Movie Review: Elio

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

Last year, I covered Inside Out 2, while im kinda nitpicky on this sequel for being similar as the first one, but in fairness, at least its a pretty good movie with nice message and even new characters that we enjoy and it made a Beaucoup bucks at the box-office that it became the Number 1 Highest-Grossest Animated Film of All Time, right up until it got destroyed by Ne Zha 2 by doubling box-office result less than a year later. (Ouch…!) I know it sucks for both Disney and Pixar, but hey, at least Pixar made a comeback to get back on their feet for more projects, once of which happens be… Another movie about alien abduction since like 3 months ago?

“Elio” is a 2025 Sci-Fi Action movie that was written/directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, produced by Mary Alice Drumm and co-written by Julia Cho (both screenplay and story), Mark Hammer and Mike Jones.

The idea of this movie came from the mind of Adrian Molina, after worked as a co-director with Coco, he was highly anticipating for making his project as a sole director (and story writer) and Mary Alice Drumm teamed up as a producer. Molina said the idea of his movie came from his childhood when he used to live in a military base, but being there isn’t so easy when he was young due to dealing with social isolation before he was enrolled at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) to befriend with students, as one of director Madeline Sharafian called Adrian’s experience “he felt like he'd found his people there, he'd found his world”. While Adrian working his passion project, but he wasn’t be able to keep going halfway through development, thus leaving him bowing out of project to working on “Coco 2” (Aw come on, is that really necessary after a perfectly emotional ending??), thus the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, Pete Doctor, announced that, while Adrian Molina still credited, the aforementioned Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi (yup, the same director who gave us Turning Red) stepped in as both writer (for story) and directors continue the project (Am I start noticing a pattern since the making of Brave?).

So, with all that said, is discovering aliens from different planets will be a fun trip, or is this film we’d rather stay in home planet with isolation?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

For a movie about a kid who wants to be abducted by aliens to see something cool outside of Earth, you think the story of this movie would be something adventurous to learn something outside of Earth along with dealing with serious issue? Well… Kind of…

The movie begins in a flashback where we introduced our main kid Elio Solis, who lives with his Air Force major aunt Olga after his parents tragically died. While he’s living with her after the unfortunate moment, he wandered on his own to curiously see space probe Voyager 1, which left him both surprised and curious that he wishes to going out in outer space, much to dismay to his aunt when she gave up her dream to becoming an astronaut for the focus of family. Fast Forward to couple years later, now aged 11, Elio becomes obsessed not just wishing to going in outer space, but also wanting to be abducted by aliens, by laying on the beach with message in waiting, but to no avail, that is until when everything going down from getting bullied by two boys that left Elio a left eye’s injury for two weeks to sneaking in emergency meeting room in his attempt to sending message to the discovered proof of aliens (due to Voyager 1 got captured), which his message sent ended up causing a power outage, which it nearly losing Olga’s job, which she punished him by sending him to the youth camp, much to dismay to Elio when the same bullies are there. But one night, Elio is running away from the bullies who’re trying to beating him up, but then, his dream comes true when he witnessed the light that he got abducted by aliens in a planetary ship called “Communiverse” as an “Ambassador of Earth” to welcoming the other aliens. But at the same time, he also noticed the emergency about an evil warlord named “Lord Grigon” who’s posing a threat against Communiverse because of being rejected due to his menace, hence his invasion with against Communiverse, its up to Elio to find the way stop the intergalactic warlord to bring peace.

I find the story to be… Alright, while it feels just like one of those movies about a kid discover an alien (name a single film that has that), but the execution is actually nice to do the opposite, instead of alien lands on Earth, here, its the kid lands on aliens’ planetary ship for his dream of being abducted. While its fun to see this moment in the second half of his first discovering aliens, but later on, it goes into trying to prevent the invasion on Communiverse in attempt to bring peace, which while it maybe nice, but the execution felt underwhelming with obvious cliché. But despite my nitpick of cliché, the movie does have a heart moment due to the subject of the plot element, its to dealing with social isolation problem, which is not hard to see why Elio’s struggle came from Molina’s idea from his childhood struggle with same subject, which il give a credit what they came up and its probably relatable, especially when its even more difficult without the parents when they died, even if it felt like they took the similar development from Lilo and Stitch, but with different plot. Despite some copycat, at least il give a credit what they’re trying for the mix of caring of be like a family and share the struggle of social isolation, even if some of the writing can be good, but other times it could get underwhelming. As for the humor of this movie? Well, I find the jokes to be… Trying too hard. Sure, I did have a chuckle with some good joke, but most of them are trying, like a little too hard that, again the writing is a mixed bad that it can work, but others, didn’t work that well.

While I may like the story to be similar but with the opposite, along with nice message to gave a heart moment and some okay jokes, but its just that the execution is underwhelming from obvious cliché and felt like its kind of done before.

The Animation

I think its safe the say that the budget is more gearing towards the presentation than the writing. Anyway, the movie’s budget costed $150M, which is kind of high for development, but holy Christmas, the movie’s presentation looks so amazing what they gave.

For starter, the background went from simply to beautifully well-crafted presentation of the world building. In Earth, It looks pretty nice and simple from small town to the forest with camp youth, its a nice and fresh air in Earth’s presentation, along with the setting in Olga’s workplace. But when we’re leaving planet Earth… Oh man, it shows its true color, while going in space is simple, but beautiful at the same time, but that’s just an appetizer. But when we entering Communiverse, this is where the creativity and the beauty show us, the planetary ship itself is amazing that it has colorful settings in which rooms like the fountain room (despite its cheaply joked that its a toilet, because of flushing), the cloning room and many others, giving them a unique life-like design of the sets in this ship. There’s also Grigon’s ship, while it looks nice design for dark and deadly from each rooms or death traps, but its more of a pass.

What makes this movie also amazing its the effects and the quality, mainly for going into space with lighting of bright stars and fade quality, especially with the presentation of space and planets during the opening’s flashback. But like I said, the Communiverse is even more fascinating, not just the ship itself, but the effects like the fountain water, a cloning with obviously made in squash and stretch (which makes sense) and even unique quality effect from either ship or some of the alien designs.

Speaking of the latter, the character designs and the animation are also nice and creative. While the human designs are there (though perhaps the same design style from either Turning Red or even Luca), but they’re not bad to say the least (yeah yeah, go ahead, laugh at me all you want just because we keep bringing up CalArts design since 2010s, but not everything is bad). But the alien designs are a new level, for starter, they proclaimed that the alien designs are based on microscopic plants or animals to capture both oddity and believable vibe, some examples like Grigon’s species are made in a difficulty balance of cute and creepy, which il give a credit where one of them could be terrifying to giving them in a robot suit, but outside of it, its probably cute, even if creepy at the same time. Another creative design they made is OOOOO, which is made of liquid shapeshifting supercomputer, which I find it both cute and creative, but animating is also a challenge based on its effect from 2D facial to shapeshifting effects, especially when the facial rigging and technique were brought up from Pixar’s first series “Win or Lose”. Finally, the animation is still pretty good for humans being normal and realistic movements (for the most part) to smooth, creative and unique for the aliens.

Its no stranger that the animation is the highlight for pretty cool and creative designs and even a beautiful world building and the quality.

The Characters

While the world both in Earth and outside like Communiverse, we expecting to have some promising, cute and likable characters in this movie? Well, based on the writing, yes and no.

Lets start off with our title character, Elio Solis (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), the main kid who’s struggled with social isolation ever since his parents died that he has to live with his aunt, that is until going into space, mainly abducted by aliens in his dream, despite some people (like his aunt and the bullies are questioning his dream. But once he does get abducted, he went from struggling kid and dreamer to overly exciting, but also naïve to thinking himself as the ambassador of Earth, which his pretending as a big deal from Earth would be a huge risk, the fact that he’s probably too young to understand about many things in space and aliens, even if he likes to hanging out or even helping them. I find him to be fairly descend, he’s more of dreamer and naïve that he should’ve learn a reality check, despite he’s trying of get off his head of tragic past and his isolation. While I find him to be an okay character, despite we can relate the struggle, but il give a credit for the young teenage Yonas for his good performance.

Next we have Olga Solis (voiced by Zoe Saldana, aka Gamora in MCU and aka Uhura from Star Trek reboot), she’s Elio’s aunt who works as a major in Air Force, who’s once originally going to be an astronaut, but dropped the plan in the name of FAMILY. The best way to describing her is she’s somewhat similar to Nani from Lilo and Stitch, a struggled aunt who’s trying to stay in the business careful because of her nephew that could cause trouble. Except the difference between Nani and Olga is that when Elio was abducted and replaced by the clone version of Elio, it feels like his regret of being heard on his nephew is thrown out of window (perhaps she’ll apologize, but not going to the SPOILER detail), while Nani is struggling to taking care of her little sister Lilo in difficulty connection of “Ohana” (aka FAMILY). But then again, I understand the movie is focusing on Elio, but it would be nice to give a little more chemistry between Olga and his nephew, making her the poor man version of Nani. Though im not gonna take personal on Zoe, cause once again, she did a good work of her performance, since I mentioned her in couple of my reviews like two Guardians of the Galaxy and the third installment of Star Trek reboot.

Then we have Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly), an alien worm who’s the son of Lord Grigon who’s left alone bellow the ship before eventually befriend with Elio. I think he’s meant to be a comic relief in the movie from curious and fun fella that he likes to know about Communiverse when Elio met him. Though I find him to be pretty cute in the movie when he’s a young work, but as a comedic role, its a “meh”, I did have a chuckle of his moment, but others are low-brow. But like Yonas, il give a credit for nice performance to a new young actor Remy.

And lastly, we have Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett) the main antagonist of the movie who’s trying to taking down Communiverse because of the rejection from his threatening appearance with his high-tech armor, which it drive him made for his threat. I find him to be an average villain in the movie, he’s just a typical villain who’s angry for being rejected for being a menace for the way he develops or he looks, though one thing that he should’ve pay attention is his son, its as if he treats his son like nothing happened when he’s planning for a war at Communiverse. While he looks pretty cool, but the way he’s written is average at best, but again, not gonna blame on Brad, I think he did a nice work of his role.

As for the rest, they’re just there for small bit of developments, there’s Helix (voiced by Brandon Moon) the ambassador of Falluvinum who’s curious but welcoming in his party nature, there’s Questa (voiced by Jameela Jamil) the ambassador of Gom who’s surprisingly an enjoyable character for me, due to being kind-hearted and learner from her ability of mind reading, Tegmen (voiced by Matthias Schweighöfer) the ambassador… Whichever the planet he came from (yeah, totally forgettable one…), Bryce and Caleb (voiced by Dylan Gilmer and Jake Getman) who’re the bullies toward Elio, and OOOOO (voiced by Shirley Henderson, aka Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter franchise) who’s a shapeshifting supercomputer who gives Elio (and viewers) to show us Communiverse, she’s another memorable character for creative design.

The characters in the movie have some fun moments and the actors did a good work of their voice performance, but when it comes to the characters how they’re written, they can be good one, but some are forgettable.

And now for my final opinion of this movie

Overall, Elio is a somewhat above average film at best.

Il give a credit for the idea of this movie, the message of struggling of social isolation, the world building of space and Communiverse, the animation look amazing, creative and colorful, some characters are alright and the voice acting are pretty good.

Though im aware some people may like this movie like high positive, but for me, while il give a credit, but the movie is suffered with numerous problems from story is good, but downhill afterwards, the writing could’ve gone better, the jokes are trying too hard and some characters like one villain just didn’t worked out for their potential or just a copycat.

Again, I know some people said its a recommend to watch this with friends, family or some who’re fans of space and aliens, that’s for those people, but for me personally, I recommend to watch this movie once and il let you draw your conclusion if its worth to watch or is it Pixar’s forgettable film. Even Disney themselves didn’t even bother to marketing this movie, making this as Pixar’s worst opening weekend’s box-office ever, and an early flop (Jeez, they went from comeback with Inside Out 2 and then this?? It feels like we’re going back to Pixar’s downhill).

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 6/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.