‘Elio’ Review: Pixar Delivers One Of Its Most Intensely Emotional Entries To Date

It feels good to be back! I haven’t reviewed a Pixar film since Lightyear back in 2022, which also happens to be The Hollywood Handle’s first review ever. Anyways, Pixar is finally back! One year after its massive success, Inside Out 2, the studio is back for a brand new original feature film directed by Domee Shi (‘Turning Red’) and Madeline Sharafian (‘Burrow’). As someone who really disliked Turning Red, I must confess my expectations were low for this film. But honestly, Elio features everything that Pixar knows how to do best: an emotional story, amazing visuals and charismatic characters.

Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.

Pixar is probably the only animation studio out there that will risk $200M+ on an original animated movie (alongside Disney of course). And well, Elio is an example of a movie that deserves to be seen and loved. It’s a story that many people will relate with. It’s hard to compare this movie with other Pixar films. I feel like you’re only able to compare it when you watched it at least 2 or 3 times. I do plan on rewatching Elio as soon as possible. In this film, we deal with heavy themes of grief and belonging. Elio is a boy that doesn’t have friends, his parents passed away, his aunt doesn’t have time to take care of him. His life is hard and many people will relate with that, many people that had a hard childhood will relate with Elio’s story and personality.

He loves aliens and the idea that there is life outside of Earth, and once he’s finally abducted, he finds out where he actually wants to be. We have this other character, Glordon, who Elio ends up building an incredible friendship with and honestly that’s probably my second favorite thing about all of it. Glordon is just as adorable and relatable as Elio, they both share very similar feelings and emotions throughout the movie and they help each other out with finding the right path to take to feel better.

Zoe Saldaña’s Olga is also another great character and I genuinely loved every single scene she’s in. You can tel that she’s trying her best to make Elio feel better and loved but she clearly wasn’t prepared for it all. She has a lot of responsibilities at her job and Elio was definitely a challenge in her life, but never a regret or a burden. The film is heavily emotional as I mentioned, it has amazing visuals, a great score and characters that you will love and relate with. It’s already a Pixar win and even if it doesn’t go well at the box office, it’s a confirmed hit on streaming.

Elio is Pixar at its finest. An intensely emotional story about grief and belonging with outstanding visuals, relatable characters and surprising horror elements that make this film a cosmic adventure worth experiencing. The cast and crew clearly put all their heart and soul into this and you can see it. A simple yet beautiful coming of age story.

Elio releases in theaters on June 20.