Finding Soul in the Stars – why “Elio” is Pixar’s Quiet Triumph

Pixar has decisively gone downhill in the last few years, developing an appetite for new instalments of pre-existing films like Inside Out 2 (2024) and the upcoming Toy Story 5 (2026). This parallels Disney that released a reboot of Lilo and Stitch this year, grossing over £700 million at the box office, and DreamWorks’ latest release How To Train Your Dragon. Although these prequels/sequels have been well received by their audiences, Occassio Gee suggests they are ‘unnecessary and uninspired’^[1], blocking the path for more imaginative ideas to come to light within animation. I would argue that Elio (2025) has knocked the ball out of the park, bringing soul back to the studio.

We are first introduced to the protagonist when he is in a time of despair, grieving his deceased parents and refusing food. He has an Aunty that is also in mourning but clearly loves the little boy that has been left behind and wants to help him. When he comes across a display for Voyager 1, he becomes visibly enthused, his eyes growing comically large with wonder. It is with this wonder that the production house hooks children and adults alike, reminding us of our ability to dream and taking us away from the suffering in our lives. Discovering a new dream, Elio sets out to pursue it by trying to get abducted by aliens. When Elio finds himself finally abducted, the vibrant colours of the galactic setting present another trademark of Pixar, allowing us to see the world through the eyes of our inner child in alignment with the main character. The meticulous attention to detail using colour scripts and subsurface scattering emphasises the wonder we feel alongside him.

As Elio makes friends with a squishy alien prince, the story takes a fabulistic turn in allegiance with earlier well-loved classics such as Up (2009) and the more recent Soul (2020). I feel Soul in particular links smoothly to Elio, since both films centre around the role of metaphysics in shaping identity. The complimentary, purple-blue colour palettes simulate an atmosphere of otherworldly calm, while the enlightening friendships developed reflect an inner transformation within the protagonists. The moral attitude of the stories helps us learn a lesson about life, utilizing a perspective we may not have thought of before. In this case, Elio has to choose between staying in the communiverse with all his new friends, representing a space where he has found safety away from his harsh reality, or facing his life head on and learning how to make friends on Earth. He ultimately realises that he ‘hasn’t given Earth a chance’ yet, bringing relief to his Aunty who expresses how much she has missed him while he’s been away and how she needs him to complete their little family.

By embedding a quote from an interview with Carl Sagan at both the start and end of the film – ‘It touches to the deepest of human concerns: Are we alone?’ – Pixar hones in on an important existential idea. Not only are human beings frightened of being alone in the universe, we are constantly afraid of being stripped of the one’s we love on this planet. We are encouraged to hold on tight to those that matter while we still can, rather than escape in to fantasy worlds, however comforting they may appear. Elio may have been criticized for being too allegorical rather than explicit about the connection between difference (queerness, neurodivergence etc) and alienation (no pun intended)^[2], and has had the lowest opening weekend box office in Pixar history. But this doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of praise for its enchanting approach to addressing the loneliness epidemic, reiterating that we are never alone.