I had admittedly missed a lot of the promotion for Pixar’s new film ELIO, though I did know that basic story revolved around a young boy who wanted to be abducted by aliens. Going into the screening was interesting since I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Man, was I pleasantly surprised, this is a really entertaining and genuinely fun movie, and the visual are absolutely wonderful.

Elio (Yonas Kibreab) is living with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana) in the wake of his parents’ death, and is the sort of kid who doesn’t make friends easily. His interests include space travel and working with ham radios, and he actually wants aliens to abduct him so he can hopefully experience some place other than Earth. Olga is doing her best to raise Elio, but her military job keeps her busy, and she ultimately decides to send him to camp in hopes that it will calm him down. While there, Elio has his wildest dream come true, as an alien presence shows up and abducts him! These beings are very interesting and come in several different forms, and it appears they are highly intelligent and wanting to integrate an Earth “leader” into their high-functioning collective. Elio presents himself as the “leader of Earth” in hopes of joining his newfound friends forever, and they send a clone of him back down to Earth to take his place now that he’s “missing”, and initially Olga accepts this new Elio, even though he’s behaving quite different than normal. The real Elio witnesses another interplanetary creature join his friends, called Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a hulking angry being that seems to want to join the collective Elio is getting used to, but they reject him, and now find themselves facing his wrath, which could lead to their destruction. They task Elio with negotiating their safety, and he soon meets Grigon’s son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), a giant worm creature who is way more friendly than his father. As Elio and Glordon develop a close if unlikely friendship, they must figure out if they can change Grigon’s mind about unleashing destruction on the more passive creatures.

ELIO feels quite familiar, and it would be easy to draw comparisons to similar movies like the original LILO & STITCH, THE LAST STARFIGHTER, or the 1980s Sci-Fi comedy EXPLORERS. A lot of it feels like retreading tropes from other movies like it, but it still manages to be imaginative and incredibly fun. This effort from Pixar really makes good use of the visual spectrum available, and delivers some colorful sequences that are a blast to watch. It reminded me a lot of COCO in that we get to immerse ourselves in this alien world, and all the wonders that come with it. The voices are perfectly cast, with Yonas Kibreab and Remy Edgerly being strong standouts. Brad Garrett is also having fun as the evil Grigon, who doesn’t suffer fools at all. There are fun references to the alien abduction genre, but the film also sports great messages about finding your place in life, and coming to terms with what really matters.

ELIO comes from the directing trio of Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, who have worked on Pixar greats like COCO and INSIDE OUT, and this is an impressive effort for the seasoned company. Again, there’s a lot about the film that feels like you’ve seen it before, but it’s just so much fun you probably won’t mind. It also works the magic of making all of the main characters incredibly cute and endearing, to where the audience genuinely wants to root for them. These are folks I wouldn’t mind revisiting, should ELIO spawn a sequel or two, and it’s definitely one of the better “family” films to hit the big screen in a while.

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