Elio

For their latest, Pixar delivers a story about a young boy who has to be abducted by aliens to learn about friendship and family. Following the death of his parents, a lonely Elio (Yonas Kibreab) struggles to connect with his aunt (Zoe Saldaña) or make friends while becoming obsessed with the idea of alien life and traveling to the stars to escape a world where he doesn't seem to belong. Eventually Elio gets his wish when his message to outer space is overheard and he finds himself among ambassadors of a federation of planets, so to speak, known as the Communiverse (a moniker that is as awkward spoken aloud as it looks in print).

While exaggerating his role on Earth, Elio attempts to prove himself by preventing the hot-headed Grigon (Brad Garrett) from attacking the Communiverse. Elio does this by befriending Grigon's far less bloodthirsty son Glordon (Remy Edgerly). The pair's montage through the amazing Communiverse offers some of the film's best visuals.

Not surprisingly, things don't exactly go according to Elio's half-assed plan. However, along the way Elio will learn about friendship while also getting a better understanding of family on his journey to discover where he truly belongs.

Elio isn't bad. It has a nice message, fun characters, a cool design, and it embraces the idea of community both in terms of friendship and family but also in terms of a larger world and galaxy where diversity is a strength rather than a weakness. It also has a nice homage to The Last Starfighter in the idea of the aliens leaving a copy of Elio behind to obscure his absence.

However, it's far from top-tier level Pixar. In comparison to the studio's other movies, Elio most closely resembles Onward which also shoved an introverted protagonist into a wacky larger-than-life adventure with mixed results. It's hard to pinpoint what's missing other than a bit of magic. The film is competently made and Elio certainly provides an emotional journey we should feel invested in... only we don't. Perhaps it's the simple story getting a bit lost at times or struggling to find its center. Or maybe the visuals simply overwhelm the tale. Whatever the cause, Elio is simply okay. With Pixar, we've just learned to expect a bit more.

Watch the trailer

• Title: Elio
• IMDb: link