I feel like Pixar’s Elio got a little bit of a bad rap. It did not perform well at the box office, and articles in the trades at the time of its initial release detailed its “catastrophic” journey to theaters, including the departure of one director and heavy rewrites of the film’s storyline and characters.
I never saw the original concept for Elio. Maybe it would have been a masterpiece that would put the version released to theaters to shame. But … I quite enjoyed the Elio we got. It was a sweet and charming movie about a lonely orphan who discovers the community he’s always wanted among an intergalactic collective of aliens, including the scene-stealing space slug Glordon.
While certainly not on the level of Pixar’s greatest efforts, it was also far from their worst. (Give me Elio over The Good Dinosaur 100 times out of 100 and twice on Sundays, thank you very much.) And if you are among the many people who missed it in theaters, you’re about to get your chance to catch up with it on Disney+. I have a feeling it’s going to slowly but surely develop into a kiddie cult classic there.
READ MORE: Every Pixar Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
I took my kids to see Elio when it first opened in theaters earlier in 2025, and it inspired a great conversation afterwards where we discussed the movie and how it made us all feel. Here is brief excerpt…
Dad: Taking care of a kid is hard too. Glordon was afraid of his dad and didn’t want to tell him things about himself and how he felt. Are you afraid to tell me things like that?
Seven Year Old: No.
Dad: That’s good.
Nine Year Old: If you were wearing giant armor and had a laser on your arm and yelled at us constantly I’d be scared.
Dad: That’s fair.
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.
Elio will be available on Disney+ starting on September 17.
Movies Where the Main Character Is Actually the Worst
They’re not exactly evil, and they’re not even the antagonists or official “bad guys” of their movies, but these main characters are so terrible or unlikable they could be considered villains.
Gallery Credit: Erica Russell