Cinematic Point Of View

I almost slept on this one. Last night some friends invited the family to go with them to see Elio, the latest animated feature from Pixar. It’s a movie about feeling alone and finding your place. It’s about that hopeful feeling that there’s something out there besides us. It’s about family. I’m so very glad we went!

Elio tells the story of a young boy who loses both his parents and goes to live with his aunt. He feels alone and unwanted. His aunt loves him, but she’s forced to put her career on hold to care for him. One day, during an outing to the museum, Elio stumbles upon a newly opened space exhibit and it changes his life. He finds comfort from his trauma in the idea of extraterrestrial life and becomes obsessed with contacting aliens, hoping they’ll take him away.

If you’ve seen the trailer, then you know that aliens do exist and Elio does indeed get taken away by them and thrust into the heart of an intergalactic incident, trying to save the day and find his place in the Universe.

I thought Elio was great. I loved it actually. It delivered everything I want and expect from a Pixar movie. It had a great message, beautiful visuals, lots of action, lots of sweet moments and characters.

It had little nods to E.T., The Last Starfighter, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Explorers, Close Encounters. All those movies I loved growing up. There was a point in the film that recalled moments, to me, from old 80’s Disney live action movies like The Cat From Outer Space. Add to that that it even has Carl Sagan voice over book ends! I mean, come on people! These filmmakers know what they’re doing.

I also really appreciated that it took it’s time in the first act to let you get to know the characters and feel a sense of wonder. It’s a feeling that’s been greatly lacking in so many movies I’ve seen recently. My youngest though it moved a bit too quickly after the halfway point, and you could surely make an argument to support that, but it wasn’t so fast that it hurt the film, at least to me.

It also didn’t knock me over the head with it’s message or it’s emotional moments, but there was enough genuine sweetness there to move me many times.

Elio is a movie that would have been my obsession as a 10 year old. If you’ve ever read my blog before you likely know I had an eye accident as a kid and had to wear a patch. Elio has to wear a patch the majority of the movie. You don’t see that every day. There are just are so many things about his movie that helped me feel a real connection to the story it almost felt tailor made.

It’s too bad this one has seemingly gone unnoticed. It’s the best animated film I’ve seen since last year’s The Wild Robot, and probably my favorite Pixar movie since Coco.

If Elio is still playing near you, I’d say run out and catch a matinee. If not, definitely give it a watch when it hits streaming. Hope you enjoy!

Have you seen Elio? I’d love to hear your perspective.