Adrian Molina, Ana de la Reguera, animation, Anissa Borrego, Atsuko Okatsuka, Brad Garrett, Brandon Moon, Brendan Hunt, Domee Shi, Dylan Gilmer, Elio, Jake Getman, Jameela Jamil, Madeline Sharafian, Matthias Schweighofer, movies, Naomi Watanabe, reviews, Shirley Henderson, Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana
June 17, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina
Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and in outer space, the animated film “Elio” features a cast of characters that are humans and outer-space aliens.
Culture Clash: A lonely 11-year-old boy’s wish to be abducted by outer-space aliens come true, but he finds himself caught up in trying to stop an intergalactic war with help from the son of the war instigator.
Culture Audience: “Elio” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Pixar animated films and family-friendly movies about misfits who learn to be comfortable with who they are.
“Elio” is among many Pixar animated movies about protagonists who learn about themselves as they experience obstacles in unfamiliar environments. “Elio’s” plot is sometimes messy, but it’s a cute story about self-acceptance. This is the type of movie that uses several stereotypical formulas of humans interacting with talking non-human creatures, but it has enough unique visuals and engaging performances to maintain viewer interest.
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, “Elio” was written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones. Pixar Animation Studios is known for having movies based on original screenplays, except for sequels and spinoffs of previously released Pixar movies. “Elio” won’t be ranked in the upper echelon of the best Pixar films, but it’s better than most of the animated films that get released in any given year.
The title character of “Elio” is Elio Solís (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), an 11-year-old American boy who is a lonely orphan obsessed with going to outer space. Elio lives in an unnamed U.S. city. He has constructed his own ham radio to try to communicate with outer-space beings. Elio feels “different” from other people because he wears an eye patch, for reasons that aren’t explicitly stated but appears to be for medical reasons.
Elio’s parents died when he was younger, for reasons that are not revealed in the movie. Elio’s guardian is his aunt Olga Solís (voiced by Zoe Saldaña), a U.S. Air Force major who is very focused on her career. She works in a team of orbital analysts who track space debris. Olga is skeptical that there are creatures who live in outer space.
Olga and Elio love each other but don’t always get along with each other. Elio is slightly rebellious and sometimes skips classes at Montez Middle School, where he is student. Olga didn’t expect to be raising a child and often feels overwhelmed and gets impatient with Elio.
Olga doesn’t appreciate Elio’s ambitions to go to outer space and thinks his dreams and goals should be more realistic. Elio feels misunderstood by Olga, which causes him to be further alienated from her. Sometimes, Elio can be a rude brat, such as in scene where he gets into an argument with Olga and yells at her that she’s not his “real family.”
After Elio gets into trouble for being absent from school, Olga decides that Elio should go to Camp Carver, a summer camp that she went to when she was a girl. Elio starts a Ham Radio Club and places an ad to find members at the camp. Two pals who are about the same age as Elio show interest in joining Elio’s club: Bryce (voiced by Dylan Gilmer) is friendly and outgoing. Caleb (voiced by Jake Getman) is mean-spirited and bullying.
Elio likes to spend a lot of time alone as he daydreams about a better life in outer space because he’s unhappy with his life on Earth. At a beach, Elio carves out this message in the sand: “Aliens! Abduct Me!” He lies face up on the sand, hoping this wish will come true, but no alien abduction happens. Olga scolds Elio by saying to him: “Your life isn’t up there, Elio. It’s down here.”
Meanwhile, Olga’s eccentric co-worker Gunther Melmac (voiced by Brendan Hunt), a military contractor, has his own ham radio group. He also has conspiracy theories about outer-space aliens. Gunther has been trying to communicate with outer-space forms of life by using the technology that he knows. He thinks that signals are coming from outer space. His beliefs make him an outcast with his co-workers.
Gunther has been tracking the Voyager Satellite, which has a Golden Record collection of messages from many of Earth’s children. One day, Elio sneaks into Gunther’s work space while no one else is there and finds a way to send a Golden Record message into space. He quickly sends this message: “This is Elio Solís of the planet Earth. I come in peace and I’m super excited to join you. I’m creative, hardworking, shredded. So, please come and get me. I’ll be waiting!”
Much later, Elio is blamed for getting some of his fellow campers into trouble. Caleb leads a group of boys, including Bryce, in chasing Elio to physically attack Elio. But right at the moment that the boys catch Elio, time freezes, and Elio is beamed up into outer space by aliens who got Elio’s message. Elio is about to enter a magical world called the Communiverse, named after the group of ambassadors and other creatures whose goal is universal harmony.
The Communiverse is an interplanetary group with representatives from various galaxies. They have recently rejected Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett), the aggressive warlord leader of the planet Hylurg, because Grigon believes in conquering other planets through war. Grigon vows to get revenge by destroying the Communiverse.
When Elio arrives in the Communiverse, he is greeted by several creatures:
- Ambassador Questa (voiced by Jameela Jamil), a 15-foot-tall, charismatic pink sea dragon, who is the leader of the planet Glom
- Ambassador Helix (voiced by Brandon Moon), an egotistical, party-loving official who is usually seen holding a container of glorp, the Communiverse’s official drink
- Ambassador Tegman (voiced by Matthias Schweighöfer), the logical leader of the planet Tegman, who doesn’t speak much, but when he does, he usually speaks bluntly
- Ambassador Naos (voiced by Atsuko Okatsuka), brainy inventor of the Communidisc, a device for controlling gravity, temperature and languages.
- Ambassador Turais (voiced by Ana de la Reguera), a nuerotic official who is easily gets anxious.
- Ambassador Mira (voiced by Anissa Borrego), a skeptic diva who questions Elio’s authenticity as Earth’s leader
- Ambassador Auva (voiced by Naomi Watanabe), the perky creator of the Universal Users’ Manual, which contains the secrets of the universe.
- Ooooo (voiced by Shirley Henderson), a supercomputer that looks like a small blue liquid blob
Ambassadors Questa, Helix and Tegman are the first to meet Elio. The other ambassadors are introduced to him later. Ambassador Questa the is the diplomat whose personality stands out the most, while the other ambassadors have generic personalities. All of these side characters are introduced in a jumble. Their relationships with Elio are tangential to the movie’s central relationship: the friendship that Eli develops with Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly), Grigon’s sweet-natured son, who doesn’t want to follow in Grigon’s footsteps of becoming a warlord.
Elio is told he was chosen to go to the Communiverse because the Communiverse is looking for the brightest dreamers and stargazers on each planet. The ambassadors assume that Elio is the leader of planet Earth, and he doesn’t correct them. It’s a big plot hole in the movie because with the Universal Users’ Manual and other technology, it should be easy for the ambasadors to find out that Earth has no leader of the entire planet.
Elio loves being in the Communiverse and wants to stay there for the rest of his life, but the problem of Grigon is an immediate threat to the Communiverse’s happiness and safety. All of the ambassadors are afraid of negotiating with Grigon. Elio is desperate for the ambassadors’ approval and acceptance, so he volunteers to be the chief negotiator. He is now burdened with the responsibility of preventing Grigon from going to war with the Communiverse.
The Communiverse says that if Elio was reported missing on Earth, it would create chaos. And so, Ooooo (who took a sample of Elio’s DNA soon after Elio arrived at the Communiverse) uses that DNA to create a clone of Elio (also voiced by Kibreab), who is sent to Earth to impersonate the real Elio. This parallel sublot about the Elio clone becomes a somewhat clumsy part of the story because as Elio is trying to save the Universe, he sees through a portal that the Elio clone is a perfect version of Elio that Olga likes a lot better than the real Elio.
“Elio” is a swirling rush of Elio grappling with his insecurities, forming a genuine and uplifting friendship with Glordon, and finding the courage to face his fears against a bully such as Grigon. Glordon and Elio naturally bond because they both feel like outsiders in their own families and unaccepted on their respective planets. But to be fair, Glordon’s family situation is a lot worse than Elio’s because Elio is not being raised an emotionally abusive adult. (Glordon’s mother is briefly mentioned as too busy to take care of Glordon because she’s away in combat.)
“Elio” has a lot of vibrant and dazzling visuals that can be enjoyable to watch. But the “Elio” story retreads the same concept of many other Pixar movies that have come before it: Someone goes outside a home residence to try and fit in somewhere else and finds out that it’s more important to be secure with oneself, no matter where you live. The voice performances in “Elio” are very good, the movie’s direction is capable (the last 15 minutes of the movie are fantastic), but don’t expect “Elio” to be a masterpiece in animation.
Walt Disney Studios will release “Elio” in U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie will be shown in U.S. cinemas on June 18, 2025.