Toronto native Domee Shi co-directs “Elio,” a Pixar animated sci-fi film about an 11-year-old orphan who yearns to be snatched by extraterrestrials to escape his loneliness — and gets his wish.

To the groove of Talking Heads’s “Once in a Lifetime”, orphaned 11-year-old Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) adjusts his homemade cape affixed with plastic stars, carves the words “ALIENS, ABDUCT ME” into ...