Elio (2025)
Elio is everything we want from a Disney/Pixar movie: Fun, touching, exciting, and a triumph of animation and art direction. In fact, it can be mentioned in the same sentence as Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Soul in regards to its visuals, with specific scenes showing high degrees of imagination, helped greatly by the use of color, the rendering of textures, and its presentation in 3D. Of course, if there wasn’t a good story to go with all this, what good would it be? It’s a charming tale of belonging – or more accurately, of wanting to belong. This is a universal theme in more ways than one; similarly to Lilo & Stitch, the film’s emotional core is the friendship between a human child and an alien, their bond made possible through their mutual feelings of isolation and abandonment.
The human is a boy named Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab). Desperate to cope with the untimely death of his parents (a common plot device in Disney films), he repeatedly shirks his home and school responsibilities in the hopes of being abducted by aliens and taken away from Earth. His aunt Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña) is perpetually exasperated by his behavior, not at all helped by her Air Force job keeping track of space debris. Adult audiences will immediately understand that her stress and frustration in no way lessen her love for her nephew. It may come off differently for child audiences, who are more likely to relate to Elio, especially if they’re as lonely, socially awkward, and traumatized; from his perspective, his aunt doesn’t want him, and the only people who did want him are now gone. Earth has nothing to offer him anymore. Maybe he will find acceptance amongst extraterrestrials.
As it so happens, aliens have been watching us since the launch of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Through a series of circumstances I won’t bother describing, they’ve been keeping an especially close eye on Elio. He finally gets his abduction wish one fateful stormy night on a beach, when he’s sucked through an interstellar portal. He safely arrives at the Communiverse, a wondrous giant spacecraft where creatively-designed beings from other worlds share their knowledge and expertise. Falsely believing Elio to be the leader of Earth, a council of aliens offers him the chance to be part of their peaceful intergalactic community as Earth’s ambassador. Unfortunately, the leader of an artillery-clad warmongering worm species (voiced by Brad Garrett) wants admittance first.
A series of lies, misunderstandings, and escapes brings Elio into the life of Glordon, the young son of the warlord (voiced by Remy Edgerly). A cute slug-like creature whose voice is the epitome of adorable naivete, he, like Elio, is friendless and lonely. He’s kind and fun and has no desire to become a warrior like his father. At the same time, he wants his father’s love, and he believes the warrior’s way of life is the only way he can get it. Naturally, he and Elio become the best of friends, and eventually entertain the idea of running away together. But other complications arise, and the warlord has his lava-spewing cannons pointed directly at the Communiverse. If Elio is to make things right, he must not only use his wits but also confront the various issues that made him feel (no pun intended) alienated on Earth. This includes his relationship with his aunt, who, for reasons I won’t reveal, now has a good reason to believe in conspiracies.
Being a family movie, Elio includes gags and references that adults are far more likely to pick up on than children. That’s a good thing; with these kinds of movies, every potential audience should get something out of it. I’ve already mentioned the Voyager 1 mission, although kids probably won’t know that the plot of 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture also featured a collision of worlds between the spacecraft and extraterrestrial life. Another example is a character that’s a UFO/alien invasion nut surnamed Melmac. Parents – and, at this point, grandparents as well – should have an easier time recognizing that Melmac was the home planet of the title character on the ‘80s sitcom ALF. Of the references, the most germane are audio clips of Carl Sagan speaking about life on other worlds.
The greatest success of Elio is that it’s accessible. Even with the inclusion of aliens and unheard of technologies, the film presents real world issues in an intentionally simplified, age-appropriate way. Obviously real life is more complicated than a family friendly 3D cartoon, but it’s nevertheless a great way for younger audiences to be introduced to the ideas. A great many children, I’m sorry to say, understand loss, grief, struggling to fit in; they should see something of themselves in the title character, while simultaneously teaching them that, in most cases, the adults in their lives really do love them and simply want what’s best. Child audiences may also come to understand that just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you have all the answers, or even know that you know what you’re doing. Everyone, regardless of age, is figuring it all out as they go. And now an epilogue: Stay through the end credits. Rather than a traditional scene, there’s a very short teaser trailer for Disney/Pixar’s next film.
