Elio

I hate to say this about a studio that I loved growing up, but the 2020s have not been kind to Pixar. Although they’ve had hits with Soul and Luca, duds like Lightyear and, to a lesser extent, Elemental have stood out far more than they would have in the past. This feeling perhaps contributed to my lack of motivation to see Elio, their latest release, based on both the original 2023 teaser and revised 2024 teaser, the latter of which had occurred due to a test screening in which not a single person said they liked it enough to watch it in a theater. My apathy felt justified when, despite the revised direction and positive critical reception, the film had bombed at the box office, making only $154 million on a budget of about $150-200 million. Of course, we remained undeterred in our streak of viewing every single Pixar film in some form or another and finally gave it a try when it hit Disney+. Sadly, although I did like it a little more than I thought I would, I still thought while the credits rolled that I would have felt ripped off if I had paid for the full theatrical experience.

Following the death of his parents, an orphaned Elio Solís (Yonas Kibreab) lives with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force Major. After wandering into a closed Voyager 1 exhibit, he becomes obsessed with the possibility of discovering other life in space and, years later, spends his free time trying get abducted by aliens. Shortly after he responds to a message from outer space at the military base where his aunt works, an incident that gets him sent to a youth camp, Elio’s wish comes true and he’s taken to the Communiverse, a place where aliens from other worlds peacefully share knowledge, where he is chosen as a candidate to join as Earth’s ambassador. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he tries to negotiate peace with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a violent alien leader whom the Communiverse had rejected.

Elio (Yonas Kibreab) believes that he'll find companionship among the stars.

The biggest issue with Elio is that while it does play out like a reverse Lilo & Stitch,—a child feels alone after the loss of their parents and makes friends with an alien, but this time the child goes to the alien—it’s not very engaging for most of the runtime. There are some flashes of interesting ideas here and there, but Elio isn’t compelling more immediately and his motivation for seeking alien life feels flimsy at the start. While themes of family and loneliness are certainly evident, the execution is as safe as possible and doesn’t do much to stand out narratively even with an outer space coat of paint.

Fortunately, the movie picks up a bit in the third act. As the story ramped up, I found myself more invested in the characters and the effort Elio went through to correct a grave mistake, as well as how other people, including Bryce (Dylan Gilmer), whom he had wronged earlier in the movie, came to his aid. It helped that he went through some character growth at that point, so the idea that he was never really alone hit harder than it would have earlier on. It helped that some true tension set in and a created a much-needed sense of urgency, plus it had the return of Gunther Melmac (Brendan Hunt), an enjoyable character who stood out in a much earlier scene. If only the first two acts had that same magic.

One of the better characters in the movie.

Elio’s art style blends in with other post-Luca Pixar releases, particularly with the humans, but the alien designs did have some creativity and it was clear that they had thought out the world and technology of the Communiverse as a setting. A couple designs that stood out to me were the Universal Users Manual (Bob Peterson) and Questa (Jameela Jamil). At times, the movie also had some neat cinematic shots, with one standout in a particular moonlit beach shot later on.

Even with a stronger third act, I still can’t wholeheartedly recommend Elio unless you’re like me and want to say you’ve seen Pixar’s entire output. Now, more than ever, I hope that Pixar can find itself once more as a studio and show the world that they’re still an animation powerhouse on par with their current competition. Someday.