Review by Dan Berry and Katrina Faessel
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, and Jameela Jamil
Movie Length: 1 hour 38 minutes
What it’s about: An original story about an 11 year old boy (Elio) who is a huge fan of outer space and makes contact with a group of aliens. Hijinks and life lessons soon follow.
What Dan thought: Going into the movie I knew nothing aside from it was a Pixar movie (hadn’t seen a single commercial/ad/trailer for it). Pixar once again did a great job with the story, the creatures, and the movie as a whole.
From the opening scenes (with a Talking Heads song), to a big name voice cameo talking about the Voyager spacecraft until the closing scene the movie delivers a great story that families and kids should like. The soundtrack/score was terrific and helped the movie progress from scene to scene thanks to the work of Rob Simonsen on his first animated feature.
Katrina who saw it with me says “I’d add that the animators succeeded in their world-building by crafting some of the most stunning landscapes and imaginative creatures ever seen in a Pixar film, thanks to their exceptional use of color and creativity. I also appreciate how Glordon feels like a natural evolution of Boo from Monsters, Inc.—as if we’re seeing what she might look like fully transformed into a monster.”, and I have to agree wholeheartedly with that (the fact that I was wearing a shirt from RSVLTS with various Pixar characters on it for reference of what Boo looked like in her costume helped).
The cast featured only a few bigger names, which was all that was needed for it. Since it was an animated feature, big names aren’t necessarily needed. That being said Yonas as Elio and Remy as Glordon were terrific, Brad Garrett as the big bad (Lord Grigon) and Zoe as Elio’s Aunt were great choices for those two roles.
Also kudos to whoever decided to name one of the main characters Melmac (as in the planet that ALF came from in the 80s tv show of the same name.) There are quite a few other easter eggs/references to other sci-fi classics, and other Pixar movies which fans of the genres should enjoy.
The runtime for the movie comes in just over 90 minutes which is the perfect length for it. There are no scenes that should have been cut or that were just in there to extend the runtime, which was great.
If you’re looking for a great animated feature to see by yourself or with family, this is one you should pass up.
Dan’s rating: 8.5/10
Elio in now in theaters.
Are you going to see the movie? Have you already? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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