A young boy is transported into outer space in Pixar’s newest space fantasy.
Since the dawn of the Pixar era, astronauts of one kind or another keep popping up in their animated canon, from Toy Story (1995) and its three sequels to WALL-E (2008) and, most recently, its Toy Story spin-off movie Lightyear (2022).
Astronauts may not fire the popular imagination as they did in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when the disastrous Challenger take-off shocked and horrified the world in 1986, yet the dream of escaping the velocity of Earth and all the constraints that are constantly placed upon us remains alive, as captured in Pixar’s newest animated adventure, Elio, which merges the dream of space flight with a migrant’s dream of finding a new home.
Directed by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, as noted in the first closing credit card, and also directed by Adrian Molina, as noted in the middle of the closing credits, Elio feels like a fusion of the driving sentiments behind Turning Red and Coco, which the directors previously worked on, either separately or collectively, dealing especially with the eternal juvenile themes of grief and loneliness.
As often happens in Disney and/or Pixar films, 11-year-old Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) has lost his parents due to an untimely accident and must live with his aunt Olga Solis (Zoe Saldana), who oversees an Air Force Unit on a military base that monitors feeling through her words and actions, often leaving Elio alone, which only redoubles his lonely, nascent desire to be abducted by aliens and transported to a better place, satellites. Olga never wanted to be a mother, and she unintentionally communicates this where he can make like-minded friends and, you know, be happy.
Written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones, the script imagines aliens who are (mostly) quite friendly. After they respond to a message from Elio, they indeed abduct him and are ready to welcome him into a new, happy community of weirdos.
There’s just one thing: they’re under attack by an evil, war-mongering alien, Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), and they are ready to abandon the galaxy, go into hiding, and return Elio to Earth. So Elio, who has gone along with their mistake impression that he is the leader of Earth, volunteers to negotiate a peace treaty with Lord Grigon.
As happens not infrequently with animated films, the creative control passed from Adrian Molina, who initiated the project based on his own experiences, to Domee Shi and her collaborator Madeline Sharafian, which helps explain why Elio reminds of both Coco‘s family strains and Turning Red‘s alienation. Both past films dealt with highly emotional issues (grief and coming of age among them) with unexpected twists and turns, making them highly satisfying adventures that featured plenty of action.
Though Elio does not reach the heights of either of those two films, it endeavors to add new twists and turns to the underpopulated ‘civilians in space’ sub-genre. The aliens, who come from different galaxies, are markedly different from most other past depictions in animated movies, and bring a fresh and friendly look to Pixar’s amazing gallery of alien characters.
Briskly entertaining, with a big heart, Elio is amusingly inventive throughout its runtime. In the end, Elio is all about family. It finds meaningful connections in the most unexpected of places. It also reflects upon deeper themes: dealing with grief as a part of life, and the always thorny issues of making room for new family members and coping with loneliness.
And sometimes, the most helpful solutions pop up when we least expect them.
The film opens Friday, June 20, throughout the multiplex, only in theaters. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
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