ELIO Reviewed by GREG KING
Directors: Madeline Shafafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Stars voices of: Zoe Saldana, Yonas Kibreab, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Shirley Henderson, Kate Mulgrew, Jameela Jamil, Brendan Hunt, Tamara Tunie, Carl Sagan.
The latest colourful animation from the reliable Pixar animation studios is Elio, a mix of sci-fi, family drama and coming of age tale that will appeal to audiences of all ages. The film explores some strong universal themes about family, loss, friendship, connections, acceptance, courage, and being true to yourself that will resonate strongly with audiences.
Elio Solis (voiced by Yonas Kibreab, from the tv series Pretty Freekin Scary, etc) is a lonely eleven-year-old nerd whose parents have died. He lives in the care of his aunt Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldana, from Avatar, etc), who works on a military base and who struggles who understand her quirky nephew. She once had dreams of becoming an astronaut. But her job now involves scanning the skies for space debris. Lonely and often bullied, Elio has a rich imagination and is obsessed with aliens, and dreams of being abducted by aliens. He spends his days trying to contact aliens via his ham radio.
When aliens make contact through the military’s SETI program and its array of radio telescopes, Elio manages to get a message out of his own. He is mistaken by the aliens as an ambassador and leader on Earth and they beam him up into space. There he meets the denizens of the Communiverse, where aliens share their knowledge from their various worlds. They clone Elio and send a replica back to Earth so he won’t be missed. But the clone acts in a more responsible fashion than the rebellious Elio, which raises Olga’s suspicions.
The Communiverse is threatened by Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett, from the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, etc), an aggressive warlord who wants to become part of the Communiverse’s council. When they refuse he threatens them. Elio attempts to negotiate with him but angers him and is imprisoned. There he meets Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly, from Sing 2, etc), who resembles a giant purple slug. Glordon is the son of Lord Grigon. Lord Grigon wants his son to join his army, but Glordon is a pacifist and hides away. He and Elio escape from the Communiverse and return to Earth, where he is reunited with Olga. It falls to Elio, Glordon and Olga to somehow save the day.
Elio has been written Julia Cho (Turning Red, etc), Mark Hammer (Shotgun Wedding, etc) and Mike Jones (Soul, etc), with various contributions from the directors. It was directed by Madeline Sharafian (a writer and storyboard artist making her feature film directorial debut), Domee Lin (Turning Red, etc) and Adrian Molina (co-director of Coco). Much of Elio was inspired by Molina’s own experiences of growing up on a military base and he has an empathy for the lonely Elio. The bond that develops between Elio and Glordon, two lonely and misunderstood youngsters, provides the material with kits emotional core. And it is obvious that the filmmakers care about these characters.
As expected, the animation is superb, colourful and richly detailed, and the animators have created a diverse range of alien creatures here. Several of these aliens are given distinctive and eccentric personalities. Cinematographers Derek Williams (his feature debut) and Jordan Rempel (who has worked on visual effects for animated films including Brave, etc) have been heavily influenced by several classic sci-films including ET to shape the visual aesthetic of the Communiverse and the creatures.
Saldana brings sympathy, warmth and a strong presence to Olga, while Garrett brings bluster to his vocal performance as the domineering Lord Grigon, a generic and cliched villain. Kibreab brings energy and quirky personality touches to his performance as the titular Elio. The vocal cast also includes British actress Shirley Henderson (from the cult classic Trainspotting, etc), who voices OOOOO, a blue gelatinous liquid supercomputer; Kate Mulgrew (from Star Trek: Voyager) who provides the narration at the Voyager 1 Space Museum exhibit; and Brendan Hunt (from the tv series Ted Lasso, etc) who voices conspiracy theorist and Air Force analyst Gunther Melmac. The producers also use the voice of Carl Sagan to provide context on the background of space exploration and the search for alien life.
Elio ultimately lacks the emotional depth and sophistication and intelligent story telling of animated films such as Inside Out and Up. While a bit simplistic and not the best of the Pixar films, nonetheless Elio is still quite entertaining and holds plenty to entertain audiences of all ages.
★★★
