Tastes are fated to change, and empires are doomed to fall, but hardworn truths can do little to quell the pain of watching Pixar eat itself from the inside. The studio’s first decade still stands as one of the most remarkable runs in modern cinema, ushering in the now-dominant form of mainstream animation with 1995’s Toy Story, and subsequently propping up the tissue paper economy with tear-jerking instant classics like Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Onlookers may cite 2006 Disney’s purchase of the company as the turning of the worm, while others lament the deleterious effect of premiering pandemic-era offerings like Luca, Soul, and Turning Red on Disney+ as opposed to theaters, and the impulse is understandable. Dodging blame is a relatable pastime, and faceless mega-corporations should never be shown the same pity as their modestly-financed competitors. They tend to follow the money, and the astonishing ticket sales of Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and Inside Out 2, when paired with the fiscal failure of The Good Dinosaur, Onward, and Elemental, provide a path toward continuing box office success. Deep down, we all know who gave them the road map.

It certainly wasn’t Elio (Yonas Kibreab), the titualar pre-teen hero of Pixar’s latest, nor the marketing team that seems to be presenting the film with tails tucked between legs. Originally slated for release in March of 2024, the Mouse House overlords pushed the flick all the way back to June of this year, only to postpone its unveiling by another week to avoid going up against the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. Operating from a position of weakness aligns the movie with its protagonist, who’s introduced to us while hiding under a cafeteria table, shaken with grief from his parents’ recent passing. Their departure leaves Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) in charge, and Elio in immediate proximity to her profession as an Air Force major tasked with charting extraplanetary movement. Immediately enamored with the dimly-lit beyond, the boy’s determined efforts to be abducted by aliens are finally met with a green, glowing tractor beam, which steals him away to… space parliament?

Adventure takes many forms, and Elio mimics the course once charted by the Star Wars prequel trilogy, envisioning the space between stars as an unexplored land of yet more politicking. Bush-era hand wringing over the fall of democracy is blissfully absent here, replaced by George Lucas’ blessed inclination to flood the screen with as many unfamiliar life forms as possible, all moving about a dazzling other-world. The creature design here is top notch, imaginative and varied to the point that eyeballs can’t help but desperately scan the screen for new, playful inventions. One wishes the celestial goings-on weren’t relegated to a single location, but towering warlord Grigon (Brad Garrett) can think of no better place to stage his attempted coup than directly at the seat of power. He cuts a mean shadow, but Elio has a plan, or to use his own phrasing, a bargaining chip.

Economy is hard to come by in family-oriented offerings, and for all of Elio’s laudable attributes, the reticence to over-extend the irrefutably lovable Glordon (Remy Edgerly) is the most surprising. Grub shaped and voiced with childlike bluster, Grigon’s only son is a tickling charm factory whose modest screen time ensures maximum impact, elevating the movie past its moderately involving first act into a place of rambunctious merriment. He’s not alone in shouldering the flick’s comedic aspirations, and even if Elio’s sense of humor never threatens to bring the house down, the light giggle that catches in your throat throughout the proceedings is preferable to the frenzied bombast of most all-ages output. When it’s time to stimulate the tear ducts, it doesn’t disappear so much as recede to the periphery like a gentle fog. 

Those still reeling from the emotional knock-out punches of Up and Coco needn’t worry about similar levels of hardwon traumatization, but Elio’s story of loneliness in an oblivious universe still makes its mark. A latent sadness is palpable even in moments of reverie, and the climactic image of familial embrace deftly leverages delivery room imagery against an unsuspecting audience. It’s all in keeping with established in-house style, a formula that tends to trojan horse its empathetic goals inside of an enjoyably accidental road trip apparatus. Elio switches the position of the levers, never neglecting its sentimental undergirding, but prioritizing the escapade in a fashion that pays homage to the Amblin 80’s. Olga’s gig ensures that the leering military iconography of E.T. is never far from mind, and as a kid being being pulled from his family by the irrepressible draw of the cosmos, Elio himself stands as a pint-sized echo of Richard Dreyfuss’ celestially-distracted father in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But the star of Pixar’s latest also possesses all the quick-snap failures of judgement and nebulous desire for independence of a child, which, when paired with all the Spielbergian ephemera, makes 2006’s Monster House the clearest point of comparison. Despite failing to light the box office on fire, Gil Kenan’s horror-adjacent family romp still holds up as studio animation’s version of a cult classic, but it seems improbable that Elio will find the oxygen required for similar longevity. Cursed with the lowest grossing opening weekend in Pixar history, it’s more likely to act as a pivot point, the moment where the once unstoppable studio finally listened to ticket buyers, and started exclusively playing the hits. Movies are a form of commerce, if you haven’t heard, and mounting another original offering after Inside Out 2 raked in nearly eight times the revenue of Elio in their respective first three days (not to mention over five times that of Elemental) wouldn’t just be fiscal malpractice. It’d also constitute a disinterest in consumer appetites and interests, and it’s about time that the average movie goer started analyzing exactly what they’re communicating to ivory tower executives with the exchange of their hard earned dollar. Elio might not be ambitious or unique enough to join the ranks of Pixar’s best, but its introduction of new characters, in new locations, facing new trials and tribulations, elevates it above the recent deluge of sequels. Enjoy it while you can, because monetarily speaking, we’re voting it out of existence.