With everything happening in the world right now, Elio feels like a soft nudge to remember our shared humanity.
I didn’t expect Elio to hit this hard.
I went in thinking it was just another animated film about space and aliens. And, sure enough, it’s got all the colorful Pixar magic with beautiful visuals, strange creatures, a whole galaxy full of imagination. But under all that, it’s really about something deeper.
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Elio is a young boy who doesn’t quite fit in. He lives with his aunt, gets bullied at camp, and believes in aliens, partly because he’s curious, and partly because he just wants to believe someone out there might want him. Then, in a twist of fate, or maybe he is just a very persistent boy trying to contact extra terrestrials to take him, he gets mistaken for Earth’s leader and is pulled into the Communiverse, which is like the UN for alien civilizations.
There’s this one line that stayed with me long after the credits rolled. When Elio is asked why he thinks aliens would come for him, he says something like, “There are thousands of planets in the universe. One of them has to want me. Because no one here does.” That hit hard.
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Like Elio, I lost both my parents. And like him, I remember what it felt like to wish someone, anyone, would just choose me. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. That kind of longing doesn’t go away easily, even when you’re grown. Watching it play out in a kids’ movie felt strangely healing.
Elio tells its story with honesty and it gives you time to sit with feelings most of us try to ignore. There’s no musical number either but there are colorful out-of-this-world montages of the universe he so wanted to be a part of.
The friendship between Elio and Glordon, a shy alien also struggling with his place in the universe, is tender and gentle. They see each other the way they’ve never been seen before. And that, really, is what I think the whole movie is about: finding connection in the most unexpected places.
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A reminder we probably all needed
With everything happening in the world right now, Elio feels like a soft nudge to remember our shared humanity even if that humanity is being reflected through alien creatures in a glowing galaxy. It’s a story that says: you matter, even if you feel weird. You belong, even if no one told you. You’re not alone, even when it feels like it.
I didn’t expect Elio to make me cry. But it did. And maybe that’s what makes it one of the more honest Pixar films we’ve had in a while.
