Pixar Goes Junior-Level Cosmic
DIRECTED BY MADELINE SHARAFIAN, DOMEE SHI, ADRIAN MOLINA
When it comes to making great animated features, one might say that Pixar has a golden record. In recent years, however, that luster has been fading. For every solid offering like Luca or fan favorite such as Inside Out 2, we now get an overly contrived strain like Elemental or a fizzle like Lightyear. As younger generations increasingly lean toward the Shrek-laden legacy of DreamWorks Animation, one has to wonder if the once-bright beacon of hopping desk light Luxo Jr. remains the one to guide this particular industry.
Elio, the studio’s latest endeavor certainly aims for the stars. Boasting more interstellar adventure than even the frustratingly grounded Lightyear could muster, the lighthearted film tells the story of the titular bullied and lonely young boy (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), Elio, and the lessons he learns when he gets his wish to be abducted by space aliens.
Once in the company of the colorfully diverse array of glorpy and glimmery extraterrestrials (whose strangeness and luminosity bring to mind the far-out denizens of the Quantum Realm as seen in the maligned Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Elio leads them to believe that he in the ruler of Earth. Predictably, this untruth catches up with him sooner than later, paving the way for an eventual face-off with the imposing cosmic warlord Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Heightening tensions is the fact that Grigon’s benevolent son, the lovable purple slug Glordon (Remy Edgerly), is Elio’s new best buddy. All the while, Elio’s aunt, designated caretaker, and U.S. Space Force military personnel Olga (Zoe Saldaña) works tirelessly to try to find him.
How does Elio land? It’s bumpy at best. Amid the expected adventures and whatnot (cue: “Whooooooaaaa!!! Whoooooahhh!!!!”), the film strives and strains all too noticeably for spacey profundity and requisite Pixar heartstring tugging. Sadly, the big emotional beats feel perfunctory, as though they’re just checkboxes on the studio’s distilled Formula Of Success. The balance of high stakes peril and constant hyper-emotive characterization (a mainstream animation trap that Pixar’s only recently fallen completely into) is rickety and even, at times, whiplash inducing.
Consider the inclusion of a monologue by real-life astronomer Carl Sagan. (With his similar though even more prominent inclusion in Mike Flanagan’s very recent release The Life of Chuck, it’s apt to say that the late Sagan is definitely having a moment). Uncredited, we hear the same passage not once but twice. Sagan’s vocal delivery- grounded, considered, and deliberate- flies harshly in the face of the outsized “animated” presence of just about everyone else in Elio. It’s frankly jarring how the inclusion of such a speech can really reveal just how overstated everything else around it is. A merciful exception may be Saldaña’s performance. Aunt Olga’s earthbound sequences are consistently more compelling and/or amusing than the headliner’s often narratively forced adventures.
Before losing control of its own themes, the vividly rendered Elio leads with them. This feels promising for a while… until Elio actually arrives in outer space. From there, the story’s tension dissipates, fraying starts, and never really stops. In the end, it’s genuinely confusing to know exactly what messages, ideas, or notions directors Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina have been aiming to leave us with. With prominent beats of E.T., The Wizard of Oz, and The Last Starfighter in the mix (not to mention several other distracting nods to superior sci-fi staples), Elio feels like 1977’s exploratory Voyager space probe, drifting through space in search of greater meanings. (The Voyager probe’s mission serves as yet another narrative allusion/plot device).
Though Pixar will always have its golden record of yore, all Elio can boast is the physical Golden Record of the Voyager probe. As memorably glorpy and glimmery as this outing may be, it falls short of being (, as uninspired critics say about films such as this…) truly out of this world.