Elio Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Elio 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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Elio is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. While I'll cut to the chase and absolutely recommend those with the appropriate equipment to opt for the Elio 4K release for both its enhanced HDR as well as its Dolby Atmos track (see below for 1080 audio specs), this 1080 disc is pretty darned fantastic looking and sounding itself. Detail levels are generally excellent throughout, and while the 4K presentation arguably offers some noticeable upticks in fine detail on textures in particular, what's on tap in this 1080 version is typically very precise looking, especially with regard to variant "skin coverings" of the wide gamut of aliens. The palette is really stunningly suffused throughout, though again there are noticeable improvements in highlights in the 4K presentation.

Elio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again, Disney offers different audio codecs on its 4K and 1080 discs, as alluded to above. The ostensible main track on this 1080 disc is a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 option, but the 1080 disc sent to me defaulted (rather strangely, in my not so humble opinion) to the DTS-HR 5.1 track also included, so those picking up this disc may want to check their playback to make sure they have the 7.1 track selected. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 option provides a lot of the excellent surround activity of the Dolby Atmos track on the 4K disc, but some of the Communiverse material in particular has more noticeable vertical placement in the Atmos rendering. Otherwise, though, the side and rear channels are consistently engaged throughout this presentation, though, as mentioned in the 4K review, there are some slight ebbs and flows when comparing the "outer space" sequences to the Earthbound moments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are included.

Elio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 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.

Note: Disney sent their 4K UHD release for purposes of this 1080 review, but it looks like the standalone 1080 release offers a DVD and digital copy. From the looks of our listing, it doesn't appear this release has a slipcover.

Elio 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 1080 disc offers stunning visuals and audio (though the 4K presentation would be my personal choice), with a heartfelt if rote story. Recommended.