Consistency of output is hard to maintain over time. Not every song by Paul McCartney has been Blackbird. Not every play by Shakespeare has been Hamlet. Not every novel by Stephen King has been It. And, for an animation studio like Pixar, who hit the ground running with back-to-back masterpieces for ten solid years from 1995's Toy Story to 2005's The Incredibles, it's fair to cut them a little slack when it comes to the lesser films in their canon. Even when they've stumbled, there's still signs of that creativity that made the studio so beloved – except maybe Cars 2 which is just plain bad. But in recent times it has seemed like their more interesting work has gotten pushed aside for the sequels and spin-offs.

Given that Domee Shi was the director behind the utterly charming Turning Red, it's no surprise that she, along with co-director Madeline Sharafian (who directed wonderful short Burrow) is behind one of the best original entires into the Pixar canon for some time. It sees outsider orphan Elio (Yonas Kibreab), who faces a strained relationship with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), as he is introduced to the Communiverse, a collective of intergalactic civilisations that mistake his eager transmission to the stars as a sign that he is the ruler of Earth, and hope he can stop the advances of warlord Grigon (Brad Garrett).

There has been a lot made in recent times about Pixar showing more diverse viewpoints, from the Asian American experience of Turning Red, to the Black experience of Soul, it's clear that Pixar want viewers to feel represented. But, despite Elio and his Aunt being Latin-American there is a sense that the filmmakers don't want this to be too culturally specific. This isn't, for example, Coco, despite the involvement of that film's director Adrian Molina.

Instead Elio opts to tell a story a lot of people can relate to, the feeling of being an outsider, not fitting in or feeling like we're weird. The joy of the film is that, for all it's science fiction trappings, is really about a boy trying to find a friend and discovering one in fellow outsider Gordon (Remy Edgerly), the son of antagonist Grigon.

There's a lot of fun to be had in the film – it's got a lot of slapstick humour, the occasional toilet joke and visual gags which have always made Pixar films so much fun for all ages. But the beating heart of the film is Elio coming to terms with who he is, and his place in the world. There are shades of A Bug's Life in Elio's deceit of the Communiverse and promising to help rid them of a fearsome army, but there's also enough originality in its look and style that it doesn't fall into being a rehash of previous stories.

Much of this is down to the stellar work of the voice cast, most notably Kibreab who imbues Elio with a sense of someone on the verge of discovering their flaws as well as their strength. He's not an adolescent yet, but he's so close to it that that self awareness is creeping in. There's also a nicely observed running gag about misinterpresentting one person's panicked response of “okay bye I love you” as a traditional Earth farewell which comes to have deep resonance by the third act.

Like all Pixar films there's moments aimed at the adults like a riff of John Carpenter's The Thing or the idea of adults not feeling fulfilled in their life, but it never swamps the enjoyment for younger viewers. It's not perfect, the film is actually too expansive to ever truly land, and the alien designs never really feel anything more than concept art – though a few owe a debt to Treasure Planet. Even so, this might be the most enjoyable and emotionally engaging a Pixar film has been since the first Inside Out.

Okay, bye, I love you.

Elio is in cinemas from June 20