Elio is a 2025 American animated science fiction adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina,[a] and written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones, from a story developed by Molina, Sharafian, Shi, and Cho, the film stars the voices of Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Young Dylan, Matthias Schweighöfer, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, and Jameela Jamil. It follows an eleven-year-old boy named Elio Solís (Kibreab) who is mistaken for the intergalactic ambassador of Earth after being beamed up to the Communiverse by aliens for making contact, and must navigate a crisis that involves the warlord father of an alien he befriended.
Elio was conceived by Molina as a story about childhood and social isolation and was inspired by growing up at a military base and his eventual enrollment at the California Institute of the Arts. The film was officially announced in September 2022, with Molina attached to direct. Molina later left the project to work on Coco 2 (2029), and in August 2024, it was announced that Shi and Sharafian would replace him as the lead directors. The production team devised a process, titled the “College Project”, to create the look of the space setting, Communiverse. The film was shot with a virtual anamorphic lens and Pixar’s new Luna lighting toolset was used to quickly define lighting and the overall aesthetic. Its musical score was composed by Rob Simonsen.
Elio premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 10, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 20, 2025. Although the film received positive reviews from critics, it underperformed at the box office,[6][7] grossing $153 million against an estimated budget of $150–200 million.
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