Did You Know Pixar’s Elio Is Mexican-Dominican?
Elio is the latest animated feature from Disney Pixar to center on a Latine protagonist – in this case, a Mexican-Dominican boy. Starring Filipino and African-American actor Yonas Kibreab (Obi-Wan Kenobi) as the titular Elio Solis, the movie is directed by Coco director Adrian Molina, Domee Shi, and Madeline Sharafian.
The movie also stars Zoe Saldaña of James Cameron’s Avatar fame as Elio’s aunt, Olga Solis, who’s in the military. Saldaña’s casting comes after America Ferrera was originally going to voice Elio’s mom. But due to scheduling conflicts, Ferrera stepped out and Saldaña stepped in to voice Elio’s aunt.
The movie itself centers on the highly imaginative Elio being a lover of space, and finding himself in a “misadventure” that sees him befriend various alien lifeforms. In addition to being a sci-fi epic complete with an intergalactic crisis that must be averted, the movie will also be a journey of self-discovery for Elio.
This is not only important for Elio’s character growth, but will also be important for Latine representation, according to Saldaña in an interview with the Associated Press.
In the interview, Saldaña made a point about how the Dominican community has been expanding over the past 60 years, not just within the US but in other communities around the world.
“The fact that, like, six decades later, this beautiful diaspora is being acknowledged as a fabric of the American sort of community is quite amazing,” Saldaña said.
The Avatar actor also talked about the many different occupations Latine people fulfill in society that is worth spotlighting with her character of Olga. “I do know so many people that serve in the military of Latino descent. So getting to celebrate that, getting to celebrate the engineers as well – that dream of space that happened to be Latinos and happened to be Dominican, Mexican, everything.”
Saldaña also feels that the world is now in a place where being of a different cultural background is a gift that gets shared with others and not an obligation or a source of validation. This spotlights the importance for Latine people to be both proud of where they come from, but also who they are as individuals.
Jameela Jamil from The Good Place is also playing the alien ambassador Questa, Shirley Anderson from Dept. Q will play the supercomputer OOOOO, and Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond fam will play the alien warlord, Lord Grigon. Among Elio’s cast members include Brendan Hunt, Naomi Watanabe, and Ana de la Reguera voicing alien characters.
Elio will be released in theatres on June 20, 2025.