It turns out that even the folks who make Pixar movies can’t resist the tear-jerking moments the studio’s famous for. ComicBook’s Chris Killian spoke with the creative team behind Disney/Pixar’s latest film, Elio, about their inspiration and influences bringing the story of a young space fanatic on a cosmic misadventure to life. ComicBook also asked Team Elio which movie from Pixar’s catalogue wrecked them emotionally, whether they worked on it or not. Out of the twenty-eight films from the iconic animation studio, one was the obvious winner. While there are plenty of heartfelt Pixar films to choose from, Coco was the answer that most members of the Elio team gave as the movie that wrung the most tears out of them.
Elio director Madeline Sharafian said, “You know what’s funny is that I worked on Coco, and I would see every screening of it as I was storyboarding on it, and I cried every time. It didn’t matter how many times I’d seen it and how much I knew it was coming.”
Coco Was the Most Popular Answer Among Pixar Employees
Elio production designer Harley Jessup also worked on Coco, but says the movie still gets to him. “The end of Coco, I worked on it, and, you know, [when I’m] giving presentations about it, I learned do not play the last sequence, because I’ll just be all choked up and crying.”
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Jessup confessed, “There’s something so cool, beautiful, touching about the ancestors all being together.” Given that an animated movie takes several years to complete and how closely Sharafian and Jessup’s roles had them working on the project, that’s high praise for Coco‘s ability to emotionally resonate with not just its audience, but with its creators.
Up and Inside Out Also Hit Pixar’s Filmmakers Hard
Unsurprisingly, Up, specifically the opening sequence set to composer Michael Giacchino’s moving piece “Married Life,” was also mentioned more than once. Elio producer Mary Alice Drumm and lighting art director Ernesto Nemesio cited the montage from Up as particularly heart-wrenching.
Domee Shi, one of Elio‘s three directors, had a specific scene from Inside Out that still gets her every time, even though they worked on it as a story artist. “It’s not the Bing Bong scene,” Shi said. “It’s the scene after where [Riley’s] crying in front of her parents. That always gets me, because it feels very real. Her voice is so soft and vulnerable, and it just feels like a very real, well-observed moment between a kid and a parent.”
Coco, Inside Out, and Up are only three films from Pixar’s pantheon of enduring animated movies. The fact that older films like Toy Story or Finding Nemo didn’t come up demonstrates Pixar’s commitment to storytelling excellence and ensuring each new release tugs on our collective heartstrings.
But will Elio do the same? The story follows a young boy obsessed with space and with an active imagination. When Elio finds himself on a cosmic adventure, he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions, and somehow discover who he is meant to be. Production designer Jessup believes Pixar’s latest offering will have “a strong emotional effect.”
Elio hits theaters on June 20th.
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