Elio - Pixar's Comeback?

Pixar hasn't been in the best shape for the past few years in terms of feature films. With a few amazing yet under appreciated movies in Soul and Luca, and a few underperformers with both reception and quality in Turning Red and Lightyear respectively, Pixar has been in desperate need of a comeback. So, has its newest entry been the saviour of Pixar's original stories? Probably not, but it should be.

The reason I say this likely isn't Pixar's saviour is simply because of its marketing. Due to some big problems with the production, the budget for this movie skyrocketed, meaning it had to be cut somewhere else. That happened to be its marketing budget. This meant that a majority of people wouldn't have even known of this movies existence, let alone its release date, which will inevitably cause this to underperform and prove to Pixar that original movies just may not be worth it. 

There's an argument to be made that this was on purpose, to give Pixar - and more importantly Disney - an excuse to keep making unoriginal movies, like yet another Toy Story. While this is definitely possible, it just doesn't seem worth the loss in profits.

Anyway, onto the actual movie, Elio. Just like all of Pixar's movies, this is a beautifully crafted story, interwoven into some sort of supernatural world. This entry is about finding your place in the universe as well as the unconditional love that parental figures have for their children. While this didn't break the threshold to make me cry, like it seems Pixar is always trying to, I did get quite close at times and I don't see this movie as any lesser because it didn't break through.

It may sound strange to say, but I didn't expect this movie to actually be about space exploration. Yes, I know how stupid that sounds, this is a movie about aliens and a child being abducted by them, but hear me out. There is actually an element of breaking the limits of what we once knew about space, in the same sense of if The Incredibles was about the world finding out about superheroes rather than just a family of them, or if Elemental was about fire discovering the other elements. All I'm saying is that it felt as if the space element of this movie was a part of the story more than just a conduit for it. That doesn't sway what I thought of the movie in any way, it's simply something I found interesting about this compared to other Pixar entries.

Onto the characters, namely Glordon. First, I can see this character being a fan favourite and, hoping this gets more recognition, sticks around in peoples minds for years to come - like Boo or what Sporky was meant to be. He was such an adorable and funny character who, due to not having many facial features, was able to show emotion in such an expressive way. However, I'm glad the writers were able to slow down with his 'comic relief' side after he revealed he didn't want to follow with tradition. I think, if they tried to balance these two moods too much it would've just become annoying and ultimately undercut the tone, and I'm glad they gave it space to breathe and be properly developed.

One flaw that I found with this movie was that it did take quite a while to get to the meat of the story. However, I wouldn't say that's fully a bad thing as it gave us a lot more time with Elio's aunt. I think, if Elio was abducted way earlier, we just wouldn't have seen a lot of his aunt at all. I loved seeing that small bit of opening up that his aunt did near the end and I only wish that was developed slightly more throughout the movie, even just showing her emotions bubbling up slowly.

To conclude, while I don't think this will be Pixar's comeback, it's definitely a worthy entry into their incredible catalogue - even if it doesn't fully stack up to some of their others. The biggest reason this won't be Pixar's big saviour isn't because of the movie itself in any way, but simply the lack of marketing due to its complications in production. I just hope the lack of reception doesn't cause Gatto to be scrapped for Toy Story 6.