Elio Review

Pixar had many great films that have tugged at audiences’ heartstrings. The studio aims to pull off that trick again with the sci-fi feature, Elio.

Elio Solís (Yonas Kibreab) is a lonely young boy whose parents died and who now lives with his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña). He becomes obsessed with extraterrestrials and seeks to be abducted by aliens. His opportunity comes when the US Air Force receives a message. However, when Elio meets the peaceful Communiverse, he finds they are under threat by warmongering alien Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Elio volunteers to negotiate with Lord Grigon so he doesn’t have to return to Earth.

After 2019, Pixar’s fortunes have declined. Four of their films suffered due to the Pandemic, with three of them being released straight-to-Disney+, much to the annoyance of Pixar’s employees. Lightyear was a critical and commercial flop, Elemental was a slow burn at the box office, and even though Inside Out 2 was a massive success, it was dampened by the announcement of 175 people losing their jobs. Elio has had the worst opening weekend, having been beaten by How to Train Your Dragon and 28 Years Later at the US box office. Unless Elio has a slow but steady performance at the box office like Elemental, it will be a flop. It has suffered from the success of the Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon remakes. Unfortunately, the lesson Disney will learn is that it needs to produce more remakes and sequels.

This was a shame because Elio was a touching family film that explores universal themes. It was a film about outsiders, since Elio and Glordon (Remy Edgerly) were considered weirdos because they didn’t conform to society and felt misunderstood by their parental figures. They are characters that struggle to live up to their parents’ expectations, especially Glordon, since his father was a warlord, and the young alien was a gentler soul.

The best Pixar films have pulled on the heartstrings. There were scenes like Jessie’s tragic backstory, Marvin thinking Nemo had died, E-V-E’s sadness when she thought WALL-E lost his memory, the montage showing Carl and Ellie’s relationship, Riley breaking down in tears, and Coco rekindling his great-grandmother’s memories. Elio had a lot to draw on because of the young character’s isolation and the relationship with their guardians. The film effectively hit the necessary emotional beats, as it was about characters learning to understand each other. Elio does not live up to Pixar’s highest highs of WALL-E, Up, and Inside Out, but it was still an effective family film.

Elio felt like Pixar’s version of an ‘80s sci-fi family film. It draws from films like E.T., Flight of the Navigator, and The Last Starfighter. These were all sci-fi stories, but the heart of these films was the characters and family relationships. Elio did contain a bit of Contact, a novel and film about first contact with aliens. This comparison was felt during the first act when the Air Force receives the alien message, and Elio interferes with this historic moment. The Contact comparisons were made more fitting because that story was also about grief, and Carl Sagan wrote the novel. Sagan was a key figure regarding the creation of the Voyager Golden Record. The use of the Voyager spacecraft in the story brought back memories of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Whilst Elio had a lot of serious themes, it was still a film designed to entertain children, and it succeeded with that mission. It was bright and colourful with many alien designs. The film manages to have plenty of humour, like asking an all-knowing supercomputer a childhood question or accidentally offending the scary warlord.

Elio shows that Pixar still has that emotional spark that made their best films resonate with the audience. Even if it doesn’t do well at the box office, it should find an audience on its home release.