Disney/Pixar, 2025. Rating PG
How do we prevent people from becoming bullies? Employ silliness.
Elio is a genuinely heart-warming adventure worth a happy tear or two and deserving of more than its 6.8 IMDb rating for its intelligent creativity, humanizing effect, and special nod to my retired-woman-military-officer-and-astronaut-wanna-be heart.
Elio, an American Latino boy, loses his parents and gains an obsession to get abducted by aliens as escape from grief. Elio’s aunt, an American military officer, puts her dreams of becoming an astronaut on hold to take care of Elio. Tia (Aunty) Olga meets one frustration after another trying to connect with her alien-loving nephew.
Until Elio succeeds in getting abducted. And Aunty Olga intercepts extra-terrestrial communications while on night duty at the base. Then everything changes.
Elio finds himself loved and celebrated at his alien destination, the Communiverse. But his character change must come in recognizing that the adventure he always wanted off Earth was already available at home. What injustices on Earth need rebelling against? What bullies and monsters on Earth need humanizing?
This sweet story runs like a bunch of animators and screenwriters doing group sessions of self-awareness art therapy.
Snort at the silliness but pay attention to the effects. There are plenty of human truths right below the story’s surface, but the visual antics help you to just enjoy the show if you’re not in the mood. My teen son got some good laughs from the antics, and then felt pleased about deciphering the human truths in conversation later.
You might catch glimpses of the movie asking:
- How do we draw out each other’s authentic self with its unique spark and gifts?
- How do we make space for each other’s need to grieve, to stumble around trying to find solid ground again?
- How do we recognize and welcome the humanness of the monstrous ‘other,’ like Luke Skywalker saw in Darth Vader?
And most important, how do we prevent each other from becoming villains?
Elio cracks the code by simply befriending the outcast, the one destined to become a bully by family and cultural norms. How does the prevention happen? Fun. Games. Jokes. Silliness. These are where kids (read, “we all”) are made to feel like they belong. This is what fights back the fears of being wrong, unwanted, a liability.
The animators took on the unusual challenge of humanizing an alien face with a mouth but no eyes. A little subtle shadowing above the mouth is all it takes to perceive anger, disbelief, confusion, distrust, concern, joy, and contentment. The shape of ripples on a surface, where eyes should be, remains profoundly meaningful to us humans.
The central story theme circles around how to handle bullies and monsters with expectant hope for healed relationships.
Success comes through vulnerability, not showdowns with physical or rhetorical force. As an example of rhetorical force, Elio’s ill-informed attempt at conflict resolution at the beginning of the story involves trying to outsmart the bad guy’s anger issues with, “Why waste your life trying to connect with people who don’t want you?” The viewer senses something’s not quite right in that, certainly not ultimate enough to settle on. It’s Tia Olga, near the end, saying, “I don’t always understand you, but I’ll always love you,” that bridges the chasm.
Allegory-driven, the story is most coherent if you recognize the kind of ride you’re on and settle into it. Embrace the silliness! Laugh. It’ll humanize you.
The movie gives good attention to Latine culture in the United States. For example, the fictional military communications location is named Montez Air Force Base, a nod to the scarcity of Latine-named bases despite such a large Latine contingent serving in the American military.
My favourite sci-fi/alien lore trope that shows up is the “time lock,” sometimes called “frozen reality,” in which everything stops except for the one person observing or getting abducted by aliens. This comes in a long sci-fi tradition, including Arthur C. Clarke in the 1950’s and Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as X-Files, and Dr. Who. I most recently saw it on the hilarious Resident Alien.
Review written by: Jazmine Lawrence, Captain (Retired, RCAF), BSc Honours Physics, MA (Theology) student, future sci-fi author.