Once upon a time, Pixar found its success producing four-quadrant movies. Their stories, themes, jokes and visuals found a home with everyone and their grandma (literally), but the 2020s have seemingly been a time of change for the animation house. Movies like Soul and Inside Out 2 feel more geared to older teens and adults with their tone and themes, whereas Luca and Elemental distinctly set their storytelling sights on a younger demographic. Pixar's latest offering, Elio, deepens this division, and arguably to its most extreme, with a cute and lovable film that will enthral kids and remind adults of movies of their childhood.
Elio is an adventure film about a young boy (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) recently orphaned and under the care of his Air Force major aunt, Olga (Zoe Saldaña). Elio's passion and joy comes from his curiosity about space and the world beyond ours, and this becomes a form of escapism as he wishes to find life on another planet that will accept him for who he is.
The best thing that Elio's three directors — Madeline Sharafian, Adrian Molina and Turning Red's Domee Shi — do is make Elio's wish a reality. When he's abducted by aliens and stirs up intergalactic trouble, they never cop out and call it a dream, or something only Elio can see and remember. His journey into space, and all of the worlds and creatures he encounters, truly exist within the world of the film, which drives the sci-fi adventure side of the Elio well.
Elio's themes are as saccharine as my description implies, and that's not to say it's a bad thing. Perhaps Pixar's decision to delineate between the young and old makes sense: the very adult-oriented Soul remains one of the best things Pixar has made, and Elio stands a chance at being a beloved children's film — just not one that will grow with its target demographic. It's more akin to Sesame Street than The Muppets.
Regardless of the story being told or who Pixar's aiming to please, we can always count on the desk lamp to serve up stunning visuals. This is reportedly the last Pixar film for Harley Jessup, a veteran of the animated and visual effects field (some of his previous work includes, Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille, and Hook), and he goes out with a big bang. The design of the otherworldly "Communiverse" simply dazzles. The vibrancy of the colours and the detailed textures create a wondrous environment in which Elio can grow and thrive.
Elio reminds me a lot of the television shows and movies that I loved as a kid and left behind as I matured. While I bemoan the death of Pixar's ability to make adult-friendly children's movies, I remind myself that those films laid out the foundation for my love of movies and storytelling, and hopefully Elio does the same for the next generation.