Pixar’s Elio is an Interstellar Friendship Overflowing in Empathy and Joy
There is a lightness and levity to Pixar’s latest animated spectacle Elio that kept me smiling for every moment of its interstellar comedic adventure. The whole thing is undeniably cute, overflowing in empathy and joy, and not in a cloying or annoying way, but in a manner that’s authentically enchanting.
But that doesn’t mitigate how incredibly slight everything is. While I do think directors Domee Shi, Madeline Sharafian, and Adrian Molina were eager to explore complicated ideas revolving around family, loss, grief, friendship, and acceptance along with additional complex themes, the story and script (credited to eight different writers) never allows them to do so. Intriguing concepts are hinted at but frustratingly left incomplete, and while the lighter aspects of this tale are a great deal of fun, there’s still something mildly disappointing about how these madcap events come to their conclusion.
After the tragic death of his parents, 11-year-old Elio Solís (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) goes to live with his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), a major in the U.S. Air Force who dreams of entering into the astronaut training program. Inspired by a visit to NASA and an exhibit focused on the space probe Voyager, Elio becomes obsessed with getting abducted by aliens. He even goes so far as to construct a low-tech radio he hopes will help him make first contact.
Not only does this youngster’s attempts meet with shocking success, but the kindly beings who transport him across the galaxy mistake the child for Earth’s supreme leader. While he is thrilled by this turn of events, when his new friends ask him to be their ambassador and talk cranky warlord Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) out of laying siege to their peaceful commune, it becomes clear to Elio he’s unprepared for the challenges now laying before him.
All of that transpires within the first 30 minutes or so, and everything is a suitably colorful psychedelic mélange of visual insanity. But the relationship between Elio and Olga is underdeveloped, and the boy’s actions — even if they are fueled by unimaginable levels of grief — can hit as being obnoxiously selfish at the most inopportune times. For kids, there’s a lot of eye-popping genius to revel in, but sadly I still wanted more.
Thankfully, the arrival of Lord Grigon’s gregarious and open-hearted son Glordon (Remy Edgerly) sets things on a bubbly track full of life and imagination. This young slug doesn’t want to become a warmonger like his father, and he sees a kindred spirit in Elio. The pair become fast friends, quickly bonding in the way only children can. Their connection has resilience and strength, each telling the other secrets they’ve never been able to put into words until their meeting.
The montage of Elio and Glordon getting the opportunity to be kids free from any outside expectations or burdens is wonderful. The unrelenting goofiness of this sequence is sublime, the combination of well-crafted character development, two superb vocal performances, whimsically inventive animation, and confident direction helping to considerably legitimize this blossoming friendship. It also has the added effect of making their climactic fight for one another to be their own, true selves no matter what the consequences all the more empowering.
Still, nothing happens that was not a foregone conclusion, and I think even the youngest viewers will know exactly where all of this is headed long before Elio and Glordon do. The pieces that I imagine were meant to supply the biggest emotional wallops, mainly each child’s relationship with the primary adults in their lives, Aunt Olga and Lord Grigon, their outcomes are so preordained that they come off as distractingly ho-hum. There’s just not much in the way of lasting resonance to any of this.
But Elio does look fantastic, and Glordon is a marvelous character, a classic Pixar creation who instantaneously wormed his way straight into my heart. While I do miss the intelligent complexity of other recent coming-of-age delights from the animation powerhouse like Turning Red (also directed by Shi), Luca, and Inside Out, the studio’s latest still has plenty to offer. It just makes the audience feel good and, especially right now with how everything is in the world outside of the theater, that’s no small feat.
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
