Latest news with #PixarAnimation
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wow, Disney Really Went There With New Elio Post: ‘Stop Complaining That Disney Doesn't Make Original Stories If You Don't Show Up To Movie Theaters.'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. This past week saw the release of Pixar's latest film, Elio, which is about a space-loving young boy who finds himself on an adventure of intergalactic proportions when he bonds with alien life forms. As of late, most of Pixar's sequels have been the more successful films, so this latest feature represents a project from the studio that doesn't come from an existing IP. With that, the studio and its parent company, Disney, are encouraging audiences to support the film and, based on a post, they seem to mean business. By way of a recent Instagram post, Pixar followed the new internet trend where people share hard truths off screen and then pretend they don't know where the source of the statement is. The studio's video involved a social media personality talking about audiences complaining that there aren't any original stories but that audiences don't show up to the movie theaters to support these original ideas in the first place. The video was blunt and ended with the pundit encouraging people to show up to the theaters to support Elio this week. You can see it below: Honestly, I didn't expect this from the Disney-owned company, as bigwigs have played things pretty safe when it comes to marketing their movies. This post definitely represents frustration, though, and it's understandable. Pixar's latest flick is a fresh idea that animators worked to perfect for years and years. Additionally, reviews for Elio have also been positive, with critics being charmed by the new project and the messaging at the core. The cosmic, coming-of-age romp deserves support, especially considering how hard it can be to get original ideas off the ground in Hollywood. Still, Elio bombed at the box office in its opening weekend a week ago, with its debut marking the worst opening for a Pixar movie ever. That's a hard fact to consider, especially considering it's the summer and many kids (who'd be potential viewers) are out of school by now. An analyst could make the argument that the film is facing competition from DreamWorks' live-action How to Train Your Dragon, which is soaring, and probably also benefiting from the fact that it's based on an existing IP. More on Elio Every Pixar Movie, Ranked From Worst To Best, Including Elio In general, this box office failure may just be a symptom of original movies performing undesirably across the board. That's one of the reasons that CinemaBlend's own Dirk Libbey isn't worried about Pixar just yet. However, the studio still needs a winner. Sure, it's understandable why some may be pumped for Toy Story 5 or Incredibles 3. However, supporting original films means there's more promise for new ideas and inspired stories, which could possibly end up becoming classic Disney movies. So, as conveyed in the IG video above, why not take a trip to the movie theaters and support a fresh film? Elio is in theaters now, so make sure to check it out on the big screen while you can. For more information on other titles heading to cinemas this summer, make sure to consult our 2025 movie release schedule.
Gizmodo
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Elio' Has a Bizarre Post-Credits Scene That's Not About ‘Elio' at All
If you forgot to stick around for the post-credits scenes tacked onto the end of Elio, this past weekend's Pixar release teased two things. And if you haven't seen it—what are you doing here? Kidding, we welcome the curious as we break down the unexpected scenes between the potential Elio spin-off Easter egg and a glimpse of Hoppers, Pixar's next original concept we see Elio and his new friend, Bryce, reconnect with Glordon using their prototypical intergalactic radio, leaving things open for more adorable sci-fi adventures. Unfortunately, the film has been underperforming, but we hope it gets legs as the run continues in theaters and eventually at home, so we get more stories in Elio's universe. We miss Glordon and need to see the trio in more space travel hijinks. The next post-credits glimpse previews Hoppers, totally out of the blue for the studio which doesn't usually do sizzle scenes like that. We'd much rather have the short films that used to screen in front of Pixar releases back! Hoppers, due out next year, is another original Pixar IP, which might also be affected by how Elio and Pixar's other non-sequel movies have been doing. In the tease we see a big-eyed lizard sitting atop a phone pressing the lizard emoji in a text over and over again. The head-scratcher of a clip is unsettling and funny, but maybe not enough to get the hype it's aiming for. All we know so far about Hoppers is that scientists have figured out how to transfer human consciousness into lifelike animal robots to communicate with other species. Think Avatar but with wildlife, a high-concept idea we're definitely intrigued by. Alas, the internet's loud demand for original movies still isn't paying off with ticket sales, at least not in this case, so who knows what the future of Pixar originals will look like. Elio deserves a shot and it's such a bummer the film is having challenges drawing crowds to the cinemas. Meanwhile, Disney has begun to pivot back to properties with proven track records; as just one example, Toy Story 5 is due out next summer. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
CBC
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Elio is Pixar's best, most beautifully brilliant movie in a decade. Too bad it will probably bomb
Social Sharing As a film, Elio is gorgeous. In short, it's a somehow equal parts miraculous and original wonder — so good it feels a bit out of place among a summer of adaptations, remakes, sequels and remakes of adaptations of sequels. Perhaps not that last one. But it is hard to ignore the benefits of Elio: Pixar's animation style (which seemed stuck in a perpetual state of diminishing Toy Story returns) has never looked more fluidly beautiful — especially when used to create a tapestry of glittering nebulae and spaceships. Its characters come to life with originality and heart — none more so than its heart-breakingly damaged namesake, 11-year-old Elio Solis, a space-obsessed child trying his very best to provoke an alien abduction rather than running from one. Brushing past some of its almost too kidd-ish qualities, Elio achieves almost shocking levels of originality, beauty and terrifying tragedy that do more than earn it the title of modern classic. That said, it's probably going to bomb. There are more than a few reasons why that's the case for Pixar's latest release, and buckle up, because it all comes quickly. We're introduced to the movie's heroic, pint-sized namesake with the narrative equivalent of a sledgehammer to the skull. Elio is a silent, terrified child hiding under a restaurant table, worrying the laces of oversized shoes as he tries to spontaneously phase out of existence rather than acknowledge his aunt's futile attempts to coax him back to his chair. It's a lost cause though. We soon learn that Elio (Yonas Kibreab) has just been orphaned, and his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) is the unfortunate, too-young-for-this stopgap, burdened with unwanted parenthood she doesn't have the life skills to handle — especially while juggling her job as a major in the U.S. Air Force, overseeing an array of telescopes scanning the skies for space debris. But Elio's no slouch. As he wanders off into the base, he's more than aware he's the one thing a child fears most — the primal, instinctive fear that eventually evolves into the scattershot assortment of neuroses we call a personality: being unwanted. And as he stumbles into a conveniently-placed exhibit on Voyager 1 — the 1977 probe launched with a golden record, information about life on Earth and hopeful greetings for alien species — we suddenly get the animated equivalent of Citizen Kane 's Rosebud. Lying on his back, gazing slack-jawed at a glittering star-show about humanity's search for friendly intelligence in the lonely and infinite cosmos while a single tear pools on his cheek, he understands: if no one wants him on this planet, he'll go looking for one that does want him. But it also does more. This latest offering from Pixar has finally arrived in theatres after a year-long delay and a wildly shifting strategy, possibly resulting from its fraught behind-the-scenes trajectory. The result is a disparate, possibly alienating tonal melange of a UFO movie — somehow even more disorganized than that congressional hearing on UFOs we are all somehow fine with having happened. For example: Jokes, storylines and even its sometimes stilted, always hand-holdy plot beats ring of a grade-school reading level — perhaps even more childish than Pixar's increasingly tween-focused fare. But that's at cross-purposes with Canadian co-director Domee Shi's sci-fi/horror allusions that, though geared toward a younger audience, still manage to make grown-ups shiver. How one scene depicting a disintegrating clone — almost directly lifted from Rick & Morty 's horrifying "melting clone babies" moment — will manage not to inspire a juvenile nightmare epidemic is a mystery for the ages. Delays, rewrites To be fair, these moments are infrequent; a scriptwriting vestigial limb of what was likely a whiplash-inducing envelope push for Pixar. Given that the once dominant-studio's last big non-sequel success was 2017's Coco, it makes sense that they'd be swinging for the fences while trying to recapture the cultural zeitgeist with Elio, at least with the initial version. Speaking to The Wrap, Pixar chief Pete Docter claimed Elio 's delay from last year was due largely to the SAG-AFTRA strike, but behind-the-scenes changes saw the departure of much of the creative team, ushering in replacements Shee and co-director Madeline Sharafian. That shift means the story is sometimes at odds with itself, and elsewhere obviously fractured and awkwardly reassembled. The final version of the film has been so fundamentally altered that virtually every moment from its original trailer was purged — including one of the riskiest, genre-pushing, jokes: "I'm trying to get abducted," Elio says, before quickly clarifying: "By aliens!" But even after the loss of some of the more risque asides, there's a seriously mature plot under the surface, one that reflects Disney's wonderfully inventive, surprisingly unsuccessful 2007 time-travel comedy Meet the Robinsons. In that movie, there's a scene in which one character gives a singular reason for his relentless villainy. In a flashback, we see a rage-filled, pint-sized orphan with bags under his eyes, skulking through a middle school hallway. Other children smile and wave as he passes and enthusiastically ask if he'd like to hang out after class while complimenting his "cool," flowery-pink unicorn binder. "They all hated me," he narrates. In Elio, our hero's Meet the Robinsons -esque trauma-borne impulse to wall himself off from love or intimacy adds the last ingredient to this frankly bizarre hodgepodge: devastating tragedy. While it's maybe a little subtextual for the toddlers, anyone who's heard the phrase "male loneliness epidemic" will see the beginnings of mental health issues that too often morph into isolation, depression and rage. Few children's movies have grappled with this before — let alone while vesting it in such a crushingly sad character arc. The hardest thing about watching Elio becomes keeping yourself from jumping through the screen to protect him at all costs. And there's also another complicating plot conceit: a 1985 interview with astronomer Carl Sagan, initially about space exploration and his book Contact. "The search for life elsewhere is remarkable in our age, because this is the first time that we can actually do something besides speculation," we hear Sagan's sage voice intone. "It touches to the deepest of human concerns: Are we alone?" This is quickly reinterpreted through Elio 's more Earth-bound theme, as the voiceover tellingly bookends his flailings toward and away from love and acceptance, both from the aliens and Olga. In short, it's a lot. The movie's originality is something to be marvelled at. Unfortunately, like Meet the Robinsons, it's probably too original and too divisive to find a massive audience. A polarizing study in loneliness that, unlike the , is anything but conventional, Elio
Herald Sun
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Herald Sun
Materialists: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal fizzle in new rom-com
Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News. Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal make Materialists fabulous to look at – but the movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in the Materialists. MATERIALISTS (M) **1/2 General release. Purely on the basis of the talent assembled, Materialists should have been a hit in every sense of the word. First of all, you've got just about the best-looking love triangle possible: a radiant Dakota Johnson (as a fancypants New York professional matchmaker) pondering which of the duelling dreamboats Pedro Pascal (rich, tall and handsome) or Chris Evans (broke, tall and handsome) should ultimately prove worthy of her affections. Secondly, behind the cameras, you have filmmaker Celine Song, who wowed audiences worldwide in 2023 with her multi-Oscar-nominated romantic drama Past Lives. However, for a multitude of reasons, Materialists can only find fizzle where the sizzle should be. While hardly unwatchable, the movie seems perpetually unsure about what it wants to be. Sometimes it is an undeniably likeable, if lightweight romantic comedy. At other times, it aspires to something heavier, as it explores the same storytelling planes traversed by Past Lives. Most viewers will quickly pick up on Materialists' tentative tendencies, and become all the more frustrated with the obvious uncertainty on display. Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) and his alien buddy Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly) in Pixar's Elio. ELIO (PG) Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi Starring: the voices of Zoe Saldana, Yonas Kibreab, Brad Garrett, Shirley Henderson. ***1/2 Finding a better place in outer space In recent times, younger audiences have been both underestimated and underserviced by the major movie studios. However, the box-office figures of 2025 so far suggest the tide may finally be turning for the better. A majority of the biggest releases of the year have delivered the goods to kids in all the right ways. If children weren't already spoiled for choice right now – as you read this, the top two movies worldwide are top-notch live-action remakes of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon – the welcome arrival of a quality new effort from Pixar Animation seals that deal emphatically. This pleasingly imaginative combo of science fiction, light comedy and mild drama doesn't quite reach the lofty heights scaled by Pixar's best-known works. Nevertheless, its capacity to provoke real thought and genuine happiness should not be taken for granted. As the story begins, Elio (voiced convincingly by newcomer Yonas Kibreab) is still getting over the recent passing of his parents. This intelligent and sensitive 11-year-old is now in the care of his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), an officer in the US Air Force Space Command tasked with mapping and tracking debris in deep space. The around-the-clock pressures of her job have left Olga out of her depth when it comes to properly looking after Elio. The only thing that makes her space-obsessed nephew happy is when she brings him along to work. It is during one of these visits that Elio learns of a possible attempt at radio communication from an alien presence several galaxies away from here. Without Olga noticing, Elio figures out a way to respond to the message, and is instantly transported to a fascinating intergalactic realm known as the Communiverse. The only way to describe the Communiverse is that it functions as a United Nations for the bulk of the known universe. Its colourful multitude of members are sufficiently impressed by Elio's arrival to assume he is a prominent leader back on Earth, and appoint him to be our planet's first representative at the Communiverse. Understandably, Elio's sudden disappearance at home means that Olga must spearhead a search for her adventurous charge. Meanwhile, Elio finds himself a central figure in a Communiverse power struggle orchestrated by the warmongering Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Intelligently scripted and playfully realised, Elio never fails to engage and entertain its target audience with ease. As usual, Pixar's animation team come into their own when illustrating the Communiverse and the vividly rendered alien beings that call it home. Elio is in cinemas now. Camile Rutherford in the French rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (M) ***1/2 Selected cinemas. Charming and stylish, yet refreshingly unpretentious, this rom-com-ish affair from France is definitely worth checking out. Camile Rutherford stars in the lead role of Agathe, a woman in her early 30s caught in something of a rut, both professionally and personally. Her job in a revered Parisian bookstore is a protective cocoon which in subtle ways has inhibited her ambitions as a writer, while also smothering her chances of forming a loving relationship. Though a platonic bond with co-worker Felix (Pablo Pauly) does flicker with the potential for something deeper, it is his encouragement of Agathe's literary aspirations that sends the movie in an unexpected direction. Once Agathe is accepted into a Jane Austen-themed writing workshop in England, she finds herself experiencing the same dilemmas, contradictions and opportunities for love that traditionally beset a typical Austen heroine. A familiarity with Austen's books is hardly necessary to enjoy this sprightly, inventive and cannily observed tale, which highlights both its rookie writer-director Laura Piani and leading lady Rutherford as names to watch in the future. Originally published as Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are the best-looking love triangle ever in Materialists
Courier-Mail
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Courier-Mail
Materialists: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal fizzle in new rom-com
Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News. Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal make Materialists fabulous to look at – but the movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in the Materialists. MATERIALISTS (M) **1/2 General release. Purely on the basis of the talent assembled, Materialists should have been a hit in every sense of the word. First of all, you've got just about the best-looking love triangle possible: a radiant Dakota Johnson (as a fancypants New York professional matchmaker) pondering which of the duelling dreamboats Pedro Pascal (rich, tall and handsome) or Chris Evans (broke, tall and handsome) should ultimately prove worthy of her affections. Secondly, behind the cameras, you have filmmaker Celine Song, who wowed audiences worldwide in 2023 with her multi-Oscar-nominated romantic drama Past Lives. However, for a multitude of reasons, Materialists can only find fizzle where the sizzle should be. While hardly unwatchable, the movie seems perpetually unsure about what it wants to be. Sometimes it is an undeniably likeable, if lightweight romantic comedy. At other times, it aspires to something heavier, as it explores the same storytelling planes traversed by Past Lives. Most viewers will quickly pick up on Materialists' tentative tendencies, and become all the more frustrated with the obvious uncertainty on display. Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) and his alien buddy Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly) in Pixar's Elio. ELIO (PG) Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi Starring: the voices of Zoe Saldana, Yonas Kibreab, Brad Garrett, Shirley Henderson. ***1/2 Finding a better place in outer space In recent times, younger audiences have been both underestimated and underserviced by the major movie studios. However, the box-office figures of 2025 so far suggest the tide may finally be turning for the better. A majority of the biggest releases of the year have delivered the goods to kids in all the right ways. If children weren't already spoiled for choice right now – as you read this, the top two movies worldwide are top-notch live-action remakes of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon – the welcome arrival of a quality new effort from Pixar Animation seals that deal emphatically. This pleasingly imaginative combo of science fiction, light comedy and mild drama doesn't quite reach the lofty heights scaled by Pixar's best-known works. Nevertheless, its capacity to provoke real thought and genuine happiness should not be taken for granted. As the story begins, Elio (voiced convincingly by newcomer Yonas Kibreab) is still getting over the recent passing of his parents. This intelligent and sensitive 11-year-old is now in the care of his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), an officer in the US Air Force Space Command tasked with mapping and tracking debris in deep space. X SUBSCRIBER ONLY The around-the-clock pressures of her job have left Olga out of her depth when it comes to properly looking after Elio. The only thing that makes her space-obsessed nephew happy is when she brings him along to work. It is during one of these visits that Elio learns of a possible attempt at radio communication from an alien presence several galaxies away from here. Without Olga noticing, Elio figures out a way to respond to the message, and is instantly transported to a fascinating intergalactic realm known as the Communiverse. The only way to describe the Communiverse is that it functions as a United Nations for the bulk of the known universe. Its colourful multitude of members are sufficiently impressed by Elio's arrival to assume he is a prominent leader back on Earth, and appoint him to be our planet's first representative at the Communiverse. Understandably, Elio's sudden disappearance at home means that Olga must spearhead a search for her adventurous charge. Meanwhile, Elio finds himself a central figure in a Communiverse power struggle orchestrated by the warmongering Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Intelligently scripted and playfully realised, Elio never fails to engage and entertain its target audience with ease. As usual, Pixar's animation team come into their own when illustrating the Communiverse and the vividly rendered alien beings that call it home. Elio is in cinemas now. Camile Rutherford in the French rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (M) ***1/2 Selected cinemas. Charming and stylish, yet refreshingly unpretentious, this rom-com-ish affair from France is definitely worth checking out. Camile Rutherford stars in the lead role of Agathe, a woman in her early 30s caught in something of a rut, both professionally and personally. Her job in a revered Parisian bookstore is a protective cocoon which in subtle ways has inhibited her ambitions as a writer, while also smothering her chances of forming a loving relationship. Though a platonic bond with co-worker Felix (Pablo Pauly) does flicker with the potential for something deeper, it is his encouragement of Agathe's literary aspirations that sends the movie in an unexpected direction. Once Agathe is accepted into a Jane Austen-themed writing workshop in England, she finds herself experiencing the same dilemmas, contradictions and opportunities for love that traditionally beset a typical Austen heroine. A familiarity with Austen's books is hardly necessary to enjoy this sprightly, inventive and cannily observed tale, which highlights both its rookie writer-director Laura Piani and leading lady Rutherford as names to watch in the future. Originally published as Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are the best-looking love triangle ever in Materialists
