The title newly orphaned space-fanatic kid hopes and prays for aliens to abduct him so he can escape his sad, Earthbound life. They do. (Not a spoiler because it’s the movie’s whole schtick.) He goes off to meet a lot of cute, colorful aliens and gets involved in their politics. Or something.

This is reportedly Pixar’s biggest box office bomb, so I went to see why. It’s nothing if not frenetic, with myriad characters and thin, convoluted plot lines appearing and vanishing at warp speed. It will lose little kids, maybe even frighten them. It never quite clicks and fails to stick the landing. The best Pixar films make blending humor, wonder and spectacle seem effortless. This one offers plenty of light, sound and motion, but it’s trying too hard, and nothing really resonates. Don’t be expecting Toy Story or Finding Nemo.

The Disney subsidiary certainly knows how to put the dazzle on the screen, but there’s little narrative coherence to back up all the visual inventiveness. And when it tries to leaven the action excess with emotion and empathy, it shamelessly slides into button- pushing territory. Great score, though; loved the Talking Heads needle drop.

(98 mins)

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Interested in more new action movies? Read our review of F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, or the latest Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise.