Elio (2025)

Pixar's latest is classic animated material, sugary sweet and almost no surprises, and I was surprised to see it nominated in the Feature Length Animated Movie category--there were two other movies we saw, maybe three that I thought were better. Be that as it may, Elio Solis is an orphaned child cared for by his childless aunt, Major Olga Solis. At an air and space museum, a grieving Elio stumbles on a “coming soon” exhibition about the Voyager spacecrafts (the probes launched in 1977 carrying gold discs with messages from Earth) and begins to dream about finding solace beyond our solar system. Olga sets aside her dreams to care for her relative and Elio isn’t exactly grateful for that sacrifice. He begins cutting school, absconding to the beach to carve messages in the sand, and even begins accumulating the basic tech to contact potential aliens, partly it seems because he is having so much trouble relating to Earthlings. The more Olga sacrifices (including her desire to become an astronaut), the more Elio seems to resent her, believing he’s to blame for her dashed desires. Despite the odds, Elio manages to contact aliens, thereby opening the door to discovery. Ta dum! Turns out Olga is pretty excited about that discovery as well, and they both get to spend some time in outer space after all.