Is humanity alone in the universe?
In Pixar’s Elio, that’s the question that keeps 11-year-old orphan Elio Solís (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) up at night. Not because the idea of aliens worries him, but because he desperately wants them to abduct him from his unhappy life on Earth.
Thankfully for Elio, aliens do come calling, whisking him off to the colorful, imaginative “Communiverse” that fits right at home alongside other memorable Pixar worlds, like Coco‘s Land of the Dead, Riley’s brain in Inside Out, or Soul‘s Great Beyond. It’s a cosmic wonderland you can’t help but get lost in, but what astounds the most about Elio is its examination of its lead’s loneliness. Directors Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian (who directed the short Burrow) — taking over from original director Adrian Molina (Coco) — parallel humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life with Elio’s search for friendship. What follows is a sweet, empathetic look at how to find connection in the unlikeliest of places. That idea isn’t exactly new to Pixar — see: Up, WALL-E, and many more — but Elio‘s inventive setting and lovable main character help cast these eternal themes in a weird and wonderful new light.
What’s Elio about?
Credit: Pixar
Following the sudden loss of his parents, Elio lives on an Air Force base with his aunt, Major Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña). He spends his days seeking alien signals on his ham radio and lying in elaborate mini crop circles of his own design, each bearing the message, “Aliens! Abduct Me!” For Elio, getting abducted is an easier way to make friends than talking to anyone on Earth, especially since his peers don’t understand his fervent belief aliens are coming to get him.
Neither does Olga, who wasn’t prepared to raise a child, let alone one who’d rather spend his life in the stars. For Elio, space may offer the promise of friendship, but for Olga, space represents a dream deferred. While her supervisors want her to take on the astronaut training program, she doesn’t know how to juggle that with taking care of Elio. Instead, she monitors space debris and insists that aliens don’t exist.
However, when a strange signal pings Olga’s base, Elio takes it as proof of alien contact and signals back, begging the aliens to come and get him. (In a precious move, he signs off humanity’s first contact with, “Bye, love you.”) It’s not long before the aliens beam him up to the Communiverse, a gathering of the finest ambassadors from all across space. These ambassadors believe Elio to be Earth’s leader, and who is he to tell them otherwise? Unfortunately, he’s joining up during a fraught time: The ultra-violent Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett) is bearing down on the Communiverse. In order to prove himself to the rest of the ambassadors, Elio decides to take on the responsibility of negotiator — a choice that kicks off a sweet friendship with Grigon’s son Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly), who wants nothing to do with his people’s warring ways.
Elio is a precious tale of friendship and family ties.
Credit: Pixar
Elio and Glordon’s blooming friendship becomes Elio‘s bedrock. With Glordon, Elio finds someone who doesn’t judge or pity him. And in Elio, Glordon finds someone who encourages him not to follow in his family’s warmongering footsteps. Their first meeting, initially framed as a frightening alien encounter, quickly gives way to the wonder of discovering a friend who sees you for who you truly are — not just for your tragic past or your family’s bloody conquests. Even when Elio decides Glordon could be a bargaining chip in his negotiations with Grigon, he loops him in on the plan instead of using him without his knowledge. That decision cements the two as a pair on equal footing, one whose dynamic comes with all the cheer and wonder of discovering a dear friend.
If Elio and Glordon’s story is one of a human and an alien finding instant connection, then Elio and Olga’s story is its mirror: that of two humans who have trouble connecting, but are working hard to find common ground. A lesser film could have made Olga a spiteful, reluctant guardian, but here, she puts in a lot of legwork to try to help her nephew. She speeds through parenting books in the hope of understanding him, and even her most “antagonistic” choice — sending him to a nearby military summer camp — comes from a place of what she thinks will help. Ultimately, though, in a touching tale of family reconciliation, Elio guides Olga to meet Elio on his level and vice versa.
Elio enriches these parallel stories of Elio finding his people with its focus on space exploration and humanity’s hunt for alien life. In the film’s first minutes, Elio learns about the Golden Record, a record on Voyager 1 and 2 that carries images and sounds from Earth. The hope for the Golden Record is that an alien civilization will play it and contact Earth, which is exactly what happens in the film! But even beyond plot relevance, the very act of reaching out into the vast loneliness of space recalls Elio’s own attempts to find a friend, as well as Olga’s attempts to bridge the gap between her and her nephew. In the end, whether you’re looking to the stars or your own family, Elio wants you to know that you can and will find your people — you just need to be open with them.
Pixar gets wonderfully weird in Elio.
Credit: Pixar
Shi and Sharafian take full advantage of Elio‘s sci-fi nature to deliver an extremely memorable crop of aliens. The members of the Communiverse are as varied as they come, from the diaphanous pink Ambassador Questa (voiced by Jameela Jamil) to the blocky boulder Ambassador Tegmen (voiced by Matthias Schweighöfer). Glordon is a star in his own right: a slug-like creature with spines, no eyes, and rings of teeth who still manages to be downright cute. (Think of him as a cousin to Mickey 17‘s scene-stealing creepers from earlier this year.)
That alien variety extends to the Communiverse itself, which, like its members, is a hodgepodge of different worlds across the universe. Highly advanced science labs, glowing forests, and majestic waterfalls (that double as restrooms) all come together to form an interstellar playground for Elio, Glordon, and the audience. That utopia contrasts nicely with Grigon’s warship, a hulking behemoth full of darkened halls and fallen alien species frozen in amber. No wonder Glordon wants out!
Pixar has tackled sci-fi before in films like WALL-E and Lightyear, but Shi and Sharafian dive further into alien hijinks in Elio. The highlight here is the addition of “cloning clay,” which triggers a plotline that recalls Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing — and isn’t afraid to get a bit frightening either! Take the third act, which features a touch of legitimate (albeit comedic) body horror that’s the most Pixar has surprised me since Turning Red candidly tackled periods. A sequence like Elio‘s foray into body horror could be risky, but at a time when Pixar continues to release sequels to its classics (see: the upcoming Toy Story 5 and Coco 2), these risks are exactly what the studio needs.
In the end, these risks also help Elio live up to its namesake, with a film that’s imaginative, playful, and the perfect amount of strange.
