‘Elio’ Review: Pixar’s Colorful Sci-Fi Film Celebrates Weird Kids, but Only Allegorically

There’s a moment in “Elio” where an eccentric human child tells an alien clone to impersonate him and just “be normal.” It makes sense in the context of the plot, but also for Pixar in general. The animated studio that brought you “Inside Out” and “Elemental” is, according to its own employees, now only allowed to talk about being different in fictional ways that don’t make audiences who reject actually different people uncomfortable. Disney seems to believe Pixar’s target audience is the villains from Pixar movies and that there’s no place for queer people in the worlds they create, literally minimizing or erasing their non-allegorical existence from films like “Inside Out 2” and the TV series “Win or Lose.”

So it makes sense that the title character in “Elio” wants out of this oppressive environment where he’s treated like a liability and yearns to be abducted by aliens. Elio, voiced by Yonas Kibreab, successfully escapes his oppressively “normal” environment — where only his recently deceased parents ever truly accepted him — and finds a new community amongst colorful, diverse weirdos who live amongst the stars. There he can finally drink mocktails and dress in star-spangled, sequined capes all he wants. It’s a fantasy we can all get behind.

Elio is raised by his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), who works at a local Air Force Base that monitors space debris. A kooky fellow employee named (these are the jokes) “Melmac” (Brendan Hunt) thinks he’s heard a message from outer space, so while his co-workers tell him to go home and stop pretending there’s wonder in the universe, Elio sneaks into the control room and asks the aliens to pick him up ASAP. He’s tired of living in a world where his “weirdness” is a burden to his family.

So Elio ventures into space, where there’s not just a whole community of outsiders, there’s a whole Communi-verse. His new alien friends, voiced by actors like Jameela Jamil and Matthias Schweighöfer, show him the wonders of alien science and their absolutely gorgeous giant bidet (yes, really). The catch is, they think Elio is the leader of Earth, not just a little kid. Even in an outsider commune he has to pretend to be something he’s not.

And even here, there are bullies. The aliens of the Communi-verse refuse to admit Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) into their ranks because he’s an evil tyrant who wants to warp everything beautiful they’ve created just to hurt people. The Communi-verse is full of pacifists who are willing to flee Grigon’s wrath and put off Elio’s membership application for a few thousand years, so Elio volunteers to be their diplomat and talk Grigon down. These negotiations swiftly fall apart, but Elio manages to befriend Grigon’s son — a sweet, giant larva named Glordon (Remy Edgerly), whose pacifism also makes him an outcast — and enter a mutual agreement: Glordon can escape his father’s conservative conformist lifestyle, and Elio can use him as a bargaining chip to save the Communi-verse from tyranny.

Meanwhile, in a plot point right out of “The Last Starfighter,” a gooey clone of Elio gets sent to Earth to take his place. Again, Elio’s one instruction to his clone was to just “be normal,” which initially makes everyone in his life happier because at last he’s finally abandoned his identity. But the people who really know you also know when you’re faking it. “Elio” has many messages about how good parents will accept their kids no matter how different they are, so kids shouldn’t be afraid to live their lives proudly. Except if they’re queer, apparently, since those people aren’t allowed to exist in their movies.

The point, dear readers, is that “Elio” — a bright, visually stimulating, otherwise likable film — reeks of hypocrisy. It’s all about radical acceptance but can only talk about the real-world application of its message in general metaphors, so people who don’t actually accept “weird,” “different” kids won’t have to think about how wrong they are. It manages to be in your face and meek at the same time, hiding its true self while trying to sneak positive messages to like-minded audience members in secret code. Literally, there’s a secret code in this movie that only the people who truly accept Elio (Friends of Elio, if you will) can understand.

It’s highly appropriate — allegorically, of course — that Pixar’s “Elio” defies binary thinking, but it makes a critic’s job harder. It’s well-crafted, but it can’t sell its own message properly, so giving it any kind of Rotten Tomatoes “Fresh” or “Rotten” score will be misleading. It’s rottenly fresh and freshly rotten, all at once. The technical craft that went into realizing these characters and their world is undeniable, and it’s certainly easy to watch. But the film espouses simple, incontrovertible principles that the film itself cannot commit to, offering audiences the gist of a beautiful message without actually demonstrating any belief in that message. How heartwarming. How heartbreaking.

“Elio” makes contact with theater audiences on June 20.