2.5 out 5 spaceships (decent)
Elio is one of the most disappointing movies of the year for me. It’s an original sci-fi film from Pixar that has elements for a good or great movie, but falters so mightily in its execution that I could only feel disbelief that this is its final state. It’s by no means the worst animated film of this or any year and might satisfy the 8-year-old demographic, but Elio’s frenzied story, lack of focus, and uneven themes ground this space adventure in the launch bay.
11-year-old Elio Solis (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) recently lost his parents and feels lonely living with his caring Aunt Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldana), who works for a military base studying meteor debris from space. Desiring to be abducted by little green men and kiss Earth goodbye, Elio sends a message out into space when it looks like aliens might be attempting to contact us, gets beamed up, Scotty, and is asked to be Earth’s ambassador for the Communiverse by some kind space inhabitants. However, before the bubbly can be popped, the Blood Emperor Lord Grigon (Voiced well by Brad Garrett) reacts like a kid being told “no” in the candy store at his rejection to the Communiverse, threatening to destroy it. Elio tries to sooth it over, that goes awry, and he then meets Grigon’s son Glordon (Voiced by Remy Edgerly) who he bonds with and slowly realizes he’s not alone after all.
If that synopsis for Elio reads to you like a game of MadLibs, that’s because it feels exactly like that. The film was initially set to release last year, but was pushed back to a June 2025 release date to allow for a major retooling of the story after Pixar internally disliked wherever it was going. I would give my left DVD wall to see the original story plans for Elio because they had to be more cohesive than this.
The film is expectedly well-animated and the voice actors are solid, but lacks the clever wit, thematic focus, and emotional core that makes great Pixar movies great. Elio and his Aunt Olga’s dynamic works, but doesn’t resonate as much as it should since they’re apart for the midsection when it should be driving everything. It would be the equivalent of Toy Story’s main duo trying to be Woody and Ham the Piggy Bank. It’s also unsure if it wants to be about realizing we can always find community out here, parenting, or how the people and world around us are more complicated than we think, and in trying to service all 3 does none justice. If I was 8, Elio might have entertained me for the space stuff, but I don’t think I’d rewatch it much or return to it as an adult. It’s a passable sci-fi for youngsters, but they deserve better than this.
Rated PG for Some Action/Peril and Thematic Elements