Pixar‘s Elio — following a young space-loving boy who finds himself beamed up for an intergalactic adventure — premiered in Los Angeles on Tuesday, with the current events of the city on the team’s minds.
The titular Elio is Pixar’s first Mexican-Dominican lead character, coming at a time when L.A. is at the center of immigration protests and the Latino community is being particularly targeted by I.C.E. raids.
Madeline Sharafian, who directed the film alongside Domee Shi, told The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet, “I think right now in particular I think a lot of people in the world can relate to where Elio is at the beginning of the film, where he has a very pessimistic view of Earth, which I think sometimes we’re all feeling.” As he goes on a journey through space and makes friends with aliens, she continued, “He changes his view of Earth a little bit, so by the end of the film there’s a little bit more hope. So even if we can give the audience a touch of that I think that would be worth it, especially right now.”
Jameela Jamil, who is a part of the voice cast, said the project is coming as “we need hope, because the world is a dumpster fire right now and we need young people to remember that they are capable of great things. We have politicians and media and social media that make people feel deliberately powerless, and actually the power is with the people and we are seeing just that all over the news right now. People are fighting back and this film inspires young people to take it into their own hands and to not wait to be a famous politician or actor or celebrity.”
Pixar CCO Pete Docter, Young Dylan, Brad Garrett, Pixar president Jim Morris, Jameela Jamil, Madeline Sharafian, Zoe Saldaña, Domee Shi, Yonas Kibreab, Mary Alice Drumm, Remy Edgerly, Rob Simonsen, Brendan Hunt, Brandon Moon, Naomi Watanabe and Jake Getman
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney/Pixar
The actress and activist continued that the “timeliness of this film is so spooky — even just being out this very week with everything that’s going on in the world, it feels so important, and I want children to have hope and I want them to remember they’ve got potential that is unrealized yet … We need to be less navel-gazing and less neo-individualist and more into building community. We see that out in the world right now and we see it in this film.”
Yonas Kibreab voices Elio with Zoe Saldaña voicing his aunt, and Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Dylan Gilmer, Jake Getman, Naomi Watanabe, Brendan Hunt, Anissa Borrego and Shelby Young round out the rest of the cast.
Saldaña also spoke about the film’s message, explaining the takeaways for kids are “it is OK to feel pain and it is OK to ask for help; vulnerability is a sign of great strength. For parents and for grownups, it is OK to not understand a child, you just have to love them. A child understands themselves, our job is to just love unconditionally while this child is forming its own thoughts and its own path.”
Elio hits theaters June 20.
Anaja Smith contributed to this report.
