PixMix Episode 35: Elio

In this episode of PixMix, Patricia and Arun discuss about the 2025 Pixar animated film Elio. The film is about a young boy named Elio who feels alone and isolated because his aunt Olga, who works at the Air Force after his parents died in a car accident, is almost never around, and bullies pick on him for his dream of being abducted by aliens. Before being dropped off at a summer camp, he sends a message to a call from an unknown source from space to take him away from Earth. He is brought to the Commnuverse where he lies about being the leader of Earth and is made into an ambassador to maintain peace in the universe. An evil alien warlord named Lord Grigon wants to be an ambassador, but is rejected because of his harsh attitude. Elio promises the ambassadors of the Commnuverse to make a peaceful treaty with Lord Grigon, but ends up "kidnapping" his son Glordon in exchange of having him and his people go away. Glordon becomes good friends with Elio as they have similar backgrounds and doesn't want to be as evil as his father is. When the film premiered in theaters, it became Pixar's lowest grossing movie ever making $100 million dollars out of a $200 million dollar budget with mixed to positive reviews. It became even more controversial when an article from The Hollywood Reporter brought up that many themes were cut from the final product, the original co-writer and director left, and the story was rewritten and new directors took it over. How did the movie fare despite its production issues? What did Arun and Patricia think of the film? Listen and find out.