Disney-Pixar’s newest animated feature film, “Elio,” opened in theaters and subsequently suffered the worst box office opening weekend the studio has seen. But is the movie actually bad?
Warning: This article contains spoilers.
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“Elio” Summary
“Elio” opens up as we see how Elio (Yonas Kibreab) struggles to adapt to his life under the guardianship of his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), as he suffers from the typical Disney main character ailment of having lost his parents. Whilst at an Air and Space museum, he discovers an exhibit about contacting aliens and becomes transfixed.
We jump forward a few years to find Elio skipping school and avoiding home to set up a sign written in sand on the beach asking to be abducted by aliens. This is apparently a daily activity of his, in addition to using a HAM radio to try to intercept any signals. He even lies about starting a HAM radio club to get other kids to bring their own equipment so he can get a better signal, culminating in a tussle that injures his eye.
His aunt has to bring him back to her work at a military base to keep an eye on him, but leaves him alone in her office to attend a meeting. Elio overhears that there’s a chance it’s about aliens and sneaks into the room to hear one of her coworkers talking about intercepting a signal (possibly being audio sent back from the Golden record that was sent with the Voyager 1 space probe). Elio recognizes this from the exhibit that began his fascination with aliens, and after everyone leaves the room, he sends a response with the satellites at the military base.
This is the final straw for Olga, as she decides that he needs to go to a youth camp to be better taken care of while she has to work. Whilst fleeing from some bullies on his first night there, they end up frozen as a light beams Elio up into an alien spacecraft that brings him to the Communiverse, a community of different aliens that, as ambassadors to their respective planets, gather here to share knowledge, technology, and recipes in peace. Having received Elio’s transmission, they mistake him for the leader of Earth and bring him to be a candidate to become Earth’s ambassador.
This kickstarts an ever-compounding series of lies as Elio desperately attempts to stay. However, Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) is being assessed before him, and as a war-mongering, aggressive alien, he is denied to be a part of the Communiverse, and blasts through the ceiling, threatening to take over by force. This leads everyone to panic and begin preparing to flee, as no one is brave enough to attempt to talk to Lord Grigon. Elio, being told that he will no longer be able to stay, volunteers to talk to Lord Grigon himself as a way to earn his spot in the Communiverse.
He then goes to Lord Grigon’s ship, where he stumbles his way through peace talks and ends up a prisoner. Using some technology given to him by the Communiverse, Elio sneaks out of his cell, but ends up falling into the chambers of Lord Grigon’s son, Glordon (Remy Edgerly). After a brief but impactful meeting, the two agree on a plan, and Glordon helps Elio escape the ship with him, pretending to use Glordon as a hostage to convince his father to leave the Communiverse.
Lord Grigon agrees, but secretly plans to still take over the Communiverse. While waiting for his father to come get him, Glordon is treated to the utopia that is the Communiverse by Elio, and they bond over a great time. Glordon reveals to Elio that he does not want to be the evil war machine his father wants him to be, and Elio hatches a plan to keep him there.
Earlier, a clone was made of Elio to be sent back to Earth in his place, so no one knew he was gone. Elio uses the same technology to make a clone of Glordon to send with his father. Everything goes according to plan until Grigon realizes something is off about his “son” and figures out he is a clone. This enrages him, and he begins to take over the Communiverse.
Using the mind reading capabilities of one of the Communiverse council members, Grigon forces them to read Elio’s mind to find where the real Glordon is, which they do, but also find out the truth about Elio. During the destruction of the Communiverse, Elio is sent through a portal back home to be spared. Meanwhile, Glordon panics about being found, and the ship he was hiding in takes off to Earth.
Elio returns to his aunt, who is relieved to have the real Elio back, as she knew almost right away that the Elio that was with her was not the real Elio. They have an emotional reunion where they finally open up to each other about some hard feelings, but then they see the ship Glordon was hiding in crash down to earth. Elio realizes they need to help Glordon, so with the help of his aunt and a horrifying deteriorating clone, they sneak onto the military base and find the ship where Glordon is, which is too cold, as he requires a higher temperature to survive.
As they escape the base and narrowly pilot through the spacecraft debris of our atmosphere, Glordon is barely hanging on when they finally make it to the Communiverse. They rush him to his father, who willingly disgraces himself by exiting his war machine carapace robot to wrap up his son in silk to warm and save him. After Elio explains things and Glordon speaks up to his father about his true feelings, Grigon agrees to leave the Communiverse alone. Elio, even though being approved to be the ambassador for saving the day, chooses to return to Earth to live with his aunt, but keeps in touch with Glordon with his HAM radio.
Review
In true Pixar fashion, the strongest point of Elio is the emotional impact. The story follows both sides of the struggle in Elio and Olga’s situation. Watching Olga struggle to care for a child that, though she loves, was thrust into her life and she wasn’t prepared to care for. And Elio struggles with seeing what his presence is doing to Olga’s life, and that feeling of not being wanted festers in him, an issue that’s only compounded by struggling to find friends and fit in.
Then, when Elio finally finds a friend in Glordon and a place that wants him in the Communiverse, he does everything he can to hold on to that. Watching him struggle to hold on to these things he so desperately wanted, which then begin to be taken away from him, really pulls you in emotionally.
There’s a big emphasis on good communication and how not having that is detrimental. Olga not communicating properly as a guardian to Elio, Elio not communicating his problems to Olga and lying to the Communiverse, and even Glordon not communicating his real feelings to his father are the main driving forces behind the plot, and it’s impactful, especially for a parent.
The whole movie also felt like a subtle love note to the genre. The musical score had several moments nodding to previous movies like “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. They even have a nod to the horror side of the genre when we watch a scene seemingly straight out of “The Thing” as the Elio clone melts itself in a mild but notable bit of body horror.
The movie also cleverly plays with the theme of being alone. Several times throughout, we get audio from the likes of Carl Sagan. This audio talks about whether we are alone in the universe or not, which is an impactful parallel to the underlying emotions in the movie. With another message of the movie being that even though sometimes we may feel alone, we never truly are, the movie ends with a Carl Sagan speech about being alone, but on a universal scale.
For Parents
I feel it might be beneficial to note that my six year old, who doesn’t particularly enjoy scary things, actually had a hard time during a few of the more intense moments. He considered leaving at a few points, but decided to stick it out to find out how it would end.
As such, he keeps going back and forth about the movie. When we left, he said it was amazing and he couldn’t wait to see it again. However, he told others it was “horrifying.” When asked to rate the movie for this review, he gave it a 6 out of 7, deducting one point because an emotional moment made him cry.
My (usually hypercritical) teenager, who has had his eyes on the cosmos since toddlerhood, really enjoyed the movie. He gave it a 6 out of 7, citing heavy emotional beats that resonated with him.
Overall
Overall, “Elio” was a very entertaining movie for anyone to enjoy. There’s something for everyone to identify with, whether it’s the emotional themes or the clever nods to the genre. It may be a box office bomb, but it has the makings of a cult classic. I give “Elio” 6 mystery alien drinks out of 7.
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