‘Elio’ 4K UHD Digital (review)

Disney / Buena Vista

In Pixar’s latest effort, we are introduced to the titular Elio (Yonas Kibreab), an orphaned boy living with his aunt, Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force major who has put her aspirations to be an astronaut on hold in order to raise her nephew.

Constantly at odds with his aunt and struggling to fit in and make friends, Elio obsessively dreams of being abducted by aliens to escape his problems, and all of a sudden, Elio gets what he has been dreaming of, when a mad dash to escape a group of bullies sees him transported to a different world.

However, while Elio’s wish may have finally been fulfilled and he is gleefully taking in the psychedelic sights of this truly alien world, he soon learns that he has been misidentified as the supreme leader of Earth, and before he knows it, he is thrust into a conflict where intergalactic peace hangs in the balance.

Naturally, hijinks ensue as lessons must be learned along the way.

While there are worse ways to spend 98 minutes, Elio ultimately struggles to become little more than reliably competent entertainment from a storied studio.

As one expects from Pixar, the animation is top notch, with a compelling visual style that leans into a sincere playfulness as it approaches the boundless creative elbowroom available when depicting an entirely unfamiliar setting where anything goes, thus making Elio a visual feast.

Thematically, Pixar has never shied away from doing its darndest to make audiences cry regardless of their age, and as you may have guessed from Elio’s circumstances, grief and the acceptance thereof in order to move forward and heal is at the heart of the narrative.

However, while spinning a coming-of-age tale that seeks to broach a heavy subject is nothing new when it comes to Pixar, it is unfortunately also and herein the main problem of the film lies, as Elio overwhelmingly falls victim to a trope-filled dramatic structure, which no amount of beautiful animation can make up for.

This is not to say that Elio is a bad effort by any stretch of the imagination, the problem is rather that Pixar’s truly memorable titles have become increasingly farther and fewer between, placing a substantial burden on any production from the revered studio to instantly become another classic on par with the likes of Toy Story, Ratatouille, Inside Out, or any other of the myriad of classics the studio has produced in decades past.

As such, there is plenty of entertainment value to be found in Elio’s off-world adventures, but the over-reliance on tropes, and the emphasis on themes that have been explored better with more nuance in other films – often by Pixar – Elio is indeed another competent effort from the studio, but once you begin to dissect the film as the studio’s films inevitably are, it unfortunately becomes a tad too formulaic.

Extras include featurettes, gag reel and deleted scenes.

Verdict: 6 out of 10.