I attended a special Father’s Day UK screening of the film this past weekend and was impressed by the hold ‘Elio’ had on the younger audiences. But the story has completely changed from the one announced in 2023 — from “sci-fi horror” to a lighthearted, yet meaningful comedy adventure about a little boy’s need to be accepted.
It is always loads of fun to attend special screenings, as a voting member of the Golden Globes. We are invited to world premieres, Q&As with the cast and creatives and, in the case of the latest Disney Pixar film, a special afternoon viewing of Elio complete with hyper kids, even more hyper parents and sugary drinks plus cupcakes to explain it all.
When the lights went down though, the entire audience remained mesmerized, all through the 1 hour and 39 minutes duration of the film. Elio stars a title character, voiced by Filipino-Eritrean American actor Yonas Kibreab, a veteran already at the young age of 16, and tells the story of his journey from earth to the “Communiverse” where the aliens who have abducted him think he’s the leader of the Earth.
You could hear a pin drop in the theater, which is always a great sign for a film made for young adults and kids. Perhaps what made it so was a flavorful combination of interesting characters, cool animation and a story that incorporates lessons for its audiences, without preaching or teaching.
In the film Elio’s parents have died and his Tia Olga, voiced by Zoe Saldaña, is raising him alone. Elio feels alienated from his peers, who bully him and in a scuffle, give him a black eye. It’s the reason the character wears a patch on his left eye, which comes in handy at a pivotal moment in the story. Elio also feels like he’s a burden on his aunt and so he constantly wishes to be whisked away by aliens. One day, he manages to send a message into space, thanks to a ham radio employed by NASA, where his aunt works, to scour for signs of life in space, and his path changes forever. While on the Communiverse, Elio discovers a new friend in Glordon, voiced by Remy Edgerly, as well a nemesis, Lord Grigon, voiced by American actor Brad Garrett.
While lots of the story has changed since the film was first announced, and some of the creatives have also been replaced, the film seems to have fared just fine, in my view. In recent years, Disney and other animation studios have remade cartoons into live action, yet as far as Disney is concerned, I’ve always felt I knew the characters in their films personally, they seemed flesh and blood, friends of mine while growing up and perhaps it’s all due to their mind blowing animation, now with Pixar involved even more so! Elio is no exception.
There was also a recent press release which announced that Pixar Art Director, Keiko Murayama, had visualized what aliens look like based on the imagination and opinions of the average British kid. They released the image below, of Elio with Aunt Olga and the “average alien.”
Turns out that the average imagined, intergalactic alien lifeform is the size of an adult human, has a large round head, slimy green skin, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. This artist's impression was based on the views of 1,000 six to 11-year-olds – who imagine extra-terrestrials to have two arms and two legs, two large circular eyes, ears that are pointed – as well as having six fingers and three toes on human-like feet.
The soundtrack of Elio is also something that every adult can get behind, with Talking Head’s hit ‘Once in a Lifetime’ and Vicente García’s ‘Carmesi’. But for space nerds, there are also excerpts from speeches by Carl Sagan, whom my colleague and friend Rich Cline calls, rightly so, “the voice of Space.” It’s fascinating to hear the ever-quotable Sagan question whether we are indeed alone in this vast universe, and how that would really be a waste of space. If new generation are exposed to cool music and great philosophies, that would be a win-win for everyone now, wouldn’t it.
As a side note, the idea of parenthood and what that means, and who are parents are and could be is depicted very profoundly in Elio and it’s perhaps the strongest pull I have personally to the story. Both Saldaña’s character and Garrett’s really provide full arcs and within their stories, the humanity of Elio lives. Pardon the pun of course.
Elio opens in theaters worldwide on June 20th and it’s a great watch, for young and old.