Pixar goes sweet, simple for its outer space adventure

Like the 11-year-old title character of “Elio,” Pixar’s latest original is small and cute.

Nothing wrong with that.

It’s time to accept that gone are the days of “WALL-E,” “Up” and “Ratatouille,” when the Disney-owned animation studio had a stratospherically imaginative and artful vision that once put it firmly in the Best Picture conversation.  

Now that the bouncing lamp’s bulb is dimming, they’re pumping out modest, but nonetheless charming movies such as “Onward,” “Luca” and “Elio.”

The new one is more likable than blobby “Elemental” or pointless “Lightyear” were. “Inside Out 2” sure felt like a “2.” ET won’t phone home about it, but “Elio” is a nice, frequently rewarding 100 minutes.

There’s a simple focus on feeling in the outer-space tearjerker about a lonely orphan boy who dreams of being abducted by aliens so he can finally make friends.

Staring up at the stars is a powerful, timeless idea. Good enough for Galileo.

“Is life really out there?” Elio asks his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an orbital analyst who works on a military base while raising her nephew, after he stumbles into a museum exhibit about the Voyager satellite. Lost and confused, he becomes obsessed with finding extraterrestrials.

One night, they find him. He’s beamed up to a kind of United Nations of species — called the Communiverse — and they ask Elio to become Earth’s representative, believing him to be the leader of the third rock from the sun.

A couple of the aliens, an effete beetle dweeb and a ballet-dancing dragon, are cloying. I wanted Will Smith to come and punch them — a la “Independence Day,” not the Oscars. The space station looks like a Las Vegas hotel built by a narcissistic jellyfish.

The story of mistaken identities is basically a kid-friendly “Galaxy Quest.” Elio desperately wants to join the intergalactic club, but they’ll only make him a member if he can talk scary Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), the chief of a warrior species, out of attacking the Communiverse.

Plenty of familiar bases are covered: Making your dad proud, the true meaning of family, friendship, purpose and courage, among others. In the final scene, Pixar forces us — effectively — to cry like a boot camp officer.

Beyond the requisite lessons, there are some witty touches. A subplot involving a creepy Elio clone nods to the horror genre in a funny way for adults. And the twist with Grigon and his slug son Glordon is smart. 

During one bizarre montage, I’m pretty sure the 11-year-old and his friend Glordon go on a booze-soaked bender around the Communiverse and hurl into a hedge. But the drink is called “glorg,” so who’s to say what the alcohol content is?  

Elio travels lightyears away from home, and “Elio” lands comfortably in the middle of the Pixar pack.