'Elio' Review: A Heartfelt, Yet Uncertain, Pixar Sci-Fi Adventure
Every movie faces development problems. But when it happens to a Pixar movie, those issues are glaringly apparent onscreen. Brave and The Good Dinosaur are some of the most notorious examples. No other title from the Burbank-based animation studio had encountered complications of the same magnitude as those since The Good Dinosaur… at least not until their latest effort, Elio. The long-awaited film about a lonely boy wanting to be abducted by aliens, originally by Coco co-director Adrian Molina, had a very long and messy lead-up to release, trading Molina for Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian (Burrow), undergoing story redevelopment, and pushing the release from spring 2024 to well, now. Unlike Brave and The Good Dinosaur, Elio is actually a good movie. But this interstellar coming-of-age tale about identity and grief lacks the identity and personality needed to stand among the stars of Pixar’s greatest originals.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of Disney
MPA Rating: PG (for some action/peril and thematic elements.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 38 Minutes
Production Companies: Pixar Animation Studios
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Writers: Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, Mike Jones
Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil
Release Date: June 20, 2025
Elio (Yonas Kibreab) is a socially awkward eleven-year-old with a hyperfixation on being abducted by aliens. After losing his parents, who were the only ones who could understand him, he moved in with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force major at a nearby military base. One night, Elio sends a message to space from their base. Soon he's abducted to the Communiverse, a kind of intergalactic United Nations. They believe he is Earth's leader, and he plays up the story. Before he can accept the offer to join their system, he must first persuade the aggressive conqueror Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), to leave the Communiverse in peace. On his journey, Elio meets Grigon's son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), a slug-like kid who doesn't want to become a war drone like his dad. As the two form a friendship, Elio and Glordon try to find their place among the stars.
Elio is a fine protagonist who could’ve been characterized further
Elio is every bit as stunning as you can imagine. The Pixar team is no stranger to creating vivid and colorful worlds with their own unique brand of imaginative visual pop that you want to jump right into. That's the case here, particularly when Elio is beamed up to the Communiverse.
There are numerous Pixar films that explore grief from the perspective of a young character, such as The Good Dinosaur and Onward. The quality varies. Elio does a good job of illustrating the relationship between grief and hyperfixation or escapism. I do believe that many children protagonists these days are written as hyperactive to be in step with iPad baby culture. Nevertheless, Elio's hyperactivity emerges from his escapism, which helps him cope with his grief. Something many people of any age have done when dealing with loss. It is eloquently depicted, and the narrative gradually reveals the depths of Elio's isolation in intimate moments with sincere dialogue.
Elio is a very likeable protagonist with an identifiable weirdness and neuroticism. At times, he feels a lot like Lilo from Lilo & Stitch (the original of course), who is largely misunderstood. That said, his characterization is very surface-level. He feels fine-tuned by the committee to be weird but like not in a way that makes you think he's either on a spectrum or queer. After all, Disney has to maximize their profits with no controversy.
Yonas Kibreab's emotive, affecting voice performance elevates Elio's broad characterization as he carries the film with great pride. In fact, Elio is at its most effective when it becomes a buddy film with Kibreab’s Elio and Remy Edgerly's Glordon. The two have such adorable charisma, charm, and comic timing poured into their voice performances. At times, they are on the same level as the veteran voice actors they are acting against. Brad Garrett, in particular, is an absolute comedic delight as Lord Grigon. Even if Elio and Glordon's friendship isn't fully developed, it's still endearing to see how much they care for one another and how their bond is based on their shared loneliness in the world.
Elio’s adventure feels far too fine-tuned for a general audience
Elio’s strengths make for a cute, passable Pixar flick geared more toward younger audiences. That said, it's apparent in every step of its storytelling that the project went through the wringer in redevelopment. As the directors' voices are evident in Turning Red and Burrow, two films with unique perspectives, you'd expect to see at least some of their flair in Elio; however, it truly lacks any trace of either. Once again, it's nowhere near as messy or dull as Brave and The Good Dinosaur. But a lot of the structural, narrative beats — written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones — are so broad and operatic they simply ape elements of a Pixar movie: where the story issues lie, where the character had to be restrained, and where the quiet, somber, sentimental PIXAR MOMENTS designed to make you cry had to come in. Elio is very sweet-natured and its commentary on grief is poignant yet you can't help but feel the calculations behind the narrative that prevent it from having its own identity.
The broadness of Elio's story — besides some virtue signaling nods to Elio's Mexican background — reinforced my concern with modern Pixar. If you didn't know, before Inside Out 2 came out last year, Pete Docter and some Disney executives said the studio was moving away from "autobiographical-driven tales." You know, tales like the why-did-you-release-this-on-Disney+-you-fools classics Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, which are some of the studio's best work since, let's be honest, Coco. Yeah, they just said screw that, let's make movies that have a "commonality of experience" to generate mass appeal. Elio, which was supposed to be a personal film for the original filmmaker, Adrian Molina, who grew up on a military base, is very much a product of that new mission statement. I'm afraid that Pixar's upcoming projects — particularly the original ones like Hoppers — will fall into the same generic bracket as Elio. Hopefully not, but as things stand, the future does seem dim.
Final Statement
Elio is a visually stunning, sweet-natured sci-fi tale. But despite its potential, this Pixar piece feels stuck on Earth, lacking the distinct identity it needs to truly soar.
