One year ago, Pixar Animation Studios announced that they were changing course. Speaking with Bloomberg, chief creative officer Pete Docter said that, following disappointing box office returns on culturally specific and director-driven projects, Pixar would now focus on films “with clear mass appeal” that “speak to a commonality of experience.” In practice, that means more sequels and spin-offs of proven properties as well as original stories that aim for the universal instead of the specific.
This strategy saw early success: Last year’s “Inside Out 2” was (briefly) the highest grossing animated film in history. But the first original film released under the new mandate—“Elio,” directed by Domee Shi (“Turning Red”) and Madeline Sharafian—arrived last weekend and yielded Pixar’s lowest box office opening in history.
Does that make “Elio” a bad movie? Not at all: It’s packed with imaginative character designs and thrilling action sequences. It also feels like a minor Pixar work. All of the familiar beats are there, but it rarely plays them with enough heart to rank among the studio’s best. As the studio discerns the future of their original stories, “Elio” represents both a cautionary tale and a step in the right direction.
The title character is an 11-year-old boy (Yonas Kibreab) who is being raised by his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) after the deaths of his parents. Elio is obsessed with the possibility of extraterrestrial life, his personal feelings of loneliness manifesting as an urgent hope that we are not alone in the universe. He gets his wish when aliens respond to a signal he sends from the Army base where Olga works, transporting him to the Communiverse, a sort of intergalactic United Nations. Elio believes he has finally found where he belongs.
But when the Communiverse is threatened by Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), leader of the warlike Hylurgians, Elio volunteers to negotiate a peace treaty in order to secure his place among the stars. Aboard Grigon’s ship he meets the warlord’s son, an adorable slug (if you can imagine such a thing) named Glordon (Remy Edgerly). Like Elio, he is an outsider: a gentle soul among a bellicose species which ensconces itself in robotic carapaces bristling with high-tech weapons. Elio and Glordon quickly become friends, and make a bold plan to create peace. Antics, naturally, ensue.
“Elio” is often a lot of fun: There are shenanigans involving clones and tunnels of lava, kid-friendly scares that evoke “E.T” and other Amblin classics, and tons of dynamic, creative alien designs. The Communiverse itself is a gorgeous, organic environment, setting it apart from the traditional clean and rigid lines of most popular science fiction. The emotional arcs about belonging and understanding—between Elio and Olga, Elio and Glordon, and Glordon and Grigon—are heartwarming without indulging in the manipulative tear jerking that has become Pixar’s stock in trade.
But the film also often feels like a first draft of itself. The emotional arcs hit all of the right beats, but they’re also the expected beats. The aliens and environments look great, but none of the Communiverse characters ever develop enough to be interesting (or, even worse, particularly funny) in their own right. The film’s heart—linking a personal feeling of being alone and misunderstood with the larger existential question of whether we’re alone in the universe—is powerful. But the screenplay never delves into that theme in any substantive way, satisfied to just put those two ideas side by side and gesture at a connection.
Overall, there is a definite lack of specificity here. For all of its flaws, “Elemental” could only have been made by Peter Sohn; “Elio” could have been made by anyone on the Pixar team. Some of that is also, likely, due to a mid-production director switch. Adrian Molina, co-director of “Coco,” conceived the film originally as a more personal project, but left to develop “Coco 2” and was replaced by Shi and Sharafian (he retains a director credit). The film’s release was pushed back almost a year, and underwent revisions. The film often feels like several drafts stitched together, some more effective than others. This version of “Elio” may be more “universal” (or, at least, not as tied to a director’s particular experience) as Molina’s original concept, but it also feels a little flimsy as a consequence.
I admit that I am somewhat skeptical of Pixar’s claim that their recent films underperformed because they were too culturally specific. “Luca” and “Turning Red” were released straight to streaming in the waning days of the pandemic, a terrible time for movies in general. “Elemental” looked great, but was a narrative and thematic mess (and even so, became a sleeper hit globally). Pixar’s new fervor for sequels and spin-offs also seems to ignore that the “Toy Story” spin-off “Lightyear” was a critical and commercial failure.
My concern is that the studio’s pursuit of “mass appeal” will result in films that are too broad to have any depth—and, more pressingly, that it could come at the expense of diverse voices. Elio is a protagonist of color, and while it’s refreshing to see a Mexican-American kid starring in a movie that isn’t about him being Mexican-American, I also wished there was a little more texture. The universal and the specific don’t have to be opposing forces; when done well (in the case of “Coco,” for instance) they enhance each other.
Pixar’s best films appealed to young audiences while also understanding that kids are capable of profound emotional intelligence. As they try to regain their former success, I think that is what they should focus on. “Elio” feels like an attempt, at least, to move in that direction. It’s not perfect, but it does succeed in expressing that young people can be brave and compassionate, and that even though it often feels like it, no one is alone. What could be more universal than that?
“Elio” is in theaters now.
