‘Elio’ Review

With ‘Elio’, Pixar and Disney once again achieve the kind of heartwarming adventure story that has become their standard. Filled with beautiful sci-fi visuals, inventive action sequences, and a strong emotional core, ‘Elio’ is a crowd pleasing entry in the Pixar canon, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the studio’s absolute best.

‘Elio’ opens with a shy, lonely boy hiding under a table as his Aunt Olga tries to connect with him. Having recently lost his parents, Elio feels lost and unable to see that his Aunt is putting her dreams of becoming an astronaut on hold to raise her nephew, not out of obligation but out of genuine love. It is during this scene, in a military cafeteria, that Elio wanders off to find a museum exhibit about Voyager, NASA’s exploratory probe meant to chart the universe and share knowledge of Earth’s culture if ever encountered by extra terrestrials. Elio’s imagination is awakened and he sees space as the answer to his loneliness, starting him on a quest to be abducted by aliens and flee his tragic home life.

A boy without parents, unable to connect to his peers, trying to find solace in the unknown. Replete with multiple montages – one set to the Talking Heads, and one showcasing a burgeoning friendship – ‘Elio’ flaunts its 1980s and sci-fi influences proudly, making visual and story references to such staples as Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’, ‘Terminator’, and ‘Star Trek’, but it is the early filmography of Steven Spielberg that serves as the most far-reaching and obvious inspiration. Like those sci-fi classics, ‘Elio’ takes a humanist vision of space as a source of awe and hope, a place where there are endless possibilities to help our protagonist feel a little less lonely after the death of his parents. Despite a lag in the second act, the emotional arc of Elio is that of a child seeking acceptance and fulfillment in space, unable to see the possibilities for love already present on Earth.

While the animation style itself doesn’t break any new ground, instead faithfully staying true to the established Pixar style guide, the sci-fi visuals are charming and creative as we follow Elio into space. Many of these sequences are cleverly shot and staged, particularly a scene in which Aunt Olga takes a hair from Elio’s head to investigate, becoming suspicious that her nephew has changed after she received peculiar messages from space. A scene like this is reminiscent of more grown-up sci-fi thrillers, leaning into the intrigue and vaguely menacing mystery of space without compromising the story’s kid friendly entertainment.

Ultimately, the plot itself is moving without distinguishing itself from standard Pixar fare: a child dealing with trauma goes on an adventure filled with life lessons that he can apply back home. ‘Elio’ won’t be breaking through into the Pixar Hall of Fame, but it is a fun, heartfelt story with impressive visuals and a poignant ending, an argument that outer space is an infinite canvas on which we can paint our own fears and anxieties, hopes and dreams.

Elio
Rated PG for some action/peril, and thematic elements.
Running Time: 1 hour and 39 minutes

Director Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Writers Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, Mike Jones
Stars Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil
Rating PG
Running Time 99 Minutes
Genres Animation, Adventure, Comedy