So then that was another pile of work. So we had to say pretty early on with the team that we have to scale it back. And it was really great because everyone just got on board. Tthat’s always the push-pull. We wanted to be big, we wanted to feel this amazing world, and then there are the moments we’ll take that risk. And other times we’re like, we gotta call it right now. It’s just always a balance trying to figure out what’s best for the film.

It’s so hard for me to say, but Glordon is just such a favourite. I love him. He’s so adorable and wonderful, and you just want to be a friend with him, where he tells you you’re fine, and you lean on him, he’s just really fun. So I’ll go with Glordon today.

Pixar is always evolving and changing. Pete Docter [chief creative officer of Pixar] has brought his influence in the films we make, which is amazing, which is a change in the last few years, and some of the directors are newer. For so many years, a lot of the same directors made the movies. So to see filmmakers like Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Daniel Chong coming up with his movie, is really exciting,  and really invigorating for the teams.

I think that this film totally fits inside the Pixar world, but it’s different. It’s sci-fi, and I think when you see it, there’s even some fun horror things that I think are are unusual for Pixar so hopefully it feels, familiar, and you feel that warmth, you feel that connection, and you want to see with your family, but there’s some surprises.

I love him. I love all of them. They’re so great, but that was fun, because we did have a shorthand from . Even when we first met about this movie, what we wanted to do, we were like ‘Oh, we want to do that from Coco.’ So it was really nice. Then even Maddie and Domee – I think one of the benefits of Pixar is that we have these touch points and these brain trust screenings. So you end up in rooms together with people talking about the projects. So even with them joining in a director role late, they had been along for the whole journey. So luckily, we kind of had somewhat of a working relationship already.

It’s so funny. It varies. Sometimes a director will have an idea in mind. When we did the museum opening, Domee was like, ‘we’re gonna need a voice… Kate Mulgrew?’ And it I’m a huge fan. I loved her from the soap opera she did years ago. Her voice, such a pro. And then we knew she’s from . And then we were like, ‘oh my god, she’s from so, double win!’ So that one was really easy.

I think kids are super hard to be honest. I don’t know how many children the casting team had us listen to. It’s funny because Remy Edgerly (who voices Glordon) and Yonas Kibreab (who voices Elio) were in the first group we listened to, but they were both so young then.

Then other people are an unexpected like I was a big fan of Shirley Henderson (who voices Ooooo) and that was actually one of our animators who was like, ‘Have you considered her for the voice?’ So it’s always a different process.

I really think she is the heart of the film. Zoe is professionally, so successful but also one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. So giving. She gave us so much time and she wanted to talk about the film. As a parent, she was really thoughtful in the recording. There there was a line and she was like, ‘No, I can’t hear my kids saying that line back to me, that was too mean’. Really interacting. You just feel for Olga the whole time. I just can’t get over it.

One of the last times we recorded her, we had a bunch of pickups. This was the fifth time, and she was wonderful but it’s a lot and the last thing we asked her to do was a sigh. Zoe was like, ‘You’re kidding me? I’ve got to sigh?’ And the dubber was like, ‘This is so important.’ It’s in the third act and that sigh tells you everything. She’s amazing.

is one of my all time favourites. I can keep going. I loved and I got to be a part of.  Those are the ones that I probably would go to first.

I’m so excited about but I don’t really know that much, to be honest. So luckily, I can’t tell anyone anything. I’m not going to be a part of it. My colleague, Mark Nielsen, who I love, is producing it, and I joked with him that I’m so jealous because it’s such a great movie. Obviously, they’re going now, so I can’t do it. And I love , but I love . It’s such a great movie. Lee Unkrich and Adrian are such amazing filmmakers. I just want to go see it as an audience member. I know it’ll be a great movie.

I want them to be saying, ‘this is an amazing Pixar movie’. This is a world I can’t believe I got to visit and meet these amazing friends of Elio and Glordon, and it makes me realise I need to reach out to people and my friends and family and connect with them. That we’re all really in this together, and it’s really great when you feel that connection together.

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