Elio

• Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina
• June 10, 2025 (El Capitan Theatre) / June 20, 2025 (US)

Voice Cast

• Elio Solís, Other Elio-Yonas Kibreab
• Olga Solís-Zoe Saldaña
• Glordon, Other Glordon-Remy Edgerly
• Helix-Brandon Moon
• Lord Grigon-Brad Garrett
• Questa-Jameela Jamil
• Bryce-Dylan Gilmer
• Caleb-Jake Getman
• Tegmen-Matthias Schweighöfer
• Turais-Ana de la Reguera
• Naos-Atsuko Okatsuka
• Ooooo-Shirley Henderson
• Gunther Melmac-Brendan Hunt
• Auva-Naomi Watanabe
• Mira-Anissa Borrego
• Diplo Ship-Shelby Young
• Universal Users Manual-Bob Peterson
• Narrator of the Voyager 1 Museum Exhibit-Kate Mulgrew
• Colonel Markwell-Tamara Tunie

A young boy is mistaken for the ambassador of Earth by aliens after accidentally making contact and soon finds himself dealing with a crisis that puts the whole world in danger.

I have my issues with Elio. It moves through the story by leaps and bounds leaving characterization behind. It ticks off the boxes a story should but almost does nothing to develop that story. This movie focuses on young Elio Solís who has recently lost his mother (where’s dad?) and is now living with his aunt Olga who is in the Air Force. Feeling lost and lacking a sense of belonging he decides abduction by aliens is the way to go.

It feels like the people at Pixar are simply emulating older Pixar rather than creating stories. It looks like Pixar and has the Pixar name, but these are the people who grew up on Pixar movies. They aren’t familiar with the sources from which those who were originally in charge derived inspiration. It emulates rather than creates. A common issue these days.

After one visit to a local air and space museum with his two generic Lego space toys this kid is convinced to get himself abducted by space aliens. I get that just before we learned his parents had died and he’s in the care of his aunt, but it just dumps you right into it. We get no introduction on if he’s obsessed with space or has a fascination with it or anything along those lines. In under five minutes Elio has a whole personality built around aliens and space and this message that he manages to send on a military base.

In short order, he tries to contact aliens using two other ham radio sets by tricking people into using their ham radio sets, overloads the electrical system at his aunt’s workplace, and is sent off to boarding school where he meets up with the two individuals he tricked. They get framed as bullies but are really just getting back at him for not only tricking them but for what he did that screwed up their lives. Elio is a bit of a jerk but gets off narratively in this case. Then he gets abducted and shenanigans ensue where he befriends an alien child named Glordon who is the son of an interstellar warlord.

The point of the story is Elio finding out that he does indeed belong with his aunt. He and his aunt bond and they have a bright familial future before the credits. The thing is it doesn’t feel earned. Their hug out and his realization to be with her rather than with space aliens doesn’t connect. It is what is supposed to happen and not because it is derived from the experiences of the cast.

On the contrary the subplot where Glordon repairs the relationship with his father Lord Grigon stirs some feels. They go through an arc. Maybe because I found Glordon much more likeable than Elio. Even though he was a slug, he felt more like a child and was just less obnoxious. There is talk and expression with their P.O.V.’s being much clearer.

While evaluating Elio to be an ambassador, the aliens send a replacement to fill in for Elio. The process of how the cloning clay takes shape is vague beyond needing DNA. This clone appears to possess at the minimum enough memories to fake being the original for a period but felt no need to tell the aliens that Elio was a child? Whatever. Once or twice the story peeks in on the copy and it is obvious that is the kid the aunt wants. This revelation gets ignored.

There’s something in here that bothers me. The fake Elio at least for a little bit was convincing enough that the aunt believed it real. For the purposes of the story, the aunt and child are reunited and after they’re reunited, they must race off and save Elio’s friend Glordon who is at the military base because if they don’t Lord Grigon is going to attack Earth and also wipe out the dumb smart aliens that thought Elio was a world leader.

While riding in the backseat of auntie’s car, Other Elio announces since Real Elio and aunt have been reunited, he’s going to break down and requests to be scattered over some plants as fertilizer. Don’t think about how that may make the aliens a bit monstrous by creating something with feelings and thoughts that kills itself. What’s really disturbing to me is that our hero and his aunt tell it to hold on and use the dissolve process as a distraction to sneak into the government base to save Glordon. They just had a thinking, feeling creature suicide itself for a plan that was a bit harebrained. Is that comedy? 

The humans look like any number of cheap soft plastic toys. I’m not exactly wowed by their designs. Some of the aliens are relatively imaginative, and one or two draws their inspiration in either fossils or maybe even cryptids.

In a story that is probably meant to be whimsical and fun nothing really gets too whimsical and fun. At an hour and 40 minutes and a relatively small cast of characters, the important character stuff doesn’t get developed. This is more in love with space visuals over developing the central story and characters. Things happen in such a rapid succession, but it’s nothing happening if you understand me. It’s something that develops anything. I’m not saying Elio is a massive disappointment but it’s not a classic. It’s an okay movie to watch. It’s not boring but it’s empty and a bit soulless.

I don’t think you would hate Elio if you watched it, but you might be feeling like there are better choices out there. If you are looking for some space stuff, this is not a bad idea to go with but there are better Pixar films that deal with space than this.