Before it turns into a junior-size Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Elio exhibits some of the stronger qualities of Pixar Animation Studios: a patience for storytelling, astonishingly tactile digital animation, and a lovely score (by Rob Simonsen). And while screenwriters Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones never get a firm grip on the title character (he’s a bit of a plug-and-play orphan), they make up for it with the alien friend that Elio meets once his extraterrestrial dreams come true. Glordon is not only delightfully visualized—something like a toothy bug puppy—but also brought to vibrant life by Remy Edgerly’s bubbly, sensitive, and curious vocal performance. (The more I learned about Glordon, I began to wonder if this should have been his movie.) Unfortunately, Elio’s narrative keeps expanding and characters continue multiplying until it stretches itself too thin. By the time it circles back to Earth, we’ve been gone too long for the movie’s desired emotional gut punch to land. Directed by Adrian Molina (co-director of Coco), Madeline Sharafian, and Domee Shi (director of Turning Red).
(6/19/2025)
