{"id":12195,"date":"2025-06-21T22:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T02:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12195"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:31:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:31:51","slug":"elio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/21\/elio\/","title":{"rendered":"Elio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Elio<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Sci-Fi-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some action\/peril, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rob Simonsen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Derek Williams and Jordan Rempel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 20, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Gilmer, Jake Getman, Brendan Hunt, Matthias Schweighofer, Brandon Moon, Naomi Watanabe, Ana de la Reguera, Anissa Borrego.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s nothing actually wrong with the new Pixar film Elio<\/strong>; it\u2019s just that it recycles a lot of the same themes as some of the studio\u2019s other movies- e.g. family, loss, loneliness and self-isolation. It\u2019s utterly predictable right down to the schmaltzy ending. I\u2019ll give it this though; its heart is in the right place. It\u2019s not one of those cynical cash-grab deals made for the sole purpose of drawing kids to cinemas with their unenthusiastic parents in tow. It\u2019s better than that albeit not by a whole lot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The young protagonist of the title is a boy (Kibreab, Sweet Tooth) living with his Aunt Olga (Saldana, Avatar) after the death of his parents. Feeling isolated and alone, Elio becomes obsessed with the idea of being whisked away by aliens to live on another planet. He\u2019s doesn\u2019t fit in with his peers and he doesn\u2019t feel close to his aunt. He wants to be anywhere but here. He writes messages in the sand on a beach inviting aliens to abduct him. He acquires ham radio equipment in an attempt to contact them himself. He\u2019s one determined lad.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Aunt Olga happens to be a major in the Air Force. Elio is at her workplace when one of the computer techs, a conspiracy theorist named Melmac (Hunt, Ted Lasso), claims that aliens have finally responded to the message sent into the reaches of space by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977 (the same one from 1984\u2019s Starman). His colleagues think he\u2019s crazy. Elio overhears it all and responds to the message when nobody\u2019s looking. Not long after, he gets his wish granted when aliens show up and take him to another planet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When he arrives, a council of aliens known as the Communiverse welcomes Elio to their ranks. They think he\u2019s an Earth leader and the boy doesn\u2019t correct them. Looking to impress his new friend, he agrees to negotiate with Lord Grigon (Garrett, The Pacifier), an evil warlord threatening to annihilate them if they don\u2019t grant his membership to the Communiverse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When negotiations fall apart, Elio decides to use Grigon\u2019s son Glordon (Edgerly, T.O.T.S.) as a bargaining chip. Glordon is a peaceful sort who\u2019s afraid to tell his dad he doesn\u2019t want to be a war machine when he comes of age. Elio kidnaps him and agrees to return him only if he promises to not attack the Communiverse. Along the way, the two form a friendship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Elio <\/strong>is directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (Coco). It\u2019s written by Julia Cho (Turning Red), Mark Hammer (Shotgun Wedding) and Mike Jones (Soul). They\u2019ve made a decent movie albeit one that covers familiar themes and beats. There\u2019s the whole disconnect between Aunt Olga and Elio. She\u2019s put her own dreams of being an astronaut on hold to raise Elio. She doesn\u2019t get Elio which frustrates them both. Consequently, he acts out. Didn\u2019t we just see something very similar to this in Lilo & Stitch? Then there\u2019s the whole father-son thing between Grigon and Glordon. We just saw that last week in How to Train Your Dragon. I know, it\u2019s not a Pixar movie, but still.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Two things save Elio<\/strong> from failure, the visual and emotional palettes. The alien design is quite striking. Same goes for the alien world. These scenes teem with color and vibrancy. Emotionally, it hits all the right marks. You will feel Elio\u2019s sense of loss as he tries to cope with a world that seemingly wants nothing to do with him. His isolation is palpable, especially to those who ever felt like they didn\u2019t fit in. Yes, I was definitely feeling it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The voice talents do a fine job bringing the animated characters to life. Kibreab makes you feel for his traumatized character, a boy who alienates others in his quest to find his place in another world. You can feel the love and frustration in Saldana\u2019s voice as her character does her best to care for her nephew despite having no clue how to communicate with a child. Garrett sounds like he\u2019s having fun as the villainous Grigon, really just a dad who loves his son but doesn\u2019t know how to show it. Edgerly is also very good as Glordon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn\u2019t mind Elio<\/strong>. It\u2019s a decent enough matinee movie for children. Parents won\u2019t mind it so much, but they might understandably mind the cost of tickets and concession stand. I can tell you this, it doesn\u2019t need to be seen in 3D. Now all you have to do is convince your kids of this. In any event, it\u2019s a good movie, but it\u2019s nothing to write home about. It\u2019s good not great Pixar.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elio (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Sci-Fi-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some action\/peril, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rob Simonsen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Derek Williams and Jordan Rempel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 20, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Shirley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Elio-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12198,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195\/revisions\/12198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}