Pixar’s space comedy ‘Elio’ is scattered, but worthwhile

The initial premise is filled with bittersweet moments, between Olga’s attempts to connect with her grieving nephew, and Elio trying to signal extraterrestrials with everything from radio equipment to messages scribbled in the sand. As it happens, there is in fact life in outer space, and Elio is the first one to send them a message, resulting in him being abducted from a nearby summer camp. He’s soon welcomed by the Communiverse, an imaginatively designed society of erudite aliens from all over the universe, who scout Elio as a potential candidate after mistaking him for Earth’s leader.

However, this comedy of errors is just one of several different major plot points. The narrative quickly shifts focus to fascistic threats against the Communiverse by a ruthless, biomechanical warlord, the “blood emperor” Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), after which Elio is chosen as an ambassador to negotiate a treaty. Some 40 minutes into the runtime, it switches gears again by introducing a brand-new central character, Grigon’s adorable, slug-like infant son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), who’s reluctant to be placed inside his species’ ceremonial, weaponized exoskeleton, lest it make him a killer like his dad. This throughline becomes further scattered through accidents and coincidences, leading to Earth-bound developments with their own sudden solutions that were only nominally set up, but Elio has enough flashy, funny sequences to keep younger audience members entertained, even if it doesn’t always hold together.

Once he's abducted, Elio is welcomed into the Communiverse.

Pixar

The project, written by Julia Cho (Turning Red), Mark Hammer (Shotgun Wedding) and Mike Jones (Luca), was originally helmed by Coco director Adrian Molina, who channeled his upbringing on a military base to conceive the story. However, Molina would eventually leave the project and hand it over to co-directors Domee Shi (also of Turning Red), and Elio’s storyboard artist Madeline Sharafian. It’s hard to tell who had exactly what kind of input, but the film feels like the end result of too many cooks in the Pixar kitchen, and plays less like one coherent movie and more like a condensed TV series released theatrically, à la Moana 2.

But despite its shortcomings, the movie’s soul remains firmly intact, thanks to its unwavering focus on family. The complicated parent-child dynamics between Elio and Olga, and eventually between Glordon and Grigon, make for a solid emotional foundation that glues together even the most disparate developments. At one point, Elio’s ambassadorship seems to confront all-but-literal Trumpisms, by way of Elio taking stone-hearted negotiating tips from Grigon’s own Trump: The Art of the Deal-style handbook, though this is just one of several malformed ideas that either loses steam, or leads to a disconnected conclusion.

In "Elio," Elio (Yonas Kibreab), lives with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) after losing both parents.

Pixar

There’s a charming story of friendship lost somewhere in the noise—Elio and Glordon make for a delightfully upbeat pair—just as there’s a fleeting subplot about an Elio clone replacing him at Olga’s house and forming a tighter bond with her than he ever did. However, the film has little time for wistful or reflective moments, when the colorful whizbang of alien spacecrafts is such a central focus. These designs make for a delightfully cartoonish and eye-popping escape from the dreariness of Earth (not to mention, from Pixar’s insistence on rendering human environments with uncanny photorealism). And the vocal performances by Kibreab and Edgerly as the young BFF pair have an endearingly naïve quality, given Elio and Glordon’s mischievous plans that make life complicated for everyone else.

There’s no dearth of laughs in Elio, and no shortage of moments that gesture towards the complicated family bonds that made Shi and Cho’s work on Turning Red sing so loudly and proudly. It doesn’t feature nearly the same level of polish or thematic focus, but as an energetic space saga for child audiences, you could do a whole lot worse.