Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2025

In both his celebrated books and on television in The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell often stated that "there's only one story", and some might jokingly further insist that that pronouncement is especially true of Disney / Pixar outings. Elio was a surprising box office "disappointment" despite raking in over $150 million, even considering generally very positive reaction from both audiences who saw it and those pesky critics when the film was first released, and one reason why ticket sales didn't explode could have been that some may have felt (understandably) that even without attending Elio they had already seen it before, so to speak. This is yet another animated enterprise with an isolated, even traumatized, kid at its center, and it once again revolves around the linked theses that "finding yourself" and "finding your team" are necessary components for actualizing (to paraphrase Campbell) your "inner hero". If the broad outlines of Elio are frankly somewhat rote, the actual film is a wonderland of inventive character design and eye popping CGI, and it has the requisite heart and humor that so often typify both Disney and Pixar "cartoons".

Elio Solís (Yonas Kibreab) is a pre-teen who has tragically just lost his parents in a car accident and has been sent to live with his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña). Olga has sidelined her own ambitions to be an astronaut in order to take care of her orphaned nephew, but parenting may not be Olga's strong suit, especially with an unintended (?) troublemaker like Elio. Suffice it to say that a patently silly set of escapades ends up with Elio getting bullied by some other kids but who is unexpectedly able to contact a whole gaggle of extraterrestrials, which ends up saving him from a pummeling from the other kids, but which then puts Elio in a predicament of another sort when the assembled alien multitudes believe he is Earth's "ambassador" and the creator of the Voyager spacecraft.

What ensues is yet another (mini) "hero's journey" with Elio teaming up with a daffy cohort of various planetary beings (and one "liquid supercomputer") in a so-called Communiverse (kind of a United Federation of Planets, as it were), with an evil warlord named Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) assuming chief villain status, though this film kind of interestingly doesn't really rely on a traditional good vs. evil subtext and instead tends to traffic more in the vagaries of interrelationships and, yep, finding your "true self". Elio can't help but recall a veritable glut of other Disney and/or Pixar outings with a spunky youth discovering previously untapped resilience in order to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, all with the help (and/or hindrance, as the case may be) from a wacky assortment of supporting aliens. A sidebar involving clones of some characters allows two simultaneous subplots (or locations, as it were) to unspool, but that part of the story is kind of underdeveloped or at least underutilized.

If Elio therefore is almost unavoidably derivative in at least some aspects, it comes fully alive in some really appealing design choices and an absolutely amazing array* of amazing colors in an almost hallucinogenic palette. Voice work is generally appealing as well, and the widely variant alien character designs help to provide some at least relatively innovative visual blandishments.

*Note: Fans of a certain venerable science fiction franchise which utilized that very word may recognize an inimitable female voice in a quasi-cameo early in the film. Somewhat hilariously, another nook and/or cranny of that same franchise also utilized Voyager for a major plot point.

Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package.

Elio is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. This is another ravishingly beautiful presentation from Pixar, and the 4K version takes all of the positives of an excellent 1080 presentation and at least marginally improves on them. Detailing throughout sees some noticeable (if again at times subtle) upticks in fine detail on admittedly picayune items like the tufting on the bankettes in the opening diner scene, but probably more saliently in some of the widely variant textures of the aliens' bodies. Those range from almost Jell-o like rubbery quality to Groot-like wooden coverings, and the 4K presentation really offers almost palpable renderings of all of the Communiverse residents. The entire look of the film is deliberately 3D, and even Elio and the other human characters sport nice detail levels. All of that said, it's once again the palette that will probably offer the most instantaneous eye candy, and the Dolby Vision / HDR grades spectacularly enhance an already vibrant 1080 palette. Even the opening act (give or take) is full of gorgeous greens and blues in particular, but at around the 22-23 minute mark, when Elio is "abducted", things explode with a whole panoply of new tones, including really remarkably vivid yellows, purples, and teals, all of which have significant highlights not as observable in the 1080 version.

Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As has been the case for a while, Disney offers different audio codecs on the 4K and 1080 discs (and see my Elio Blu-ray review for one peculiar authoring choice on the 1080 disc). The 4K disc offers a fantastically immersive Dolby Atmos track that offers some subtle surround activity even during the Disney masthead, with some almost sinister low scoring (no happy "When You Wish Upon a Star" this time). The surround activity is noticeable if somewhat restrained in the opening act, though the "Voyager" sequence does provide some of the first clear emanations from the Atmos speakers, but things really explode, much as with the visuals, once Elio gets to the Communiverse, and the bulk of the rest of the film is a whirlwind of surround activity as Elio and his bizarre new friends have their adventures. The Earth (and/or uh-Earth, as the case may be) sequences may not offer quite the same level of consistent engagement, but even some of the camp material has appealing directionality and clear utilization of the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The 4K UHD disc in this package has no supplements. The 1080 disc offers the following bonus items:

• Inside the Communiverse: The World and Characters of Elio (HD; 9:53) offers brief overviews of the major characters and the outer space context of the story.


• Out of this World: An Astro Q & A (HD; 10:01) features Yonas and Remy from the film at the Johnson Space Center talking to actual astronauts (but not the Jetsons' dog, unfortunately).


• Astronomic Art Class: Ooooo and Glordon (HD; 5:07) is a drawing lesson of sorts.


• Extraterrestrial Easter Eggs and Fun Facts (HD; 4:02) is an engaging tour through some of the hidden elements in the film.


• Galactic Gag Reel (HD; 2:47)


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 18:56) features introductions from the co-directors and scenes in various states of completion.

There's no standard packaging of the 4K release as of the writing of this review, and the SteelBook offers an appealing design emphasizing some of those aforementioned redolent purple and green tones that suffuse the film. The front panel offers Elio and the back panel offers Ooooo. The inside panels feature a close-up of Elio and a furry friend. A digital copy is also included.

Elio 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The vagaries of box office success can be positively mystifying. While obviously not Pixar animated properties, but still within the Disney "family", why, for example, would the live action remake of Lilo & Stitch set ticket sales on fire, while the live action remake of Snow White was more or less dead on arrival? The same befuddlement might attend various animated properties from both Disney and Pixar, but for those who passed up Elio on its theatrical run, this 4K disc offers stunning visuals and audio, with a heartfelt if rote story. Recommended.