Will Pixar’s Alien Tale Make Contact With Audiences?

Disney-Pixar’s Elio is now in theaters. What are critics saying about the animated sci-fi adventure?

Rated PG, Elio’s official summary reads, “For centuries, people have called out to the universe looking for answers — in Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film Elio, the universe calls back! The cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession.”

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“So, when he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide, Elio’s all in for the epic undertaking. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader, Elio must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions, and somehow discover who and where he is truly meant to be.”

Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, Elio stars the voices of Yonas Kibreab as Elio, Zoe Saldaña as Aunt Olga, Remy Edgerly as Glordon, Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon, Jameela Jamil as Ambassador Questa and Shirley Henderson as OOOOO.

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As of Friday, Elio has earned an 86% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 105 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus reads, “Catapulted by its theme of building self-esteem, Pixar’s latest cosmic wonder Elio boasts a fanciful world of original creations to dazzling effect.”

The RT Popcornmeter score and audience summary for Elio are still pending.

What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Elio’?

Laura Venning of Empire Magazine is among the top critics on RT who gives Elio a “fresh” rating, writing, “It’s a vivid, sweet but not saccharine voyage of discovery that proves Pixar is still capable of imagination.”

While he has some reservations with the film, Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com also gives the film a “fresh” review on RT, noting, “Schmaltzy yet sincere, Elio, the latest from Pixar, is as predictable as they come but as tender as they can get.

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Caroline Siede of The Daily Beast also gives Elio a “fresh” rating on RT, writing, “For all its overt ’80s homages, there’s something timeless about Elio, too. It may be mid-tier Pixar, but that’s still likely to make it one of the better-animated offerings of the year.”

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair is among the top critics on RT who gives Elio a “rotten” rating, writing in his review summary, “Pixar has begun doing what it once seemed it never would: repeating itself.”

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Allison Wilmore of New York Magazine/Vulture also gives Elio a “rotten” rating, noting, “For a movie about someone learning, in both literal and emotional ways, that he’s not alone in the universe, Elio has real trouble getting out of its own head.”

William Bibbiani of The Wrap is also a detractor of Elio, writing in his RT review summary, “It’s all about radical acceptance but can only talk about the real-world application of its message in general metaphors, so people who don’t actually accept ‘weird,’ ‘different’ kids won’t have to think about how wrong they are.”

Elio is now in theaters nationwide.

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