Pixar's Elio Takes Cues From E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial And... John Carpenter's The Thing?

Pixar's "Elio" is coming to theaters this summer, taking the film's titular 11-year old boy on a sci-fi adventure that he's been desperate to embark upon ever since learning about the limitless potential of space travel and life on other planets. Feeling out of place on Earth and maybe a bit of a burden on his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) manages to eagerly send a message into space and ends up abducted by aliens and inducted into the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide mistaking him for the leader of Earth. Despite this misunderstanding, Elio feels like he's finally found a place where he belongs, especially when he meets a young alien sort-of-slug kid named Glordon.

When directors Domee Shi (of the delightful "Turning Red") and Madeline Sharafian (story on "Turning Red" and "Coco") brought "Elio" to life, it should come as no surprise that they used Steven Spielberg's classic "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" as inspiration, as well as the filmmaker's more eerie but awe-inspiring "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." But would you expect a couple R-rated sci-fi classics from Ridley Scott and John Carpenter to be some of the other cinematic influences in Pixar's family friendly film?

During an early press day for "Elio," I sat down with both Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian to talk about their sci-fi adventure, and they revealed how some classic sci-fi horror movies helped shape the visual style for "Elio."

Shi and Sharafian worked with cinematographers Jordan Rempel and Derrick Williams to make use of the signature look of Spielberg's sci-fi classic, as well as some of his more frightful fellow filmmakers. Sharafian explained:

"I was really excited to partner with our DPs, Derrick Williams and Jordan Rempel on diving into the aesthetics of the Spielbergian sci-fi movies, like 'E.T.,' 'Close Encounters,' and some of the more kind of scary ones like 'Alien' and 'The Thing.' We watched them with a fine-tooth comb for the visual look, which gave Jordan a lot to work with. So we made these sort of darker, deeper shadows."

Sharafian also noted, "One of my favorite things is atmosphere, where sometimes you'll watch a Spielberg movie and there's like mist in the room and you're like, 'Why is there mist in Elliot's bedroom? I don't understand.' There's something about that, that dreaminess, got us really excited, and it's about the way that you feel, not about what's real in a movie. That's what excites me about animation, and I'm really happy with the way things turned out. That was really fun to nerd out about."

You'll especially notice a more misty look during night time shots, where the lights glow just enough to create a little bit of ambiance amidst the darkness. If you look at some of the early shots in the trailer above, as well as some of the later shots on the military based, a slight foggy glow surrounds the lights. That's a nice touch to see in an animated movie. 

But that's not the only technical touch that you'll see.

For those looking for some more nerdy film details, Sharafian continued:

"We shot the film with an anamorphic lens, which I know it's an animated movie, but we use real cameras the same way a live-action film would. So you'll see little touches of that. There's a red ring around a light that might be shining right at you. This is all for the film geeks."

If you're not familiar with anamorphic lenses and what they do on a camera, they provide an extremely wide view of a given image without distorting faces or lines. It allows filmmakers to capture a wider field of view and help create ultra-wide rectangular aspect ratios. 

An anamorphic lens is what often gives movies that certain cinematic look when compared to your average television show, though that's changed significantly since pay cable and streaming services began to tap into that same visual style for television programming that never even sees the big screen but aims for that theatrical quality. So you can understand why that would be helpful when bringing a vibrant sci-fi adventure to life.

You'll be able to see the cinematic qualities of "Elio" when the Pixar movie hits theaters starting on June 20, 2025.