DAN WEBSTER:
Ever since its inception, Pixar has been the sterling standard of animated storytelling. Its best films have had the imaginative emotional quality of Japan’s Studio Ghibli even as they’ve managed to surpass the visual efforts of other American studios, Disney among them.
Which is at least part of why Disney purchased Pixar in 2006. And along with successful pre-Disney features such as Toy Story 1 and 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, those produced after the merger include the Oscar-winning Ratatouille, WALL-E, two more Toy Story chapters and not one but two variations of another Oscar winner, Inside Out.
It would be nice to report that Elio, Pixar’s 29th animated feature, ranks among the best the company has produced. But even as the team-written and directed film addresses issues that are important for any child’s emotional development—the effects of grief, for example, and the trauma caused by bullying—it offers up an unevenly paced narrative and features scenes that are likely too intense for younger moviegoers,
Co-directed by the trio of Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, all of whom had a hand in shaping the basic storyline, the film features Yonas Kilbreab as the voice of the title character, Elio Solis.
When we first meet him, Elio is living with his aunt Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña). All we know is that his parents have died, forcing Olga—who is an Air Force officer—to take custody. And Elio is despondent, both at having lost his parents and feeling unsure that Olga really wants him around. Which is why, after stumbling into a museum exhibition that feature a special section on the famous Voyager 1 space mission, Elio becomes obsessed with the idea of contacting—and being abducted by—aliens from space.
Cut to a few years later, and Elio has evolved into a problem child, in much the same way many teens and pre-teens are: unruly at school and reluctant to follow his aunt’s dictates. As a way of quieting his inner turmoil, he spends much of his free time on the beach, inside an invitation scrawled in the sand begging the extraterrestrials to take him away.
But when a confrontation with some older boys results in his getting in trouble, injuring his eye in the process, Elio finds an opportunity to take more direct action. When one of his aunt’s civilian workers, Guntner (voiced by Brendan Hunt), announces that he has devised a way to respond to what he thinks is an alien message—this occurring before Olga orders him removed from the premises—Elio steps in.
Even in the ensuing furor, which involves a major power blackout and Elio being sent off to attend a two-week space academy, the aliens do respond. And soon Elio finds himself standing before a group called the Communiverse whose ambassadors believe he is Earth’s leader.
What follows is both predictable and, at times, derivative of such sci-fi films as Galaxy Quest and the Star Trek series. The woefully unprepared Elio is delegated to negotiate between the Communiverse and the war-like creature Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett) whose son Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly) Elio befriends and whose sensitivity Elio understands even as he takes advantage of it.
Much of what the three directors put on the screen meets Pixar’s high animation standards. And thematically, Elio’s troubled behavior—especially his resentment toward his aunt—reflect the way many teens respond to situations they don’t understand… and don’t have the power to change.
The film’s problem comes in the sequences involving the Communiverse and Lord Grigon, which feel clichéd and, worse, involve too much talking and nothing matching the action of the film’s opening, and closing, half hours. Even as the story arc progresses toward an ending that stresses not just the value of peace and the power of parental love but also the importance of connection, too many scenes that precede it may have young children either shielding their eyes or asking whether it’s time to go home. Or both.
Pixar doesn’t put out too many misses. And Elio certainly isn’t one. Not completely. But it does come close.
For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.
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Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for Spokesman.com.