An intergalactic, existential adventure about loneliness in Pixar's 'Elio'

Elio is a lonely 11-year-old just looking for big answers about life.

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He's recently lost his parents, the only people who understood him and wanted him, and the one thing that seems to give him comfort and hope is the idea that we're not alone in the universe.

So, in Pixar's latest (in theaters Friday), he starts waging a campaign for aliens to abduct him. Mostly, this involves laying down on the beach and waiting, his sand notes getting ever more desperate. Then one day it works.

It's a solid premise that, viewed one way, has all the makings of a classic Pixar film. It's existential but cute. It might make you cry and also want to buy a cuddly Glordon toy.

Glordon (Remy Edgerly) is the toothy, slug-like young alien with no eyes who befriends Elio (Yonas Kibreab). From a more cynical vantage point, however, it also doesn't stray far from the formula.

It's another kid realizing that the things that make him different might just be his secret power played out on a heightened, fantastical scale. It's safe and familiar, but also perhaps getting a little tired.