Pixar’s Elio did not exactly perform to Disney’s expectations. The film landed at #3 in its opening weekend, pulling in just $35 million globally, and never recovered. Odds are fair you didn’t see it in a theater, which means it’ll be new to you when it debuts on Disney+…rather quickly.
Yes, in just one week from now, September 17, you’ll be able to see what all the non-hype is about. Elio isn’t a BAD movie (83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes); it was mostly the victim of poor timing, getting overshadowed by the family film that came out one week earlier. Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon. Also, for some reason, Disney has never had any luck going for sci-fi themes in its animated films.
The title is the name of its main character, a misfit little boy who dreams of exploring the galaxy — and has a plan to do so. Elio’s Aunt Olga works for some kind of space-focused branch of the US Army and wishes her nephew wasn’t so weird. Because of her position, she has access to satellite technology capable of beaming a message into space, which is how Elio manages to attract aliens to him.
Elio has told these aliens a little white lie: the club is rather elite and they believe he’s the leader of Earth. They take him to the Communiverse, a paradise resort for extraterrestrials from all over the ‘verse. It’s there that he meets and becomes buddies with Glordon, an alien who is also socially ostracised…but through no fault of his own. Turns out Glordon’s father is evil and is trying to launch an attack on the Communiverse.
Elio stars the voices of Yonas Kibreab as the title character, Zoe Saldaña as Aunt Olga, Remy Edgerly as Glordon, Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon, Jameela Jamil as Ambassador Questa and Shirley Henderson as OOOOO. It is directed by Madeline Sharafian (Burrow SparkShort), Domee Shi (Bao, Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (co-screenwriter/co-director of Coco), and produced by Mary Alice Drumm (associate producer of Coco).
Elio orbits onto Disney+ September 17.
