Movie Review – Elio

I’m traveling with some family this holiday weekend, and I saved Elio so I could watch it with my nieces.

The film follows Elio, a small boy who lives with his aunt after his parents passed away. The aunt lives and works on an army base and has aspirations of being an astronaut. To quell his loneliness, Elio becomes obsessed with getting abducted by aliens. When it finally happens, the aliens assume he is the leader of Earth and invite him to stay in their colony, but when the violent leader of an alien race decides to take over, Elio volunteers to intervene.

The kid is way in over his head, but he befriends the angry leader’s son. This fills the void of his loneliness, but Elio also notices that the alien clone they put in place so his aunt wouldn’t miss him actually caused his aunt to not miss him. Fill one void and create another.

The aunt knows pretty soon that the Elio clone isn’t Elio, and tries to connect to the aliens who took her nephew. In the end, this ends up being the strength of the movie. The two find a way to understand each other, and Elio finally finds the family he lost in his aunt.

The alien boy he befriended also heals a relationship with his controlling father who wanted his son to join their warlike army but soon realized he needs to let his son be his own person.

The animation is beautiful as always is with Pixar, but I wish the human characters didn’t look like they had bred with people from Whoville. Their faces are shaped a bit weird, but it’s not too off putting.

Not the best Pixar film, but certainly watchable and I’ll admit to getting emotional at the end. Go see this on the big screen. Your kids will love it and it has a lot to say about loneliness and finding understanding with your family.

Four out of five stars.