‘Elio:' Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind

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Considering that both satellites were launched in 1977, the aliens will be woefully behind the times if they find it. I can imagine those creatures showing up here looking for bell bottoms, Quaaludes, and disco. 'What is this
zorznit
?!' they'll ask as they look around.
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When Lord Grigon (voice of Brad Garrett), a fierce alien warlord who rules the planet Hylurg, vows to enact his wrath on the Ambassadors of the Communiverse who humiliated him—it's up to Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab) to stop him.
Pixar
Like 7-year old me, Elio is obsessed with Voyager and intrigued by the possibility of life elsewhere. But most importantly, Elio wants to be abducted by those aliens, and that's where our similarities end. It's clear that he didn't read Whitley Streiber's 'Communion,' nor has he seen any of the horror movies that depict how bad an idea it is to be kidnapped by aliens.
Elio tells Olga that, of the hundreds of thousands of planets out there, one of them would be happy to take him. He is friendless, and awkward around people, so he thinks he'll fare better with extraterrestrials. Elio is also intrigued about getting probed, but to
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Elio is a space fanatic with an active imagination who finds himself on a cosmic misadventure.
Pixar
On the beach, Elio makes crop circles in the sand, dons a metal colander on his head, turns on his ham radio, and lays in a drawn target surrounded by the words 'ABDUCT ME!' His futile attempts are accompanied by a rather clever needle drop, 'Once in a Lifetime' by Talking Heads.
Meanwhile, at the military base where Olga and her team monitor space debris, the satellites pick up what appears to be a response to Voyager's golden record. We see Voyager captured by a spaceship in the opening scene, so we know this is a legitimate call from space. Olga disregards it—she's too busy chastising Elio—but Elio overhears it and responds.
The next thing we know, Elio's being beamed into a gigantic spaceship, courtesy of a conglomerate of ambassadors from all points in the universe. It's called the Communiverse. Their leader, Ambassador Questa (Jameela Jamil from '
The ambassador invites Elio to earn admittance for Earth into the federation, but he'll have to wait. stand in line. The meeting is interrupted by another wannabe candidate, a warlord named Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). He demands entry for his planet, but is denied because he's a loose cannon who lives for destruction. Grigon threatens war if he's not placated. Watching this, I couldn't help but notice how much it resembled the recent G-7 Summit.
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Elio joins forces with Glordon, the son of a warlord.
Pixar
Somewhere in this plot, the filmmakers realized they were making a movie that needed to cater to kids. So, we're given Glordan (Remy Edgerly), a slug-like creature who's probably Elio's age in alien years. Glordan is Grigon's only son; his bond with Elio will help them navigate a universal crisis and make Elio the hero he's always wanted to be. Edgerly and Kibreab create a convincing friendship that's sweet and funny.
'Elio' is a collaboration between filmmakers who worked on '
But 'Elio' may be the first Pixar/Disney product that doesn't really have anything for kids in it. Outside of the beauty of seeing a little brown kid earning self-worth and saving the universe (representation matters), I couldn't find a single story element that would cater to children. What kid nowadays would know what a ham radio is, or Voyager? What youngster would be interested in a political crisis?
In Disney and Pixar's 'Elio,' 11-year-old Elio and his Aunt Olga struggle to connect sometimes—his passion for all things space can make him hard to reach. Olga, a brilliant major in the Air Force, is delighted when her nephew suddenly perks up—she can't quite figure out what's behind the change. Featuring the voices of Yonas Kibreab and Zoe Saldaña as Elio and Aunt Olga, respectively, Disney and Pixar's 'Elio' releases in theaters June 20, 2025. (Pixar)
Pixar
Plus, Disney is back on its parent-killing jones again. Elio's parents died in some mysterious circumstance, which is why he's in his aunt's care. Elio overhears one kid describing him as 'the kid whose parents died.' I've seen enough Disney products to expect this trope, but for some reason, I found it preternaturally cruel this time around.
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While I enjoyed 'Elio,' and I appreciated the animation and Rob Simonsen's lovely orchestral score, I felt that this film was more tailor-made for adult sci-fi fans rather than their young kids. To be clear, I'm not saying you should leave your kids at home—there's nothing objectionable here. I'm just saying they might be as bored as you usually are at some of these movies.
★★★
ELIO
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina. Written by Julia Cho, Mike Jones, Mark Hammer. Starring Zoe Saldaña, Yonas Kibreab, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil. At AMC Boston Common, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 99 min. PG (cartoon violence)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.

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It might take the Communiverse a little longer than you'd think for what are supposed to be the smartest aliens around to figure out that a literal child is not the leader of Earth, but they eventually get there. Grigon makes Ambassador Questa read Elio's mind to find out where the real Glordon is and by doing so, she sees the whole truth, including who he really is. As Grigons soldiers take over the Communiverse, Elio gets knocked through a portal back to Earth. Elio's Aunt Olga might seem kinda excited about the clone version of Elio that's been sent to Earth so that no one gets suspicious that he's missing. This Elio is being chatty, helpful, and has stopped being so obsessed with aliens and space–all the things she's wanted him to be. But Olga is no dummy. She secretly plucks one of clone Elio's hairs and takes it to investigate under a microscope, clearly suspicious of his change in behavior. She's also surrounded by books on alien abductions, so yeah, she knows what's going on. Her suspicions are confirmed when the strand of hair comes to life and busts its way out of the microscope slide and crawls back down the hall to the rest of Elio's clone. She follows it and lifts up Elio's eyepatch to see there's no actual eye behind it, so this can't be her real nephew. Yes! But he's not in the best condition when he arrives. The real Elio, now reunited with Olga after getting kicked out of the Communiverse, sees some commotion going on at the Air Force base. The two of them take a closer look and see the spaceship Glordon was in is being hauled inside a warehouse. They break in, and seeing that Glordon is fading away (he's freezing cold now that he's out of his usual climate), start the ship back up and fly into outer space. Thankfully, also yes! With an unexpected assist, that is... After dodging dangerous debris fields and zooming through at warp speed, Elio, Olga, and Glordon make it to the Communiverse, which has been taken over by Grigon. At this point, Glordon is unresponsive and Grigon, seeing his son's state, shockingly rips off his suit of armor, sacrificing his honor, so that he can climb down and save his son. When Glordon wakes back up, he tells his dad he doesn't want to be a killing machine trapped in armor like him. Grigon says that even though he doesn't understand Glordon, he'll always love him. He apologizes to Elio and tells his cronies to release all the people of the Communiverse. Having saved the day after all, Elio is finally offered a permanent place in the Communiverse. But his initial excitement is stopped when he sees his aunt's heartbroken face at the thought of him staying in space. Elio tells the Communiverse ambassadors that he wants to give Earth another chance and that this isn't goodbye, it's not yet. Elio is all about feeling like an outsider and searching for acceptance. On that acceptance journey, Elio, who at the beginning of the movie shuts out his aunt and other kids, learns to connect with someone else thanks to Glordon. Elio feels like his aunt doesn't really want him and he sees that Glordon shares his same fears, but with his dad. By the end of the movie, Elio learns that his aunt loves him and would even jump in a dinky-looking spaceship for him, and Glordon realizes his dad will love him no matter what he wants to do with his life. Ambassador Questa sums it up nicely towards the end, telling Elio, "Unique can sometimes feel like alone, but you're not alone." And now we're crying again!