Elio

Elio is the newest Disney Pixar animated feature, from directors Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Andree Molina, based on a story by Molina, who left the project early in production, but based aspects of it on experiences in his own youth. Elio is a young orphan who has gone to live with his aunt, who works for a NASA-like agency for the US Government. Her job is tracking space debris, but one person has alerted her to the potential presence of aliens. She ignores this, but her nephew, who feels unloved and unwanted, catches wind of this and sends a message to the aliens. Complications ensue.

This is ultimately a story about loneliness and belonging, about the desire, even the need, to be wanted, to make friends and have a social group. How it gets there is not always perfect, but the film is well worth your time. The visuals are often stunning, with fun designs, and while there are moments that stretch the bounds of logic and science, the energy and good nature of the thing carries it quite a distance. More than some recent Pixar films, this one also has characters and interactions that carry weight and therefore emotional impact.

Elio, who has never had a real friend-having spent all his time wanting to leave earth to go into space, where he is sure there is life waiting for him-finds a real friend in the form of the tardigrade-like princeling of a warlike clan of interstellar conquerors. Elio, through a series of misunderstandings and omissions, comes into contact with the prince when he is sent on a diplomatic mission by the aliens who have taken him to decide if he is worthy of joining their vast, consular ranks. There is a lot of visual imagination here, with some light commentary about technology. Yet, the core of every sequence in Elio, to its great esteem, is character interaction.

Elio’s aunt, voiced by Zoe Saldana, is a career woman who tries shipping her only living relative to a military academy because he is both unusual and “in the way” of not only her career but how she wants to be seen and how she would like him to be seen. She does not, for instance, indulge him in the made up language he has invented, nor does she give him space for testing the limits of his logical and creative imagination. But, over the course of the film, events occur that peel back layers and show something far more complex.

For Elio, too, there is growth. He gains a true friend, and finds a purpose, but also learns about love and belonging in a way that makes him appreciate and feel certain in a manner the very lonely child had never felt before. What he experiences and gives in terms of sacrifice, love and empathy, is truly remarkable. While some of the film seems almost rushed in terms of getting to the conclusion, none of the events feel unearned or poorly handled.

It is, perhaps, a testament to how well made the film is that what you want, more than anything, by the end, is to spend more time with these characters, and see where they go from here. It would have been a joy to have seen more of Elio and his friend, and it would be a joy to continue to see what sorts of adventures this cast of characters could get up to. Despite some trappings we have seen before, including moments of blockbuster logic and remaining, at its core, a family film with all the lessons expected in such a work, Elio is also an intricate work of empathy and understanding that is well worth your time.