Kate McKinnon is expressing how much she loves certain Pixar movies.
Speaking with PEOPLE in an exclusive conversation at the premiere of her latest project, sci-fi film In the Blink of an Eye, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 26, the 42-year-old actress shared what Pixar animated movies, especially from director Andrew Stanton, mean to her.
“I’m a lifelong fan, absolutely,” McKinnon said of Stanton, 60, who also directed In the Blink an Eye. “The themes of the stories that he tells, to me, the films are quasi-religious texts.”
The Saturday Night Live alum continued, “I mean, they contain an ancient wisdom. He is possessed of an ancient wisdom.”
McKinnon mentioned 2003’s Finding Nemo and 2008’s WALL-E as prime examples of Pixar classics that Stanton has directed and co-wrote. Both animated movies won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.
“These are tales that speak about time, humanity, life itself. Absolutely. And this film was no exception,” McKinnon said, referring to their 2026 project.
In the Blink of an Eye is a film about “three storylines, spanning thousands of years, [that] intersect and reflect on hope, connection, and the circle of life,” according to the film’s description.
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In the movie, McKinnon plays Coakley, who is on a spaceship bound for a distant planet alongside a sentient onboard computer “to confront a disease afflicting the ship’s oxygen-producing plants.”