Spoilers ELIO movie discussion thread

[Admiral Archer]

How is this movie so far under the radar? My spoiler free review is as follows:

"Elio" is a fantastic science fiction animated film with an original story concept, released by Disney and Pixar. The film follows a young boy named Elio who is obsessed with aliens and spends all his time trying to make contact with them.

For such an obscure film that has bombed at the box office, Elio is incredibly refreshing and beautifully heartwarming. It definitely is an emotional roller coaster with an incredible soundtrack score. For us trekkies there is a wonderful Easter egg that will make you tear up for sure.

I highly recommend Elio. It's my favorite movie of the summer and of the past two or three years at least. In a world filled with unnecessary prequels, sequels and remakes that go on and on, Elio is proof that original story concepts in Hollywood should still be worth investing in.

EDIT: although my review is spoiler free, I did post this in a Spoiler tagged thread for a reason. So spoilers are welcome to discuss! If anyone wishes to avoid spoilers, go back now! You have been warned.

 

[Caretaker]

I'll probably go see this on Independence Day.

 

[JD]

My mom and I saw it on Tuesday and we both thought it was great. It's admittedly not the most original story, but it was very well told. It had a great cast and characters, and the designs for the aliens and the Communiverse were spectacular.

Spoiler: Star Trek Easter Egg

And having Kate Mulgrew narrate the Voyager documentary at the museum was brilliant, and I'm assuming that was not a coincidence.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I saw it today and I loved it. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot more considering the rough production history the film had (a large portion of the film was reworked...after the first trailer was released) and I felt like the final trailer gave off a generic kids space adventure vibe. I was delighted that not only was my assumption wrong, but that the film had a strong core message about repairing damaged familial relations while struggling with loneliness due to the loss of both parents. I thought that was a lovely message to deliver to children, which continues a long Pixar tradition of depicting child conflicts in a mature manner. Because of that, it's no surprise that Domee Shi (Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (Coco) were two of the directors for the film.

For such an obscure film that has bombed at the box office...

While I wouldn't say any Pixar film is obscure, I am disappointed that it has done so poorly in the box office. This was one of the best Pixar films in recent years and I hope the studio doesn't have the wrong takeaway from it because I want Pixar to continue to create stories like this one.

Spoiler: Star Trek Easter Egg

And having Kate Mulgrew narrate the Voyager documentary at the museum was brilliant, and I'm assuming that was not a coincidence.

I recognized her voice right away but I couldn't place it until she said "Voyager" and then I broke out in a great big grin. No way that was a coincidence. The moment felt akin to Peter Davison narrating the planetarium in an episode of Sherlock (even if Mulgrew doesn't have any connections with Pixar or this film's directors).