Elio (Pixar - June 2025)

[gerarar]

I saw Elio yesterday (11/21) 12:30pm Dolby showing.
It was about half-full with lots of kids and families. Some were into it, but few weren't. The little kid nearby me kept talking and their parent gave them a tablet about a 1/3 way through...at least they kept the brightness somewhat low.

As for the movie itself, I was somewhat bored of the first half. But it picks up about half-way through once Elio gets abducted and gets to the Communiverse. His bond with Glordon and him realizing that he is wanted by those that love him was overall a nice message. Pretty obvious by the end that he would go back to Earth to be with his Aunt Olga and leave Communiverse...for now.

The third act and the "villian" arc were well done imo.

Also, in the beginning when Elio watches the presentation in the space museum, the narrator reminded me a lot of of the Spaceship Earth ride for some reason...sounded a lot the same.

Overall it's a mid-tier Pixar movie. However compared to the previous Pixar entries like Elemental and Inside Out 2, it pales in comparison. Definitely better than Lightyear though...
For me, roughly a 7/10.

Also it's kinda weird how this is my third movie this weekend with a rebellious kid and coming of age story. I saw How to Train Your Dragon and 29 Years Ago this past Friday. AMC A-List is very much worth it for times like these.

 

[Nevermore525]

A meme-able dumpster fire plot movie made over $900M in A Minecraft Movie. That movie is so devoid of plot but has every IP reference that fans want.

Audiences don’t seem to really care about a good story, they just want something familiar.

Hopefully Elio can find some growth, but it’s not a great sign

 

[EagleScout610]

A meme-able dumpster fire plot movie made over $900M in A Minecraft Movie. That movie is so devoid of plot but has every IP reference that fans want.

Audiences don’t seem to really care about a good story, they just want something familiar.

Hopefully Elio can find some growth, but it’s not a great sign

Minecraft was also assisted, for better or worse, by the reputation of being "So bad you have to see it" and of course the chicken jockey trend. Unless Elio can pull both of those off, I feel Minecraft will definitely come out on top.

 

[Nevermore525]

Minecraft was also assisted, for better or worse, by the reputation of being "So bad you have to see it" and of course the chicken jockey trend. Unless Elio can pull both of those off, I feel Minecraft will definitely come out on top.

Yeah that’s what I meant by memeable. Whole internet trend for being dumb in a movie theater for an awful movie.

Just doesn’t encourage the Studios to do anything creative when they know they can mail it in and make a movie like that, or just remake Stitch or do a pure shot for shot HTTYD and make bank.

Coco will still stand as the last original animated film to make over $200M domestically and that was almost a decade ago

 

[Disney Analyst]

A meme-able dumpster fire plot movie made over $900M in A Minecraft Movie. That movie is so devoid of plot but has every IP reference that fans want.

Audiences don’t seem to really care about a good story, they just want something familiar.

Hopefully Elio can find some growth, but it’s not a great sign

Yep. As I said earlier, organic original hits are few and far now. These days it comes down to what has gone viral, gets people traction on social media, and has become the “in” movie, even if it’s not actually a good movie.

Unless you’re a known IP or sequel, that comes out at the right time (Inside Out 2), or have the benefit of riding the wave of a TikTok trend… good luck.

 

[DisneyWarrior27]

It opened to $21M domestic.

Could still leg out like Elemental did and hit $100M domestic.

 

[DisneyWarrior27]

Disney's did a lot of damage to the Pixar brand by releasing so many originals specifically to Disney+

I think some people just assume Pixar original = Disney+ release now

And broadly speaking it's not been great for Pixar this decade. Lightyear flopped. Elemental, while having genuine word of mouth success, still made much less than Pixar hits of the past. And now Elio disappoints too. I don't have much confidence that Hoppers will succeed either.

Inside Out 2 being the biggest animated movie ever was a total fluke. Something nobody predicted. The perfect combination of name recognition, releasing so many years after the original to develop cross generational interest, and the "Inside Out" name still being held in high regard and not suffering from overexposure.

You’re wrong to doubt Hoppers since at least that film will mark a special occasion for Pixar to mark celebrating their 30th feature film made in the year where they will also be celebrating their 40th Anniversary too.

Plus it’s coming out in the same window another movie about animals opened in and that was Zootopia back in 2016.

So that one might break out and do well.

Same with Gatto in 2027 if they push that film being the first to mark a new animation style for Pixar hard.

 

[easyrowrdw]

with the success of L&S and HtTyD and the underperformance Elio….get ready for the pause on live action remakes to be short live… especially if Moana hits… which I expect it might… people say they want original movies…But when studios give them to you people don’t watch

I think this is true. But, at the same time, I think Pixar’s recent sequels have been better than their recent original movies (with maybe only Coco as an exception). It’s only due to Elio’s decent reviews that I’m interested. The trailers and look of the movie really weren’t appealing to me.

 

[DisneyWarrior27]

Theater employee here - Elio has been doing OK with us, nothing massive like IO2 or even Moana 2, but its not dead. I expect that'll change once Superman, Jurassic, and Fantastic absolutely bury it over the next few weeks.

Not if it does what Elemental did to survive at the box office.

Also, I expect Jurassic World Rebirth to disappoint at the box office, since I’ve heard divisive and mixed things about it.

 

[DisneyWarrior27]

I think this is true. But, at the same time, I think Pixar’s recent sequels have been better than their recent original movies (with maybe only Coco as an exception). It’s only due to Elio’s decent reviews that I’m interested. The trailers and look of the movie really weren’t appealing to me.

I blame Disney (mainly Iger and Ayaz) for that since they haven’t been letting Pixar cut their trailers for their movies in ages unlike how Disney Animation still cuts the trailers for their movies as we saw with the Zootopia 2 teaser.

They need to better market their movies and take back control of their marketing.

 

[Earlie the Pearlie]

Minecraft was also assisted, for better or worse, by the reputation of being "So bad you have to see it" and of course the chicken jockey trend. Unless Elio can pull both of those off, I feel Minecraft will definitely come out on top.

It’s a bit off topic, so I won’t dive too deep into it, but I went to see the Minecraft movie in theaters because I’m a lover of terrible movies. It was the most fun in-theater experience I’ve ever had, even beating out Endgame - something akin to Rocky Horror or The Room. (Not a fan of people trashing theaters, however.) Just wanted to point out that it’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges thing with Elio.

Speaking of which, I saw Elio on Wednesday. It was pretty good, and pretty good Pixar is a lot better than most animated films.

 

[EagleScout610]

Not if it does what Elemental did to survive at the box office.

Also, I expect Jurassic World Rebirth to disappoint at the box office, since I’ve heard divisive and mixed things about it.

If not by Jurassic, Fantastic Four and Superman will more than likely squash Elio flat. And I say that based on what I hear customers saying about each movie. With Elio it was alot of 'What's that?' 'Eh, maybe' or just flat out ignoring the poster for it. The "Big Three" are often stood and discussed even after walking away from the poster.

 

[EagleScout610]

It’s a bit off topic, so I won’t dive too deep into it, but I went to see the Minecraft movie in theaters because I’m a lover of terrible movies. It was the most fun in-theater experience I’ve ever had, even beating out Endgame - something akin to Rocky Horror or The Room. (Not a fan of people trashing theaters, however.) Just wanted to point out that it’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges thing with Elio.

Speaking of which, I saw Elio on Wednesday. It was pretty good, and pretty good Pixar is a lot better than most animated films.

I'm a theater janitor and worked Minecraft. I think that movie took a few years off my life between cleaning up and telling people to behave, haha.

 

[Earlie the Pearlie]

I'm a theater janitor and worked Minecraft. I think that movie took a few years off my life between cleaning up and telling people to behave, haha.

Thank you for your service

There were a bunch of middle schoolers at my showing. I apologized to the janitors on my way out, I felt awful by association

Edited for clarity. The middle schoolers were not in my party.

 

[Phroobar]

I'm playing with Co-pilot AI and thought Glordon looks a lot like Heimlich from A Bugs Life. So I uploaded a picture of Heimlich and gave it instructions to try to make it look like Glordon. I think I got the spirit but it comes to point where the AI just stops making changes. It would take more work and probably a better AI.

 

[Miss Rori]

You’re wrong to doubt Hoppers since at least that film will mark a special occasion for Pixar to mark celebrating their 30th feature film made in the year where they will also be celebrating their 40th Anniversary too.

Plus it’s coming out in the same window another movie about animals opened in and that was Zootopia back in 2016.

I don't think any of those factors are going to help make it a success. Nobody really cares about corporate anniversary markers or "Xth movie" milestones - they certainly didn't when it came to Wish! And just being about animals and opening at the same time another movie about animals did doesn't make it a safe bet.

(There's also the issue of Hoppers supposedly being heavily retooled to get rid of its original pro-environmental messaging, as was brought up in the wake of the massive retool of Inside Out 2 and all the crunch time put on that movie's animators. If indeed it's been heavily rethought, that puts it in the same boat as...well, Elio.)

 

[Disney Irish]

I saw Elio yesterday (11/21) 12:30pm Dolby showing.
It was about half-full with lots of kids and families. Some were into it, but few weren't. The little kid nearby me kept talking and their parent gave them a tablet about a 1/3 way through...at least they kept the brightness somewhat low.

As for the movie itself, I was somewhat bored of the first half. But it picks up about half-way through once Elio gets abducted and gets to the Communiverse. His bond with Glordon and him realizing that he is wanted by those that love him was overall a nice message. Pretty obvious by the end that he would go back to Earth to be with his Aunt Olga and leave Communiverse...for now.

The third act and the "villian" arc were well done imo.

Also, in the beginning when Elio watches the presentation in the space museum, the narrator reminded me a lot of of the Spaceship Earth ride for some reason...sounded a lot the same.

Overall it's a mid-tier Pixar movie. However compared to the previous Pixar entries like Elemental and Inside Out 2, it pales in comparison. Definitely better than Lightyear though...
For me, roughly a 7/10.

Also it's kinda weird how this is my third movie this weekend with a rebellious kid and coming of age story. I saw How to Train Your Dragon and 29 Years Ago this past Friday. AMC A-List is very much worth it for times like these.

The voice in the space museum during the Voyager presentation was Kate Mulgrew. A little inside nod to her time as Captain on the Star Trek show Voyager and other recent Star Trek shows.

Also Carl Sagan makes a voice cameo (posthumously of course) using archival recordings from an interview he did in like 1985.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

This movie would benefit from a Disney+ series. That may seem like throwing more money after bad but I still think it won't truly find its legs until well after the box office.

 

[Disney Irish]

This movie would benefit from a Disney+ series. That may seem like throwing more money after bad but I still think it won't truly find its legs until well after the box office.

Agreed, that is the hope for many movies these days not just Disney. But I think that a D+ series would give enough time for the franchise to find an audience and then a big screen sequel down the line.

 

[Disney Irish]

You’re wrong to doubt Hoppers since at least that film will mark a special occasion for Pixar to mark celebrating their 30th feature film made in the year where they will also be celebrating their 40th Anniversary too.

Plus it’s coming out in the same window another movie about animals opened in and that was Zootopia back in 2016.

So that one might break out and do well.

Same with Gatto in 2027 if they push that film being the first to mark a new animation style for Pixar hard.

I think you have to face facts, as sad as it is, that audiences today just don't care as much about Pixar as they once did. Blame streaming culture, blame gaming culture, blame fickle audiences ever changing tastes, blame just time in general. But I think we just need to accept the fact that Hoppers just like other recent originals may not do well, no matter what anniversary is tied to it.