Elio (2025)

Delayed by around a year (almost certainly due to its original release date clashing with Illumination's Despicable Me 4 [2024] and a subsequent unwanted and inevitable box office war), Pixar's Elio finally hits our screens.

It's been a long time since a truly great Pixar film- some would even argue you'd have to go back to 2010's Toy Story 3 for a masterpiece. There have been glimpses over the last decade or so; Inside Out (2015) was very good without being the masterstroke many claimed, Coco (2017) was decent if a bit too similar to Reel FX Animations Studios' excellent The Book of Life (2014), and both Onward (2020) and Soul (2020) hinted at Pixar returning to their best.

Since then though, they seem to have settled rather than experimented or expanded. Lightyear (2022) was better than many claimed but still felt like flogging a dead horse after the unnecessary yet harmless Toy Story 4 (2019), and Inside Out 2 (2024) was yet another Pixar sequel- albeit one that was rather good, and in some ways impressed me more than the original.

In terms of ideas and world building, the most underrated Pixar film of recent years is probably Elemental (2023); a film that tackled the idea of immigration even if it didn't necessarily mean to, and was rife with colour and ideas. It didn't hit the heights its potential suggested, but it was very much a step in the right direction.

Elio has ambition in spades, and is a slightly odd film, certainly in terms of Pixar's previous output- and this has arguably led to the studios worst ever box office opening. Elio is a orphaned boy, an outcast from society after his parents pass away and he's sent to live with his aunt who works in the military. She does her best and loves Elio to bits, but her job makes things difficult.

Elio meanwhile, is lonely and dreams of being abducted by aliens. One day, his wish comes true- which is where the film loses a bit of its impressive early momentum, but the wide ambition remains- and keeps you engaged. The film references everything from Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) to Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) in the most joyful ways possible, and continues Pixar's themes of identity and kids finding themselves during turbulent years; dealing with loneliness, grief and friendship.

So thematically we're in familiar territory, and Elio certainly feels like a sidestep rather then a step forward. But it's undoubtedly entertaining, and wonderfully weird in ways that Pixar hasn't explored before, and ultimately holds your attention- whether you're a child or a grown up. I would argue it's perhaps the least my daughter has moved in a cinema in some fifty odd visits, despite the fact it wouldn't be her favourite Pixar film, or even top 5.

Perhaps that in itself sums Elio up rather well. The studio has found a rhythm, and even when they try to expand and explore on their key themes they (ironically in this case) only touch on other worlds and ideas without fully traversing them. Elio is safe and solid, a film that's better than mid-range Pixar but ultimately not a patch on their best works- which for my money would still be Toy Story 1-3 (1995-2010), Monsters, Inc (2001) and Ratatouille (2007). Undoubtedly worth a watch, and hopefully there's still better work to come from Pixar. 7.1/10