Disney Pixar's Elio

[Daniel]

Delayed from March 1, 2024 to June 13, 2025. Bummer.

[Ben]

More of a summer movie there tho. Might help it.

[Daniel]

Today's the day Elio was originally supposed to come out in theaters. Only 469 days now!

[Ben]

And then we can say 'ello! to Elio!

[Daniel]

Thankfully the McDonald's promotion has been delayed. Not the case with Latin America however:

[gaastra]

[Ben]

Hmmm…

[Randall]

Could be good.

[Ben]

Luca! In Space!

[Randall]

So true. Dang, that's a close resemblance.

[Ben]

So given the recent trailer, is anyone getting excited for DreamWorks' Elio?

Although being praised and promoted as an "original", it still looks and feels like a sequel, or at least a "blending" of other movies, to me, very derivative in its style, tone and, seemingly, story, all of which recall other projects — Lilo, Luca, Home, Planet 51, any number of others — so to just feel like this is continuing or rehashing them.

And aliens in animated movies is just soooooo old, boring and overcooked by now. C'mon, guys, give us something truly original and never seen before rather than tweaks on old designs, characters and plot beats. Yawn.


(And, yes. I know.)

[Randall]

'Twas the end of the Golden Age.

Too many films being pumped out, with too few new ideas.

[Farerb]

I'm not excited for this whatsoever.

[Dacey]

Interesting things about Elio's end credits...

Despite initial reports indicating "three credited directors," that is only technically true. Poor Adrian Molina doesn't get top billing, and has his name hidden in the main crawl (even when not credited as a "co-director," he is credited as "director," which somehow makes this feel like more of a slap to him).

This is the first animated movie I've ever seen to...thank the United States Military and US Air Force? That's confusing on multiple levels.

Finally, there is a very brief (as in probably only 15 seconds, if even that long) teaser for Hoppers at the very end of the credits (and I mean the very end, as in after the closing logos are done).

[Ben]

So, like that Wonder Park thing, which wasn’t so bad if still surreal, Elio doesn’t have a fully credited director? That doesn’t bode well for any resulting movie, though would explain the "movie by committee" feel with its various influences and unoriginal feel. If anything, that it had to meet a release date, like with Good Dinosaur, might mean the higher ups at Disney give it a bit of a pass over the numbers.

It does just look so derivative of almost everything else, though! Enough with the aliens in animation! Even The Day The Earth Blew Up felt like another rehash with its quasi-Space Jam aliens, another reason why the "villain" should sooooo have been Marvin, to give it even more of a legacy throwback and arguably have made it funnier simply because Marvin is a funny little thing. TDTEBU was fine, and fun to see those characters back on the big screen in new almost-but-not-quite theatrical animation, but the plot was same-old and could have simply been lifted with the extra brand association and a nice arc for Marvin.

But…sorry…to bring things back to Elio: I’ll likely get a disc just to keep the Pixar collection going, but otherwise would have been just as fine waiting for D+. It just doesn’t look enticing enough, despite the general good word.