'It's four or five seconds a week per animator': The makers of Pixar's new film, Elio 

As Pixar marks 30 years in existence, Elio looks set to become the animation studio's latest hit, writes Esther McCarthy

When Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab), a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession, is beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide, he must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, including a chirpy, shipper liquid supercomputer called OOOOO (voice of Shirley Henderson).

Three decades ago, a new animation studio prepared to release their first-ever feature film in cinemas, a buddy movie featuring a quirky cowboy and a space superhero. The fledgling studio was called Pixar and their first release — Toy Story —broke the mould for animated storytelling and changed the course of movie history.

Almost thirty years after the world fell in love with Andy’s toys and other Pixar classics, their 29th feature film comes to our big screens. Elio, the tale of a space-obsessed boy who finds himself accidentally beamed into outer space — where he’s mistaken for Earth’s chief ambassador — sends its protagonist on a intergalactic voyage of self discovery.