Directed with vigor and dashes of humor and emotion by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi (“Turning Red”) and Adrian Molina (co-director of “Coco”), “Elio” is laden with Easter eggs and has a killer end-credit bonus scene and pays snappy homage to numerous sci-fi films (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” amongst others).

Zoe Saldaña and Brad Garrett are among the voice cast for the animated feature about a young boy who, feeling out of place on Earth, dreams of getting abducted by aliens.

It has a universal and powerful theme that drives the story (examining what it means to feel alone); it has spunky and memorable protagonists and antagonists; and while the animation style isn’t anything one would think of as revolutionary,