Elio

It must be hard filling the role of the studio where everything you touch is expected to be gold.

Fairly or unfairly, you might see reviews or comments for films which ‘aren’t up to Pixar standard’ as opposed to maybe seeing another which states something is ‘strong for a DreamWorks film.’

As unfair as this may seem, cultural bias is easy shorthand for most when deciding whether to see something and, despite the two studios levelling up in recent times and Pixar’s hit rate gradually decreasing, it still exists.

As such, I guess it’s somewhat churlish but equally accurate to describe Elio as not a Pixar classic but still a strong original effort for the studio.

As sequels become more common it’s the original content you want to look for with Pixar but Elio doesn’t quite match the likes of Elemental, Turning Red and Luca in recent times.

It’s still mostly a delight. Space obsessed Elio lives on an Air Force base with his aunt after the death of his parents. He sees alien abduction as his one chance of 'belonging' and his wish comes true as he’s taken to the Communiverse, a sort of Galactic Senate for other planets.

Mistaking Elio as the ‘leader of Earth’ he finds himself having to stop the Communiverse from being destroyed by a warlord whilst simultaneously finding friendship with his rather different son.

The film is a lot and can’t quite chew on its themes and ideas as much as you'd like due to the machinations of just keeping everything moving.

Despite being just over 90 minutes it feels a lot longer and, whilst the film carries a lot of momentum early on, it hits a point about two thirds in where that screeches to a halt before rather rushing to its finale.

You can feel the fact that the story went through lots of different variations and different Directors joined to get it finished during production. It manages to stay pretty consistent tonally but just otherwise feels a bit of a muddle.

As beautiful as the animation is and as creative as the alien characters are, we never really learn much about the majority of them and it’s actually the early, Earthbound stuff that is the strongest with Zoe Saldana particularly strong as Aunt Olga.

As always with Pixar, there’s lots to enjoy for all the family and lots to look at. They’ve nailed the art direction as always and there are some laugh out loud moments in the surprisingly fast-paced scripting as well as some brilliant sci-fi references. They even lean into a couple of horror-esque moments too which feel fresh.

It just stumbles slightly with that loss of momentum and feels a little ‘designed by committee’ to get the thing finished in a condensed runtime.

Not quite a ‘missed opportunity’ as such just not a ‘perfect Pixar concept’ as so many have been before.

⭐️⭐️⭐️