Over a year after its intended release, following a strike induced delay, Elio has finally reached it to our cinema screens. It marks Pixar's reasonably prompt return to the silver screen after their vastly successful release of Inside Out 2 with the sequel becoming the highest ever grossing animated film of all time (until being quickly surpassed by Ne Zha 2) as well as the studio's recent foray into developing series with Dream Productions and Win Or Lose releasing on Disney+ in the meantime. With the studio's recent successes, they're looking to make sure that the good will of the past year carries over to give their first original cinematic release since the less profitable Elemental came out in 2023. Elio's current forecast certainly isn't looking record breaking at the moment, but numbers aside, the film definitely deserves to be seen.
Pixar has certainly learned some lessons from the modest failures of Elemental, which while having a unique look, definitely didn't have a unique lesson to its story with it carrying on a very similar allegory of discrimination to Disney Animation's Zootopia/Zootropolis. Elio creates a characteristically original story where a young boy, the titular Elio (Yonas Kibreab), is orphaned and looked after by his military aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), due to his tragic living situation, he doesn't feel like he belongs on this planet. After stumbling upon the knowledge of a message that was sent out to seek otherworldly life forms launched by unified Earth governments, Elio becomes obsessed with communing with alien life himself and requesting an abduction. After a series of events, he discovers aliens do in fact exist and accidentally cons an alien version of the United Nations, known as the Communiverse, into thinking he is the leader of Earth. To become a member of the Communiverse, Elio is asked to placate the warmonger, Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), who has been refused entry to the union due to his people's militant nature. In Elio's efforts to broker a peace deal, he makes a new friend, the alien worm Glordon (Remy Edgerly), and together they learn the power of friendship, of parental love and what it means to belong.
Disney's plucky animation studio certainly haven't lost their magic when it comes to their animation abilities. As per all of their projects, Elio's animation is stunning. There are some moments that look utterly life like whereas there are many others that are completely beyond imagination. One example of this is the Communiverse itself which contains some of the most varied designs of alien life and locations that have ever been seen on screen. They even manage to find a way to make going through hyperspace NOT look like the Doctor Who opening credits. The animators' attention to detail and love for the craft leaks off of every frame. It's a spectacle worth seeing on the big screen for sure, however, Elio's human character designs show the continuation of a disappointing fall into uniformity and almost blandness. The humans look no different to the characters that are seen in the likes of Turning Red, Luca and Win Or Lose. Granted, there's only so many ways people can be drawn but Pixar's older films used to have more of a personal identity, now it feels like the studio is starting to use the old Disney techniques of recycling character designs.
Something that Pixar rarely fails to excel in is emotional impact, and their tradition of flooding cinema screens certainly doesn't end here. Elio's story covers themes that are bound to connect with many an audience member, including friendship, parenthood, belonging and loneliness. With that in mind, it's clear that there are many emotional moments to be had in this quick ninety minute runtime. Whether it be Elio's aunt trying to fill the hole left by his deceased parents, a parent easily being able to tell his child from its clone copy simply because "a father always knows" or simply the repeated use of the famous Uh-Earth phrase "Ok bye, love you", Elio is bound to tug at at least a few heartstrings of even the coldest of hearts. These moments are given their impact by a great script penned by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones but also some stellar voice acting performances from the whole cast but especially Yonas Kibreab in a star making role as the titular hero and Brad Garrett as the film's antagonist.
However, with all that being said, it does feel like Elio is missing something. If this were a film made by any other western animation studio, this would be one of, if not their best projects. Though because we're talking about Pixar, it's hard not to compare this to their earlier, legendary works, like The Incredibles, Toy Story and Monsters Inc. as well as more recent greats like Soul and Turning Red. For one thing, Elio does feel like it's aiming more for a younger audience, the messages of the film are far less subtle than in their pre-2012 films and a lot of the jokes feel less mature. Granted there are some quite creepy moments in the film that may be too much for some much younger viewers to handle but there's nothing like the moral complexity of The Incredibles. It feels funny to say that a film that's main plot centres around intergalactic geo-politics and diplomacy is less mature than a film about two monsters trying to get a little girl to her real parents or a gang of toys wanting to be played with more, but those are just the facts. Elio is certainly not going to be a film that will bore parents, there is a joke or two and one (frankly obligatory) reference to Terminator 2: Judgement Day that will fly over the heads of children, but it's not going to be a film that will be revisited as quickly when said parents' children get older.
Elio retains Pixar's seal of quality with its stunning animation, heartwarming story and emotional tear jerking moments. However, it also continues the studio's recent trend to be more clinical and slightly less original than the studio used to be in its youth. It's destined to be one of the best animations of this year and is fun for the whole family for sure, but Pixar super fans may not be left quite as satisfied as the younger audience the film is clearly trying to appeal to.
★★★1/2
Elio releases in UK cinemas on June 20th
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