Disney PlusElio, 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.
June 19, 2025. 4 min read. Disney Pixar's Elio Animated Film Review. Schmaltzy yet sincere, “Elio,” the latest from Pixar, is as predictable as they come but as tender as they can get.Though it took three directors (Madeline Sharafian, “Turning Red” director Domee Shi, and Adrian Molinato) to bring the formulaic “Elio” to life, the film plays like a mood board. There are homages to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Friday the 13th,” and a smattering of other sci-fi and Pixar works.
Domee Shi is a Canadian animator, film director and screenwriter.She has directed the short film Bao (2018) and the feature films Turning Red (2022) and Elio (2025), becoming the first woman to direct a short film and then the first woman with sole director's credit on a feature film for Pixar.[4][5][6]. Shi began working for Pixar in 2011 as a storyboard artist, contributing to multiple films, including Inside Out (2015), The Good Dinosaur (2015), and Toy Story 4 (2019).
