Elio

Chances are, you may remember the classic film, Lilo and Stitch. And no, I am not talking about the live-action remake. We all know how it’s about how a young girl and her older sister, who have been grappling with a family travesty, had their lives turned upside down when an alien crept into their lives. From there, the young girl and the alien formed a bond, setting off a chain of events that tested their newfound friendship while helping the girl and her sister work out the dilemmas they struggled with.

I bring this up because Elio almost felt like the reverse. Almost.

For a while, Disney’s been on a bit of a dry streak in terms of original content. However, it’s been gaining momentum lately, partly thanks to this new film. Originally, Elio was meant to come out early last year, but it had to be shelved for another year due to creative renegotiations. Well, for the most part, despite not being a top-tier Pixar movie, I can say that this film is still quite commendable due to the imaginative story it proposed and the creative adventures that unfolded once it got the ball rolling.

The story was about a young boy named Elio Solís, who had to live with his aunt, Olga, after his parents died. And just to be clear, his father was Olga’s brother. But Olga was more than just her guardian. She also worked as an Air Force Major at the Montez Air Force Base, so she had to uphold her duties in this manner while tolerating Elio’s fascination with extraterrestrial life and wanting to be abducted, which weirded her out. So, when his experimentations went awry, Olga sent him off to a boys’ camp, Camp Carver, which, unfortunately, included some boys whom Elio had accidentally injured earlier during one of his latest experiments, who were out to get revenge on him.

But just before they could have delivered the final blow to Elio, he found himself surrounded by a large beam of light that stopped the boys dead in their tracks.

What happened was that earlier in the movie and back at the Montez Air Force Base, Elio suspected the likelihood of communication with other life forms out in space, mainly after he witnessed some unusual transmissions that were not of this world. Excited by this idea, Elio decided to make his own message and send it out into space, hoping that someone or something out there could receive and respond to it.

With the beam of light surrounding him, Elio caught on that whatever was out there, yes, they did receive his message. After being transported away from planet Earth, he ventured into an intergalactic establishment called the Communiverse, which felt like the space equivalent of the United Nations. Many different aliens gathered from various parts of the universe to discuss and decide on the actions to be taken to benefit those involved in such an organization. More overjoyed than overwhelmed by this discovery, Elio set off on an adventure exploring all the ins and outs of this facility, even passing himself off as the ambassador of Earth after the Communiverse board thought of him as such.

However, Elio caught the attention of one particular alien, Lord Grigon. He sought to be accepted onto the board but was denied due to his track record of widespread interplanetary encroachment. To appease his new friends, his ‘position’ as the ambassador of Earth prompted him to volunteer in reasoning with Lord Grigon. His attempts backfired until he crossed paths with Grigon’s son, the quote-unquote prince named Glordon, who did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps of being the next killer and warlord.

So, as they both attempted to ward Grigon off and set him on the right path, their negotiations soon caught his attention. Soon enough, Elio’s activities got to the point where they trickled into Earth’s radar, especially that of Aunt Olga, who was previously unaware that Elio had already been transported into space. But it was because Elio sent a clone made from alien goo to take his place. That’s another story.

So, as it sounds, the plot may be a little complicated, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t offer a variety of fun subjects to tackle when it came to the idea of a boy being taken to outer space rather than an alien coming to him on planet Earth.

This leads me to highlight two things about the movie that contributed to its ingenuity.

One, whenever we hear of humans being abducted by aliens, they usually highlighted it as something to be dreaded. But here, Elio was desperately hoping to be abducted by aliens so he could’ve taken the chance to get to know them better. Granted, his obsession with wanting to be abducted was what made him a slight outcast in his community, but his commitment to this unexplored cause spoke volumes. And when he was taken into the Communiverse through the beam of light, he reacted to it like he had won the jackpot.

And two, with most family movies, it’s usually about an alien who got stranded on Earth and met a human with whom they shared a deep friendship, like E.T. and The Iron Giant. Here, it’s about a boy coming into an alien world, and only then did the friendship between the boy and the alien begin to blossom. This time, however, the alien did the hiding, specifically of Elio, and he attempted to hide him from his father after he and Elio started things off on the wrong foot, and after Elio had already made a good impression with the rest of the Communiverse. That alone felt like new territory worth exploring, especially for Disney and Pixar.

Of course, I’d be lying if I said it did not have a few bumps in the road.

For one thing, despite them feeling very expressive and fittingly animated, the animation of the human characters made them look a tad too exaggerated to sustain any dignity from the human end of the story, especially when it had the characters grappling with something as severe as the death of Elio’s parents. The colors were nice, and they helped convey both the locations back on Earth and the branches of the Communiverse with a distinct flair. However, part of it felt loopy, mostly from Pixar’s end.

On top of that, as to how Elio’s parents’ deaths came about and why it left such a big dent on Elio and his aunt’s lives, it’s never been elaborated on enough, outside of his parents having died in some potential accident. So there’s no telling exactly what happened that would have taken the lives of Elio’s parents so suddenly and left him and his aunt to fend for themselves.

And two, hopping over to Lord Grigon, it’s been said that he had a background of being a ruthless warlord who potentially overtook many different planets. And that was probably the closest thing to an explanation of why he was deemed unfit to join the Communiverse board. I don’t know if they disallowed him from joining because he had reportedly slaughtered different aliens on other planets before, planets that were part of the interplanetary board or something similar, but a little more exposition on him and his background would have been helpful. Yet, I will say that I did sense part of that from Glordon’s disillusionment with their goals and his desire to set himself apart from his father and ancestors.

But that’s not all. For the first two-thirds of the film, Lord Grigon’s track record, as well as his design, did help make him more unnerving as a bad guy. In which case, this was probably the closest Disney or Pixar have ever come to introducing us to a genuinely villainous character in a long time. Disney attempted to do that with Wish in the form of King Magnifico, and even then, that felt uneven and poorly executed. But here, despite the twist at the end, he still came across as a generally intimidating, if also very standard, villain.

At first, I was surprised to see that this film planned to incorporate horror elements into the mix, considering Pixar’s usual approach. But as is, I’d say it was more of an occasional scare that the movie pulled off, and even then, they felt a touch tagged on. The closest I’d ever seen to that was when Glordon opened his mouth to reveal several sets of jaws of pointed teeth, and he opened his mouth this way to let Elio in to save him from an incoming wave of lava. It was creepy, and seeing that from someone who was otherwise a cutesy alien character did seem refreshing. Plus, there was one moment when Elio’s clone continued to set up a distraction for the real Elio and snuck up on some guards in a manner reminiscent of the jump scare technique the old-school horror films used. That was a good start, but if Elio, the movie, wanted to push through and embody more of the genre into the film, perhaps it could have used it on Lord Grigon and his army of aliens as they enacted mass colonization across the galaxy. It could have helped boost his petty goals and alleged villainy before revealing more truths about him and his family. That, and what other alien races would have been just as unnerving, if not less so, than Lord Grigon? The last time I recall Pixar utilizing straight-up horror techniques was with Toy Story of Terror. If Elio had used such genre tactics where appropriate, maybe it would have worked and taken Pixar animation to new, uncharted territory.

Now, there is one major aspect for which I have to give the movie props: the designs.

While the designs of the humans featured enough stylization to set each character apart from the others, their features did feel a touch questionable. The designs of the aliens, on the other hand, left the deepest mark on this movie. Each of the aliens carried a much stronger, more distinct design and functionality that made them as imaginative as they were space-like. Dare I say it, I would say their designs were nearly on par with the alien designs I remember from Treasure Planet and yes, even Lilo and Stitch. These aliens felt like the kind of extraterrestrial life you can see populating the solar system, as well as the kind that you could see being highly intelligent and managing to communicate with other alien races, no matter their backgrounds.

Even Ooooo, the guide who led Elio throughout the Communiverse, was an alien who happened to be a living supercomputer made from water. How advanced, yet unearthly, does that sound? And does it not make you want to look deeper into this type of creature, or the others who shared the Communiverse with her, just to take a peek into their species, their home planets, their home universe, and so on? It invited us to ponder the possibilities we could achieve by interacting with foreign, potentially advanced alien species that could exist somewhere in space but function differently from us. In addition, their general functionalities regarding commodities and home use were very imaginative and fitting for alien life, especially since we don’t know precisely what alien life forms could exist in the universe and what their necessities would be like.

Hopping over the characters, how were they like?

Starting with Elio, he embodied the type of imaginative boy who was fascinated by what drew him in about outer space and had done everything it took to fulfill his needs for exploration. As for what he meant to accomplish, it makde the genre subversions felt as beneficial for him as a character as it was for the story. Of course, by the time Elio got his wish, he had put himself in far more complicated waters than he bargained for. But he was still willing to do whatever it took to prove himself as a worthy, quote, ‘ambassador’ of Earth. Now, I saw that one coming: the idea that he was not an ambassador of Earth and had been drawn into the alien business because he wanted to be involved in such affairs. However, it was interesting to see him go through all those adventures with the aliens, especially as he attempted to adjust to alien life and grappled with his parents’ deaths when he wasn’t worrying about that.

Glordon was a generally fun character made more unique with his alien design and the intimidating look he could have given once his mouth was wide open. On the surface, he would have appeared to be a cute yet intimidating alien creature. However, due to his peer pressure and parental issues, I could have sensed what he was struggling with regarding living up to his father’s image and balancing it with what he wanted. And because Lord Grigon was a warlord first and a father second, I could’ve told just what kind of parental relationship he had and why it was not sitting well with him.

Elio’s aunt, Olga, seemed like a standard aunt who tried and sometimes failed to understand Elio, his fascination with space, and his desire to be abducted by aliens. However, when you consider what she was going through — reeling from the death of her brother and sister-in-law, and having to maintain her duties at the Air Force — it made her frustrations with the easily excitable and out-of-the-ordinary Elio suddenly feel more understandable. It was partially why the movie reminded me of Lilo & Stitch; parts of Olga reminded me of Nani when she dealt with Lilo. So, I must give the film credit for effectively demonstrating that struggle.

Of course, besides the unnecessary stylizing of the animation on the humans, my only complaint about this movie was that most of the accompanying alien ambassadors had generally standard personalities. And it felt like a missed opportunity because I remember characters like Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po in Mulan, as well as the chef staff in Ratatouille, and all of them left distinct and memorable personalities despite their limited time. But here, they barely had any personality, with a couple of exceptions. One was Helix, who, when I heard him, spoke with a slightly sophisticated dialect that sounded like a childish version of Zazu from The Lion King. The other alien I remember most was the head of the Communiverse, Questa, a reddish, somewhat Mothra-like creature. She seemed like the kind of leader who knew what had to be done for the intergalactic community or in the name of the Communiverse.

Speaking of which, the one thing I remember most is their designs, which, as I said, painted them in a more foreign and imaginative light. And it made them seem like bigger missed opportunities than they initially appeared because their cooperative positions sparked my interest in learning more about them and the planets and/or universes they came from. What were their lifestyles and worlds like outside their social gatherings in the Communiverse? What were each of their habitats like? How did they breathe? How did they eat? What did they eat? What did they drink? How did they drink? All those questions would have benefited the characters had the movie shed some light on them, but I don’t think the film was given enough time to provide these characters with the exposition they could have benefited from.

Outside of the aliens’ designs and intergalactic community, however, I remember some of the gadgets for how remarkably inventive they were. Let’s go back to what I mentioned about Elio making a clone of himself. That’s because he discovered a tub of alien goo that Ooooo told him he could have used to create an exact copy of himself as he desired. That gave him the idea to make another Elio out of himself and use him as his backup buddy to keep Aunt Olga occupied and happy while he continued to explore the Communiverse. And at one point, during one of his and Glordon’s escape attempts, they also attempted to use that goo on Glordon to distract Lord Grigon while they were trying to sneak past him. 

Furthermore, although the aliens spoke English to Elio when he first ventured there, that was because he was given a complimentary badge that he could wear. Once he wore it, it would have helped translate what he heard from the aliens into a language he understood, hence English. That kind of technology from the Communiverse honed the movie’s imaginative nature and world-building.

Of course, the parallels between Elio and Olga and Glordon and Lord Grigon highlighted the connecting strengths they each would have shared and how alike or unalike humanity could have been from other alien races in the solar system or the universe. While Elio and his relationship with his aunt, combined with their grief for the death of his parents, hit closer to home because of how relatable it was, it still felt intriguing to get to hear that kind of dilemma presented with Glordon and his father. In fact, by the time this connection was made more evident in the movie, Lord Grigon, despite his somewhat villainous and intimidating demeanor, became very interesting because it begged the question: what exactly were his thoughts on his son? And were his main goals and priorities more important than him? The more that question crept into the open, the more intrigued I became; I wanted to see how this supposedly villainous character established his relationship with his son and what that would have done to him. That, and he mentioned how he wondered what his mother would have thought about Glordon. It tied in some interesting threads of connectivity that juxtaposed nicely with Elio and his aunt’s journey to coping, while also emphasizing the kind of parental figure relationship Glordon shared with his father.

Fortunately, some of the other supporting characters in the movie were pretty memorable, too, and yes, that includes the human characters.

For example, Bryce was the most noticeable character who expressed support and compassion for Elio as he assisted him in his attempts to reach out to the aliens and be abducted by them. Even though he had his bad moments when he tried to get back at Elio, it was still apparent that he did not hold that major a grudge against Elio and was even uncertain about the necessity of going all out against Elio just for sending him and his buddy, Caleb, on a downhill turn.

In addition, I have the fondest memories of Gunther Melmac, one of Olga’s coworkers. He was a geeky guy with extensive knowledge about alien life forms and what other outgoing satellites could have been doing regarding receiving or sending messages. He went forth with a very energetic personality, fitting for a generally geeky character. And whenever he appeared in the movie, he went all out there with his personality, even if it was typically met with disbelief, like from Olga, or with uncertainty, like from Bryce.

As for the voice performances, they did a terrific job, too.

The boy who played Elio, Yonas Kibreab, sounded superb in capturing his childlike essence and energetic nature as he prepared to be picked up and escorted into space. This kind of focus heightened the likelihood of Elio seeming like the odd one out for expressing what would have been considerably irregular boyish behavior. Kibreab also captured some of the uncertainties and confusions of a young kid trapped in a world he was not familiar with and burdened with responsibilities he was unprepared for. Yet, through Elio’s tribulations, the inner commitment he expressed in Elio’s voice also clued me in to how he was sure of getting to the bottom of whatever issues were placed in his lap and wanted to prove himself as the reliable earthling he wanted his newfound alien buddies to believe he was, especially after bonding with Glordon.

Speaking of whom, Remy Edgerly felt like a cute bundle of energy when he did the voice of Glordon, and he made him sound about as likable and fun-loving as he was dejected when he had to talk about his relationship with his father. There’s a sense that his childlike performance was guaranteed to rope in the children. At the same time, the frustrated tone in his voice when his character was upfront about his problems signaled his inner troubles and what he’d grappled with, even before Elio came into the picture.

Zoe Saldaña voiced Elio’s aunt, Olga, and she carried just the right balance of frustration, exhaustion, confusion, and desperation in Olga’s voice as she tried to understand her nephew. Because she, too, grappled with the death of her brother and sister-in-law, she had a hard time attempting to look out for Elio, partially because of her commitment to the Air Force. Even Olga’s sense of professionalism, Saldaña expressed it through Olga as if she knew such struggles like the back of her hand. When she wasn’t busy with Elio or his shenanigans, she sounded at the top of her game regarding space studies and keeping the Air Force under control. Overall, Saldaña’s performance would’ve told you how much experience Olga had and what all she had on her plate outside of that.

Of all the actors who voiced the ambassador aliens within the Communiverse, my favorite would be Jameela Jamil as Questa. Notwithstanding her unearthly alien features, her graceful tone, voice, and commanding instincts highlighted how much of a leader she demonstrated herself to be for the Communiverse. Whatever her background, no matter where she came from or her upbringing, Jamil still maintained the level of consideration, thoughtfulness, and leadership skills to sharpen Questa’s position within the Communiversal community, if you will.

And I find Gunther Melmac so memorable, outside of his enthusiastic personality, thanks to Brendan Hunt’s performance. I liked how over the top he was in conveying the excitement of someone who knew a lot about outer space and intergalactic messaging, just like Elio. It almost made me wish that he did more scenes with the other actors in the movie to see how well he would have worked off of them.

However, my favorite performance from the movie is Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon. He went all out in expressing his gravelly voice and being outgoing whenever he played his character, specifically when he was in a conquest mood. He helped give his character a more villainous overtone while also sneaking in enough vulnerability to demonstrate what was troubling him deep down and what was truly at stake for him in terms of who he loved and what he was after. Garrett sounded like he had fun with his character while adding layers to his character and his voice that would have opened our eyes to who he was and what was most precious to him.

This movie has had its share of controversy, but its most noticeable issue wasn’t that it had the lowest-grossing opening for a Pixar film. It turned out that the reason it had been delayed for a year was that the initial test screenings were wary about the original cut that Adrian Molina directed of Elio, which featured queer themes. Among such scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor were Elio showing off a pink tank top and having framed pictures of male crushes. Judging from what little they declassified about Elio’s initial characterizations in that cut, it sounded like Elio was about to be Pixar’s own Steven Universe or something. Of course, while I hope that Disney and Pixar will introduce LGBTQ+ characters soon, I’m a little on the fence about how significant a loss this was for Elio. Because Elio was already considered oddball because of his goal to be abducted by aliens as a means of space exploration, I don’t know if Elio’s sexuality would’ve added anything significant to the story outside of having the movie be about a male character who just happened to be queer, which I usually welcome.

But wait! There’s more. One other part of the movie that might blow you away, as it had blown me away, is the differences in Elio’s directorial approach. And you might get a pretty clear idea of that when you look at their trailers and what each set of them reveals about Elio’s potential canvas as a movie.

Here’s the first one ever released of Elio that came out as far back as September 2023…

…and here’s a trailer promoting the Elio that we ended up with.

Yes, the characters and animation may be the same, but the differences in the story threads, conflict, blood relations, and even in some of the personalities are like night and day.

For starters, watching Elio suddenly be nerve-racked about being transported into space and the Communiverse gave the impression that the new location would’ve taken some getting used to. As for how the Communiverse ended up in the movie, from the moment we lay eyes on it, it made us want to explore the new location rather than question it as Elio did in the original trailer. Plus, as I said earlier about alien abductions, watching Elio want to be abducted by aliens was a fresh approach to the classic alien abduction story techniques that we’re so used to. It makes the original Elio’s reactions to being transported into space and the Communiverse look more standard, like it left me thinking, “been there, done that”.

Plus, Olga was not only Elio’s mother in the original cut, but it appears that she was married. That makes me wonder how Olga ended up in the final cut. What happened to her husband and Elio’s uncle? And was she even married in the movie? If she ended up unmarried, that would explain Olga’s attempts to be Elio’s surrogate mother despite Elio being a handful, especially after she had already become a respected Air Force Major. Plus, it was said that America Ferrera would have done the voice role before Zoe Saldaña stepped in. What would Ferrera have provided vocally to Olga’s character that went missing in Saldaña’s performance?

But that’s nothing compared to Lord Grigon. Revisiting the initial trailer, I am dumbstruck by how he was part of the Communiverse board in the original cut, and also that he was somewhat of an anti-heroic buddy figure to Elio. I’m beginning to wonder now whether Glordon was even in the original cut anywhere. All I know is that having Lord Grigon start as a villainous figure only to reveal more layers to his character concerning his devotion as a father provided more of an engaging character arc for him, as well as the proper conflict once Elio’s friendship with his son was brought into focus.

At this rate, I don’t know if the changes made to the movie ultimately neutered it in the long run or if they were for the best.

Who knows? With any luck, maybe Adrian Molina’s original director’s cut of Elio, with the original intended themes, will be released and reinstate what Molina meant to convey about Elio. Only time will tell whether it would have improved the movie.

Outside of all this craziness, however, this movie was a breath of fresh air, albeit one that could have used some fine-tuning.

The ideas were imaginative, the designs were strikingly otherworldly, the characters – eight times out of 10 – were likable, the voice acting glided with the uncertain territory in stride, and the movie’s themes of whether we truly are alone, either on Earth or in the universe, reinforced the idea of connections between humans and extraterrestrial life while presenting it through more meaningful and thought-provoking angles. I wish this film was more in line with Wall-E in terms of complex and fascinating space explorations, or that the animation of the humans was more akin to that of Ratatouille, Soul, or even the Inside Out movies. But for what we have, it’s still a fun family film that introduced some fresh new ideas into the mix and became all the better for it, even if it wasn’t enough to propel this movie to the same level as some of Disney and Pixar’s other masterpieces.

Soar into this movie and see what you can explore out of this gem.

My Rating

A low A-

Works Cited

McLeod, Kyle. “Pixar Director’s ‘Horror’ Promise Has Me Even More Convinced Elio Will Be The Studio’s Best Original Movie Since Inside Out 9 Years Ago.” ScreenRant, 24 Nov. 2024, screenrant.com/pixar-elio-director-horror-movie-references-op-ed/.

Solorzano, Anthony. “Pixar’s ‘Elio’ Reportedly Stripped of Queer Representation After Test Screenings.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2025, www.latimes.com/delos/story/2025-07-03/pixar-elio-adrian-molina-pete-docter-lgbtq-latinx.