About the film (courtesy of Disney and Pixar):
The cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession. 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.

The film Elio introduces audiences to a colorful and heartfelt world. The titular character, a young orphan struggling to make friends, is placed into the care of his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña). His new guardian is forced to give up her dreams of becoming an astronaut to care for her nephew while serving as a Major in the government’s space program. While at a museum, Elio (Yonas Kibreab) wanders away from his aunt after overhearing a conversation about the job she sacrificed to tend to him. During his venture, he discovers a display showcasing the Voyager and the Golden Record. This ignites a desire to learn more about space so he can be abducted by aliens and find a new home where he feels he truly belongs.

Elio eventually gets abducted and meets with ambassadors aboard the “Communiverse,” a ship composed of a collective of extraterrestrial species bound together by the sharing of knowledge, culture, and food. All proceeds well for Elio as he successfully tricks the alien leaders into believing he is Earth’s ruler and deserves a spot among the upper echelons of these life forms. However, before his formal induction can take place, the council meets with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), the leader of the Hylurgians, who is denied a spot among them for being too aggressive and warmongering.

Grigon then leaves the Communiverse by blowing a hole through the ship’s hull, but not before threatening to return to conquer the collective and rule over them. Afraid for their lives, the members of the committee begin preparations to escape to the outer reaches of the galaxy and refuse to speak to Elio as time is of the essence. As the last committee member shelves himself away, Elio offers to negotiate peace between the newly warring factions in an attempt to earn his place.

During his meeting with the antagonist, Elio is taken captive, escapes, and befriends the leader’s estranged son, Glordon (Remy Edgerly), who does not wish to carry on their kind’s current purpose of waging war on any other group they encounter. These two characters bond over their innate differences to their respective species and ultimately discover that, despite having no prior connection, they have bridged that societal gap with an incredible amount of common ground. Over the course of their adventure, Glordon explains to Elio that Olga’s sacrifices were not indicative of him being a burden to her but rather incredibly loved by her.

The son is then taken as a bargaining chip by Elio, where in exchange for the Communiverse’s safety, Glordon will be returned from his staged kidnapping. This plan succeeds at first, and a clone of Glordon is handed off to Grigon so the original will not have to follow in his father’s combat-hungry footsteps. This betrayal is discovered by Grigon, and Elio is banished from the Communiverse and sent back to Earth as the ship is being taken over by the Hylurgians.

Glordon escapes the conquered vessel in a smaller craft that crash-lands on Earth after Elio is reunited with Olga. When this smaller ship is discovered, Olga and Elio find that the conqueror’s son cannot survive on Earth and needs to be taken back to his people. After teaming up to fly the escape craft safely back to the Communiverse, Glordon is returned to his father, where the truth about his reluctance is discussed and eventually understood. Grigon then agrees to leave this Communiverse again, this time in peace. Elio is then offered a spot on the committee with the other leaders, but after seeing how his aunt reacts to him potentially not going home, he is reminded of what Glordon told him earlier about her sacrifices, and he decides to return home and make the most of his life back on Earth.

In conclusion, Elio is a fun and fast-paced adventure that proves to be yet another example of how well Disney and Pixar can handle the immense scale of space. The opening scenes showing off the Voyager are reminiscent of both the Mission Space and Spaceship Earth attractions at Disney World’s EPCOT. The character design for this movie is handled very well and is similar to those seen in Lightyear. The overall story feels well-constructed and humorous in some parts while having enough emotional depth to pull an audience in and connect with the characters. Elio is a welcome addition to the Disney fold that one would hope to have its story and universe expanded upon.