by James Coulter
If you haven’t heard about Pixar’s newest movie, Elio, don’t worry! A lot of people didn’t. In fact, when it was released last month, the film suffered the worst box office opening in Pixar’s history, earning only $21 million domestically its opening weekend. Couple that with the film’s troubled production and its delayed release date, and it feels like the movie was doomed on arrival.
But did Elio deserve to underperform at the box office? Did this film deserve to go unnoticed with its severe lack of marketing? Or is it a hidden gem that fell to Earth?
Elio is an average kid that no one understands. After his parents pass away, he becomes obsessed with space. He even wants to be abducted by aliens because he feels so out of place on Earth.
His wish soon comes true after transmitting a message to space. He is abducted by aliens who assume he is the leader of Earth and wish to bring the planet into their “Communiverse.” They even task him with negotiating with a savage warlord who demands to join the Communiverse or else destroy it.
Will Elio get out of his interplanetary predicament? Will he convince the warlord to stand down by befriending his son? Or is his endeavor as doomed as his life on Earth?
Several critics have denounced Elio as the worst Pixar movie. It’s not. Not when Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur exist. As big of a flop as it was, Elio is not a bad movie.
That’s not a compliment.
Because at least you can discuss a bad movie. You can talk about how bad it was. In the same way, you can talk about how a good movie was good. At least you can talk about a good or bad movie.
But what about a movie that’s neither good nor bad? A bland movie? A mediocre movie. A boring movie. You can’t because there’s not much good or bad to talk about. However, seeing as I paid good money to watch the movie, I might as well recompense myself by writing a review, even if I have to scrape the proverbial barrel to do so.
First, some positives. The overall art designs of everything space and space-related were gorgeous. Especially when young Elio visits the Communiverse and sees all of the different alien species, all of which are unique and vibrantly colored and designed.
Another good thing: this movie is only 90 minutes long. Yes, that’s a plus. Especially when so many blockbusters insist on being two-to-three-hour watches. This movie isn’t perfect, but at least it’s over pretty quickly.
And that’s where the positives end. Everything about this movie is generic. The story is generic. The characters are generic. Even the designs of the human characters look generic.
Several recent Pixar movies like this one, along with Turning Red and Luca, exhibit what has since become known as “bean mouth design”—for the obvious reason that many of the characters appear overly-simplistic with bean mouths.
One reviewer even complained it was hard to enjoy the movie because she had to remind herself it wasn’t a GrubHub commercial. Because the characters look that bland and generic.
This movie could have also been better developed, with the overall story refusing to “show, don’t tell.” For example, we’re told that the main character feels out of place and has trouble relating to other people. We’re told that only his parents were able to understand him, and that he feels alone ever since they left. And we’re told that he and his aunt have a strained relationship. But we’re never really shown any of this.
We never really get to see what his life was like before his parents died. We never really see his strained relationship with his aunt outside of her shrugging off his obsession with wanting to be abducted by aliens (which is quite a normal reaction). We never even see him being mocked, teased, or ignored by other children. We do see him being berated by very generic bully characters, but for reasons outside of his alien obsession.
This movie could have benefited from some additional scenes. Maybe a few flashbacks of him and his parents contrasted with scenes of him not fitting in with other children or failing to connect with his aunt. Instead, we’re simply subjected to a montage of him skipping school to lie on the beach waiting to be abducted by aliens, and expected to assume this is why he’s not connecting with anyone else in his life.
Is this still a good movie for kids? Sure. It’s harmless enough. And small children are most likely to be entertained by it. Then again, kids are easily entertained by the likes of Cocomelon, Blippi, and Ms. Rachel. However, unlike any of that slop, watching this movie won’t rot their brains or attention spans. Overall, Elio is good. Just not good enough. It’s bland, boring, and forgettable.
