Right on cue Disney’s Pixar is back on the animation scene with its latest and quite possibly one of its most original stories with Elio. True to form, for the last three years, Pixar has delivered and had a film release in the month of June. There was Lightyear in 2022, Elemental in 2023, Inside Out 2 for 2024, and now Elio in 2025. Now that is consistency. Not going to lie, I haven’t been impressed with the latest releases from Pixar, and it felt as though they’d been trading on their reputation in recent years. After all, who would dare speak against the studio that gave us Toy Story, A Bugs Life, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo? It would be fair to say that the company deserved a little grace. Now we have Elio, and as I mentioned earlier, I rank this among the most original animated stories I’ve seen in recent years and one of the best kid-friendly movies I’ve seen this year thus far.
Elio signifies director Adrian Molina’s first Pixar movie as the main director, having served as the co-director on Coco and as a member of the Senior Creative Team for The Good Dinosaur and Lightyear. Well, he has put together a great story and good cast. Through my research I understand that America Ferrara was originally slated for the role of Olga Solis, Elio’s mother, but was unable to follow through with due to scheduling issues. I think she would have been good as well, but in my honest opinion, I think there was no way Molina could go wrong with Zoe Saldana. Interestingly enough, it seems this casting change also prompted a story change, as Saldana played Elio’s aunt rather than his mother. Personally, I preferred this shift, as it demonstrates an important principle that not all families are the same and that even when tragedy strikes, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still be family.
Speaking of tragedy, that is essentially how we are introduced to our very relatable titular character, played by Yonas Kibreab, who is no slouch in the world of voice acting. With both film and television credits with another three to come, I dare say Kibreab is a veteran. In Elio, he embodies a young boy trying to fill a void in his life left by unfathomable loss. He decides that the answer to a question that mankind has been asking for decades is how to best process his grief: Are we alone in the universe? His answer comes in the form of his willing abduction. Following this, Elio finds himself embroiled in a crisis of intergalactic proportions that he must navigate and discover who he truly is and where he really belongs.
The film is also a bit of a homecoming for another actor, Brad Garrett, who originally joined the Pixar family back in 2016 with Finding Dory. This time Garrett undertakes a complex character, that of a villain with a strong sense of family. Garrett does this well and kept the character from becoming very one-dimensional. Circling back to Saldana and Kibreab’s dynamic, their screen time together was limited, but despite this their chemistry was felt and made more very touching moments to include a beachfront scene that signified the change in their relationship.
Elio is a very entertaining and lighthearted family-friendly animated picture that I recommend highly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a breakout performance at the box office, as it is truly a return to form for Pixar, and it deserves that kind of success. There’s stiff competition this weekend with last week’s live-action adaptation still expected to have a strong performance. Rivalry aside, I encourage those looking for a lighthearted animated adventure to give the film a chance. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
