'Elio' Review: Boldly going where we've already gone before

While it's always nice to see Pixar working with an original story, Elio's narrative and character shortcomings leave it a long way's off from the studio's gold standard

Pixar once had the world of animation in the palm of its hand. Believe it or not, there was a 15-year period where whatever Pixar produced not only enjoyed hefty financial returns, but reveled in the praise of critics, parents, and children alike. It wasn’t enough for the studio to completely redefine expectations for family entertainment with the first Toy Story (1995). No, they went to infinity and beyond to deliver original stories, memorable characters, and groundbreaking animation, setting the industry standard for years to come. Then Cars 2 (2011) came out. Then Brave (2012). Then a litany of other uninspired projects and cash-grab sequels. While that’s not to say that Pixar hasn’t delivered quality work in the past 15 years since their heyday (Inside Out (2015) and Coco (2017) are widely appreciated fan favorites), the lapse in quality is notable.

That makes Elio (2025) all the more of an interesting project for Pixar to put their weight behind. While the company is no stranger to original projects this decade, all three of their original properties were off-loaded onto Disney+ thanks to the pandemic, making Elio its first original concept in theaters for its entire run since Coco. Eight years is a long time to go without pumping out a film that isn’t already based on an initial property, and if you’re like me, you haven’t necessarily been that impressed by their output. While there are elements of Luca (2021) and Turning Red (2022) that I appreciated (mostly the animation and art style), nothing Pixar has produced has come close to the Earth-shattering highs of films like Ratatouille (2007), Up (2009), and Inside Out. Sadly, Elio continues Pixar's weak streak of original animated concepts with a narrative structure and character arcs that stand in the shadow of the studio’s greatest accomplishments.

Elio Solís (Yonas Kibreab) is a young boy living with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) after the sudden death of his parents. As Olga works to balance a full-time job as an Air Force major with being a guardian, Elio is distant and melancholy with no friends in his new surroundings. After wandering into a closed exhibit on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, Elio is blown away by the vastness of Outer Space and makes it his mission to be abducted by aliens. With nothing but a metal colander on his head and a love for ham radio, Elio waits on the beach every day to hopefully attract the attention of alien lifeforms. After an incident with some local boys, however, Elio is sent to a stay-over camp near their military base by Olga in hopes of making some new friends, Unfortunately, the boys happen to be at the same camp. While there, however, Elio overhears from Olga’s colleagues that they may have made contact with aliens. He secretly makes contact when there’s no one around and, sure enough, the aliens find Elio, beam him up into their ship, and is given the opportunity to apply to join their Communiverse, where aliens share their knowledge from their worlds. In order to join their collective, Elio lies to the aliens and tells them he’s the leader of Earth. He also promises them that he can convince Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a bulky, worm-like alien warlord to leave the Communiverse alone.

While the setup for Elio isn’t egregious or overly cliché, the way the events of the film play out leaves a lot to be desired. Many of the film’s shortcomings stem from having three directors. Madeline Sharafin (her feature debut), Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (Coco co-director) joined forces to bring Elio to the big screen and the lack of a strong, singular vision is apparent. While no film is truly one person’s sole effort, Elio can’t shake its filmmaking-by-committee feeling. Like Brave and The Good Dinosaur (2015) before it, the film never strays far from the predictable narrative we’ve come to expect from the studio’s lesser offerings. The animation and designs are exceptional as ever and the humor registers some chuckles, but what made Pixar’s best films as memorable as they are came from a ground-up understanding of how to create characters and plot threads that are fascinating for both kids and adults. Elio might be an adequate way to spend an hour and a half with, but I don’t see anyone remembering much about it after leaving the theater.

The upside though is that Elio, at the very least, is a healthy sign that Pixar isn’t allergic to original properties and they’re able to balance their output with established properties. Like all studios, Pixar is continuing to figure out where they fit in the landscape of post-COVID studio giants. While Elio might not be the return to form some were hoping for, if nothing else, it’s still nice to see them invest in innovative ideas.

C+

Feature image credit to Disney via Disney Movies