Zoe Saldana’s Epic Alien Adventure in Pixar’s Elio Revealed

Pixar has just released an exciting new featurette for Elio—a delightful blend of Star Trek and Home Alone. Zoe Saldana, the reigning queen of sci-fi in Hollywood (Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy), provides intriguing insights about her role as Aunt Olga, while newcomer Yonas Kibreab navigates a cosmic crisis of self-identity. The twist? Elio isn’t simply captured; he’s misidentified as Earth’s authority figure, leading to an interstellar case of impostor syndrome.

A standout aspect of the featurette is Elio’s “Communiverse,” which presents a bureaucratic mess filled with quirky aliens (one of whom is humorously named “OOOOO”). It evokes the comedic spirit of The Office—imagine if Dwight Schrute had tentacles. In contrast to the disappointing performance of Lightyear, Elio appears as Pixar’s bold gamble: eccentric, innovative, and so unusual it might just succeed.

Pixar is taking a significant chance on new talent—literally. Kibreab is relatively unknown, and the movie is co-directed by Coco‘s Adrian Molina and Turning Red‘s Domee Shi. The intriguing part? Elio‘s storyline mirrors the “child against the universe” theme of E.T., but swaps out Reese’s Pieces for deeper existential questions. Our anonymous insider (that’s us) notes: “This could either spark a revival of Pixar’s enchantment or turn into another Strange World—let’s hope for the former.”

Brilliant or absurd? A young ambassador dealing with extraterrestrials sounds outrageous—but then again, so did Toy Story back in ’95. Share your thoughts in the comments!