‘Elio' review: Pixar goes sweet and simple for its original outer space adventure
movie review ELIO
Running time: 99 minutes. Rated PG (some action/peril and thematic elements). In theaters June 20.
Like the 11-year-old title character of 'Elio,' Pixar's latest original is small and cute.
Nothing wrong with that.
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It's time to accept that gone are the days of 'WALL-E,' 'Up' and 'Ratatouille,' when the Disney-owned animation studio had a stratospherically imaginative and artful vision that once put it firmly in the Best Picture conversation.
Now that the bouncing lamp's bulb is dimming, they're pumping out modest, but nonetheless charming movies such as 'Onward,' 'Luca' and 'Elio.'
The new one is more likable than blobby 'Elemental' or pointless 'Lightyear' were. 'Inside Out 2' sure felt like a '2.' ET won't phone home about it, but 'Elio' is a nice, frequently rewarding 100 minutes.
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There's a simple focus on feeling in the outer-space tearjerker about a lonely orphan boy who dreams of being abducted by aliens so he can finally make friends.
Staring up at the stars is a powerful, timeless idea. Good enough for Galileo.
3 In Pixar's 'Elio,' a boy dreams of traveling to outer space to make friends.
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'Is life really out there?' Elio asks his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an orbital analyst who works on a military base while raising her nephew, after he stumbles into a museum exhibit about the Voyager satellite. Lost and confused, he becomes obsessed with finding extraterrestrials.
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One night, they find him. He's beamed up to a kind of United Nations of species — called the Communiverse — and they ask Elio to become Earth's representative, believing him to be the leader of the third rock from the sun.
A couple of the aliens, an effete beetle dweeb and a ballet-dancing dragon, are cloying. I wanted Will Smith to come and punch them — a la 'Independence Day,' not the Oscars. The space station looks like a Las Vegas hotel built by a narcissistic jellyfish.
3 When he arrives, a group of aliens believe he's the leader of Earth.
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The story of mistaken identities is basically a kid-friendly 'Galaxy Quest.' Elio desperately wants to join the intergalactic club, but they'll only make him a member if he can talk scary Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), the chief of a warrior species, out of attacking the Communiverse.
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Plenty of familiar bases are covered: Making your dad proud, the true meaning of family, friendship, purpose and courage, among others. In the final scene, Pixar forces us — effectively — to cry like a boot camp officer.
Beyond the requisite lessons, there are some witty touches. A subplot involving a creepy Elio clone nods to the horror genre in a funny way for adults. And the twist with Grigon and his slug son Glordon is smart.
3 Elio finds a pal in wormy Glordon.
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During one bizarre montage, I'm pretty sure the 11-year-old and his friend Glordon go on a booze-soaked bender around the Communiverse and hurl into a hedge. But the drink is called 'glorg,' so who's to say what the alcohol content is?
Elio travels lightyears away from home, and 'Elio' lands comfortably in the middle of the Pixar pack.
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'Elio': Toronto Oscar winner Domee Shi explains why title character has an eye patch
Oscar winner Domee Shi drew inspiration from her own mother for her 2018 animated short film Bao, crafted a love letter to Toronto with one of the best fictional boy bands with Turning Red in 2022, and now takes on sci-fi with the movie Elio (currently in theatres). For Shi, it was exciting to get to play with the genre as one of the film's directors. "This was my first time directing a sci-fi movie, but I've always loved sci-fi as a genre. Some of my favourite movies are sci-fi movies, like Alien, Gravity," Shi told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. "It was so great to be able to pay homage to all of my favourite movies." "I love that in our movie we can use space as a symbol of aspiration, of wish fulfillment, instead of a scary space or a threatening space. It's a space that welcomes and accepts our main character." Unlike what we see in most movies, the main character Elio Solis (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) wants to be abducted by aliens. 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"The original idea came from the original director, Adrian Molina, just this idea that a characteristic that Elio could be othered for is something that he can be celebrated for, that could make him look actually really cool once he's in space." "Once he is in space and he has the eye patch and the cape, he looks like ... a cool space pirate, but it's so amazing that kids and audiences have embraced that eye patch." Elio's attempt at alien abduction pays off when he's beamed up to the Communiverse, an organization with representatives from each galaxy, like a sci-fi version of the United Nations, but it's all a misunderstanding. The aliens think that Elio is the leader of Earth. But he doesn't want to go home just yet, so Elio goes along with it and does not tell them he's actually just a kid who loves space. 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