Latest news with #ZoeSaldaña
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Elio' Review: Pixar's Space Opera Adventure Needs More Time on Earth
Watching Elio, the title character of Pixar's latest film, it's difficult not to draw comparisons to another child hero underneath the Disney umbrella. Introduced as a shy child reeling from an unspecified accident that took his parents' life, the 11-year-old bursts out of his shell upon an encounter with an installation speculating of life beyond the stars and emerges as a hyperactive, alien-obsessed weirdo who runs around wearing a cape and metal colander helmet, speaks in a made-up language he calls 'Elio-ese,' and drives his Air Force aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) crazy. From the tragic backstory to the misfit behavior to the tense relationship with his guardian, Elio might as well be the male version of Lilo from Disney's similarly sci-fi themed 'Lilo & Stitch' — it doesn't help that plenty of people went to go see the remake just last month. More from IndieWire Danny Boyle Says He Couldn't Make 'Slumdog Millionaire' Today, and He'd Want 'a Young Indian Filmmaker' Instead David S. Goyer Says Warner Bros. Execs Were Upset It Takes an Hour to See Christian Bale in the Batsuit in 'Batman Begins' The crucial difference? In the original 2002 animated film that introduced her, Lilo won the hearts of viewers because she was such a specific, sharply written weirdo. She was rough around the edges, bratty and mean, and with eccentricities — a love of Elvis Presley, a belief that a fish on her nearby beach can control the weather — that were singular to her and her alone. Elio is a teddy bear in comparison: he's too instantly sympathetic to ever get properly annoyed at, and his obsession with aliens feels more banal and less personal, a way of acting out after the death of his parents rather than a real passion inside himself. He's easy to like, a sweet kid voiced winningly by spirited child actor Yonas Kibreab. But, like the movie that bears his name, he's a bit too forgettable to fall in love with. Any Pixar film that's been released since roughly the mid-2010s invites a perhaps unfair game of comparison, measuring how it stacks up to the studio's golden period of the 2000s, when every other film they produced was an instant classic. 'Elio' certainly is a fair sight better than much of the company's latest output, which has geared more toward regurgitating old ideas or sputtering around in shallow storylines. And yet watching it feels a slight bit depressing at the same time, a reminder that where Pixar's films once led the animation industry, taking out there concepts like rats that want to cook and robots that want to find love and bringing exquisite heart to them, they now feel imitative instead of innovative. If there were ever a version of 'Elio' that had the spark of an old Pixar classic, it got shuffled out of existence by a turbulent production process that saw original director Adrian Molina, who previously helmed the company's Oscar-winner 'Coco,' replaced by the duo of Domee Shi — whose hilarious 'Turning Red' remains the best Pixar film of the 2020s by a significant margin — and Madeline Sharafian, known for directing the short 'Burrow.' Molina based the film's original story concept heavily on his own life, and the directorial transition occurred right around Pixar head Pete Docter admitting the studio would be pivoting away from 'personal stories' driven by directors to films with universal mass appeal. Certain elements of the script directly based on Molina's life, such as Elio's mother working for the military, got rewritten entirely. The directorial change-up feels readily apparent throughout 'Elio's' 90-minute running time. That's not necessarily due to plot holes or pacing — the film clips along its standard beats at a steady pace, only lagging during one spaceship ride near the end that comes across as pure filler — but the overall feeling that it's only dipping its toes into the emotional and creative depths of this story. Elio's desire to be abducted by aliens, a reaction to his miserable loneliness on Earth, leads him to send a message via a satellite at his aunt's base to the stars pleading for extraterrestrials to come abduct him. The message gets received not just by a spacecraft but by the Communiverse, a roaming planet-like spaceship holding an international committee of representatives from across several galaxies. Getting whisked away into this fantastically technicolor world is a dream come true for Elio, enough that he's willing to go along with it when the committee reveals their misread that he's the leader of Earth. To secure his place in their ranks, he bravely/insanely plunges himself into solving a diplomatic crisis between the alliance and Lord Grigon (a suitably hammy Brad Garrett), the 'blood emperor' of a warlike race of alien worms from the planet Hylurg, who seeks revenge on the ambassadors for rejecting his bid to join them. All of this looks fantastic — while on Earth, Elio suffers a bit from that squishy, rounded animation style that's recently become more or less Pixar's house look. In space, the movie experiments more, adding splashes of 2D graphic animation and gorgeous technicolor around the stately white spaces Elio inhabits. The alien designs are suitably weird and inspired, from the mind-reading floating flatworm Questa (Jameela Jamil) to the rock monster Tegmen (Matthias Schweighöfer). One can detect sci-fi inspirations from 'E.T.' to 'Star Wars' all over the film's DNA, and in its funniest and most memorable moments it takes cues from sci-fi horror of all things, including the introduction to Grigon's son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), which has a whiff of both H. R. Giger in the character design and Ridley Scott in the blocking. But, as fun and creative as some of the individual parts of this spaceship are — from the chibi supercomputer sprite that gives Elio the ability to communicate with other aliens to the cloning goo he uses to explain away his absence on Earth — on a whole, the Communiverse is never as wondrous as you want it to be. None of the ambassadors get enough individuality for us to actually care about them, and their actual goals as an organization are too vague to grasp. Grigon is amusing as a warlord who, at heart, is really a beleaguered dad — he reminds one of Bowser in the Mario games more than any past Pixar character — but his softness is telegraphed a bit too early for him to ever be a convincing threat, even to children. This wondrous world up in the stars too frequently feels more like an amusement park for Elio to run and geek around in than a living, breathing universe. The real problem, though, might be the material that's earth-bound. 'Elio' draws clear parallels between Grigun's issues relating to Gideon and Elio's disconnect from his aunt Olga, and his desire for alien approval comes from a deeply wounded sense of pain that he no longer belongs on Earth after the passing of his parents. There's some great raw material here, and yet onscreen it never gets to compelling territory. Elio and Olga are simply too generic, stock types that can be found in plenty of modern animated films, for their friction to ever build into something as compelling as, say, Marlin and Nemo's strained father-son relationship. It doesn't help that Saldaña, whose character is meant to be the story's heart, sounds like she's phoning it in a bit in the voiceover booth. There's no specificity to Elio's circumstances on Earth — his trauma from his parents' deaths gets mostly brushed over, the isolation he feels from his peers is represented via a stock bully, even the town he lives in is a generic suburbia — which makes his yearning to escape to the stars ring hollow. So, by the time Rob Simonsen's rather generic score begins to overdo the bombast and the film gears up for an emotional decision from Elio about where he belongs that it has to take more than a few logical leaps to arrive at, the pathos falls a tiny bit flat. It's difficult not to wonder what 'Elio' could have been like, had the original concept from Molina made it onscreen, and whether or not the more 'personal' version of this story had the sharp edges and specificity needed to elevate the film from a cute kids' film to something more meaningful. 'Elio' isn't a bad time at the theaters — it's pretty to look at, charming enough, and frequently funny. But by shying away from investing in where its main character is coming from, the movie makes his galactic adventures feel a bit weightless. Disney will release 'Elio' in theaters on Friday, June 20. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. 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Forbes
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Elio' Has Worst Opening Weekend Ever For A Disney-Pixar Movie
A scene from "Elio." The new animated sci-fi adventure Elio is has set a new record low for a Disney-Pixar movie. Starring the voices of Zoe Saldaña, Brad Garrett and Yonas Kibreab (as the title character), Elio opened in theaters domestically on Friday. Like many of its Pixar predecessors, Elio arrived with positive reviews from Rotten Tomatoes critics with an 86% 'fresh' rating based on 105 reviews, which as of Sunday has dropped to 84% 'fresh' with 137 reviews counted. RT users loved Elio even more, as the film to date has earned a 91% 'fresh' Popcornmeter score based on 500-plus verified user ratings. But as Sunday's weekend box office numbers show, great reviews and enthusiastic audience vibes don't automatically translate into big ticket sales. According to Deadline, the PG-rated Elio is projected to earn $21 million from 3,750 North American theaters in its opening Friday to Sunday frame for a No. 3 finish behind another PG film, How to Train Your Dragon ($37 million), and the R-rated 28 Years Later ($30 million). Unfortunately for Disney-Pixar, the $21 million opening is far below the previous lowest opening number for the studio, which came in 2023 when Elemental earned $29.6 million from 4,035 North American theaters. Elio even opened with less domestically than Pixar's first feature, Toy Story, which grossed $29.1 million from 2,574 theaters in 1995. Adding insult to the film's box office injury, Elio had a production budget of $150 million before prints and advertising costs, according to The Numbers. One thing worth noting is that there have been other Disney-Pixar films that had lower opening numbers at the box office, but those releases with a huge caveat: Soul (2020), Luca (2021) and Turning Red (2022) all debuted on Disney+ during the COVID-19 pandemic before getting limited theatrical runs in 2024. Scene from "Inside Out 2." What Disney-Pixar Films Had The Best Opening Weekends? Elio's opening weekend of $21 million is a mere pittance to the biggest opening weekend for a Disney-Pixar film, which came in 2018 with the release of Incredibles 2 — which earned $182.6 million from 4,410 North American theaters. Incredibles 2 went on to make $608.5 million domestically finishing in third place at the 2018 North American box office behind Disney-Marvel's Black Panther ($700 million) and Avengers: Infinity War ($688.8 million). The second-highest-grossing opening weekend for a Disney-Pixar film came with last year's release of Inside Out 2, which earned $154.2 million from 4,440 North American theaters in its first Friday to Sunday frame. Inside Out 2 went on to be the biggest film at the domestic office last year, earning $652.9 million. Disney-Pixar will try to get its magic back with Toy Story 5, which is currently set for a June 19, 2026, release date. Elio, meanwhile, is playing in theaters nationwide.
Forbes
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
When Will Pixar's ‘Elio' Be Streaming On Disney Plus?
"Elio" is now in theaters Pixar Animation Studios' new intergalactic adventure film Elio is now playing in theaters everywhere. Whether you're waiting to stream it at home or excited to watch it again, here's how long you might have to wait for its Disney+ and digital releases. In the Elio, viewers are introduced to 11-year-old Elio, an orphan who feels so alone that his biggest wish is to actually get abducted by aliens. 'Elio, an underdog with an active imagination, finds himself inadvertently beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide,' the synopsis for the film reads. 'Mistakenly identified as Earth's ambassador to the rest of the universe, he starts to form new bonds with eccentric aliens while discovering who he's truly meant to be.' The star-studded voice cast features Yonas Kibreab as Elio, Zoe Saldaña as Aunt Olga, Remy Edgerly as Glordon, Brad Garrett as Lord Grigon, Jameela Jamil as Ambassador Questa and Shirley Henderson as OOOOO. Elio currently boasts a stellar 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 131 reviews as of Saturday, June 21. The film is also on track to earn between $22 million and $24 million in its opening weekend, according to Deadline. Here's everything to know about Elio's streaming release timeline and when you might be able to watch the family-friendly film at home for your next movie night. How To Watch Elio Right Now "Elio" is now in theaters. Disney and Pixar's Elio premiered exclusively in theaters on Friday, June 20, 2025. Currently, the only way to watch Elio is in movie theaters. Check your local cinemas for specific showtimes. When Will Elio Be Streaming On Disney+? "Elio" is now in theaters. Elio will eventually make its way to Disney+ at a later date. The Pixar film will likely arrive on the streaming site around three months after its theatrical release, or likely sometime in September 2025. In comparison, Moana 2 debuted in theaters in November 2024 and launched on Disney+ just over three months later (105 days) in March 2025. Disney's sequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, had a shorter theatrical window (96 days) but still landed on Disney+ more than three months after its release. When Will Elio Be Streaming On Digital? "Elio" is now in theaters. Before Elio premieres on Disney+, the film will be available to purchase or rent on digital video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Studios typically wait 45 to 65 days after a movie's theatrical release to make it available digitally. For example, last year's blockbuster Inside Out 2 took just over two months (67 days) to hit digital platforms. Similarly, 2023's Elemental was released digitally 60 days after its theatrical debut. With that timeline in mind – and considering Elio's theatrical release on June 20, 2025 – the earliest the film could be released digitally is around August 4. However, based on Pixar's recent releases, a late-August release seems more likely. Watch the official trailer for Elio below.
Forbes
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
10 Great Movies Leaving Netflix At The End Of June
Zoe Saldaña stars in the 2011 action film 'Colombiana.' Another month gone by means more tough goodbyes for Netflix subscribers, as the world's most popular streaming service is once again trimming its lineup. And while most of the departing titles won't make headlines, a few of them are absolutely worth a spot on your watchlist. We're talking: a recent sci-fi epic that demands the biggest screen you have; a surprisingly emotional drama from the 1990s that should have nabbed Robin Williams an Oscar nomination; and an intense psychological thriller that offers one of the best femme fatales we've seen in the 21st century. Whether you're craving a blockbuster, a courtroom drama, or simply a nostalgic throwback, June's Netflix departures are packed with hidden gems and film community favorites. Below, I've picked out ten standout movies you should catch before they're gone. For each movie, I've included trailers and reasons you should watch them. Plus, you can find a full list of every movie leaving Netflix in June at the bottom of this article. These selections span decades, genres and tones, but they all share one thing in common: they're absolutely worth your time. Let's dive in. 10 Great Movies Leaving Netflix In June 2025 At this point, there's no arguing it: Denis Villeneuve has cemented his place as one of the few directors alive who can turn the blockbuster formula into living, breathing pieces of art. And if it was at all in question before, the debate ended after Dune: Part Two. A sequel to 2021's Dune and a direct continuation of the 2021 adaptation of Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel, this chapter picks up again with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he joins the Fremen and embraces the prophecy that posits him as an intergalactic leader. As political machinations across the galaxy threaten to implode, Paul and Chani (Zendaya) must decide whether their love and cause can survive the burden of messianic power. Villeneuve balances grand philosophical stakes with pulse-pounding sequences, resulting in a film that somehow feels both intimate and operatic. It's rare to see a sequel that not only lives up to its hype but elevates its universe in every possible way. Denzel Washington returns for his final ride as Robert McCall—the calm but deadly vigilante with a heart of gold—in the unfortunately underrated third part of the Equalizer trilogy. The Equalizer 3 shifts the franchise to a quieter setting: the sun-soaked coast of southern Italy, where McCall has attempted to settle down and leave his violent past behind. But peace doesn't last long, and before he knows it the local mafia has begun to terrorize the townspeople he's grown to love. Thus, McCall is forced to bring back his brutal skill set for one last mission of justice. What sets this entry apart isn't just the slick, brutal efficiency of the action sequences, but the unexpected tenderness beneath them. Washington brings world-weary gravitas to the role, showing a man who's not just avenging others, but reckoning with his own guilt. Antoine Fuqua's direction keeps the pace tight and the tension simmering, resulting in a satisfying and surprisingly emotional finale to one of the most entertaining action trilogies in modern film. Sure, some movie exist to make us think. But…sometimes you just want yo turn your brain off. And Obsessed is the kind of movie you throw on with a group of friends, snacks in hand, ready to shout at the screen. Idris Elba stars as Derek, a successful financial executive whose life begins to unravel when a temp worker named Lisa (Ali Larter) becomes strangely (well, there's no way to put this) obsessed with him. Beyoncé, in one of her rare film roles, plays Derek's wife Sharon, whose patience wears thin as Lisa's behavior escalates from inappropriate to straight up psychotic. Sure, the plot is pure domestic thriller cheese (think Fatal Attraction meets Lifetime movie), but the movie knows exactly what it is doing and leans into the absurd melodrama. The tension builds to a notorious final-act showdown in this Steve Shill film that has become internet meme royalty, with Beyoncé and Larter squaring off in one of the most over-the-top house fights ever filmed. The early 2000s was such a magical time for legal thrillers, and this one manages to feel just as urgent today as it did two decades ago. Runaway Jury, which adapts John Grisham's novel into a tense courtroom showdown about corporate corruption and manipulation, focuses on a high-profile gun case goes to trial in New Orleans—and before long, the usual jury selection process turns into a strategic battle between two shadowy forces. On one side: Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), a principled lawyer fighting for justice. On the other: Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman), a ruthless jury consultant who will stop at nothing to control the verdict. Caught in the middle are a mysterious juror (John Cusack) and his partner (Rachel Weisz), who, wouldn't you know it, have an agenda of their own. Packed with twists, sharp dialogue and powerhouse performances, this Gary Fleder film becomes a cat-and-mouse game of ethics, strategy and power. By the time Retribution hit theaters, Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil series had already embraced its identity as one of the most gloriously over-the-top action-horror franchises around. Yeah, critics missed the point with this series, and especially missed the point with Retribution (seriously, a 28% rating?!). But time has been kind to what I consider to be the best flick of this wonderful hexalogy, as a cult status has formed around what is truly an irreverent experience. This fifth entry goes full sci-fi mayhem, with Milla Jovovich's Alice waking up in an underwater Umbrella Corporation facility and fighting her way through a series of simulated environments, each more chaotic than the last. Clones, betrayals and old enemies aboundn as the franchise becomes its most unhinged and visually experimental. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just in the mood for stylized carnage with strobe lighting and slow motion galore, Retribution is a blast. Functioning as a spiritual spinoff of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this absolutely wild comedy doubles down on Russell Brand's chaotic charm as Aldous Snow, the drugged-out rock star who needs to be escorted from London to L.A. for a comeback concert. Jonah Hill plays a straight-laced record company intern named Aaron Green in Get Him to the Greek, and he is tasked with keeping Snow on track during a whirlwind 72-hour bender. What follows is a jet-fueled comedy of errors packed with absurd detours, hilarious cameos and surprisingly heartfelt moments of self-awareness. Brand and Hill make an unexpectedly endearing duo, especially as their characters blur the lines between idol and handler, and the script (from director Nicholas Stoller, who also helmed Forgetting Sarah Marshall) keeps the jokes coming at a side-splitting pace. At this point, Get Him to the Greek serves as a reminder of when studio comedies were allowed to be a little wild and a little weird without sacrificing fun. Before she became an action mainstay in franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar, and before she won an Oscar for Emilia Pérez, Zoe Saldaña delivered one of her most intense performances in Colombiana—a lean yet kinetic revenge thriller that hasn't earned as much praise as it deserves. Saldaña plays Cataleya, a young woman who witnessed the murder of her parents as a child and has spent her life training to become a deadly assassin. By day, she hides in plain sight. By night, she leaves behind signature orchid imprints on the bodies of the lives she takes. Luc Besson (who delivered movies like The Fifth Element) co-wrote the screenplay, and his fingerprints are all over Olivier Megaton's film—elegant violence, stylized cinematography and a vengeful woman who will stop at nothing to achieve vengeance. Saldaña fully commits to the physical demands of the role, turning a potentially formulaic assassin story into something more personal and powerful. Long live Robin Williams, one of the greatest actors to ever do it—whether it was comedy or drama, the man could act above just about anyone else. And one of his most tender performances comes in this underrated drama from Penny Marshall. Based on the memoir by Oliver Sacks, Awakenings tells the true story of Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Williams), a shy and compassionate neurologist who discovers a drug that temporarily 'awakens' catatonic patients who have been unresponsive for decades. One of those patients is Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), who suddenly finds himself grappling with a world that's moved on without him. De Niro received an Oscar nomination for his unforgettable performance, and Williams brings a gentle humanism to a role that could have easily slipped into sentimentality. It's a movie that asks: What would you do if you were given a second chance…knowing it might not last? It's not every day you get a World War II movie that trades gunfire and explosions for art preservation and historical reflection—that is until George Clooney decides to direct a movie. Also starring Clooney in a leading role, The Monuments Men tells the true story of a group of museum curators, art historians and architects tasked with an unlikely mission: tracking down and recovering priceless works of art stolen by the Nazis before they're destroyed forever. Clooney is joined by a stacked ensemble cast that includes Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin, all playing real-life members of this unlikely team. While the film received mixed reviews for its tonal balancing act, there's no denying the importance of the story it tells. The Monuments Men spotlights a lesser-known chapter of WWII history, one that underscores how culture and legacy can be as worth saving as human lives. The Golden Globes ceremonies taught us that duos don't get much more iconic than Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and Sisters gives them a perfect playground for their chaotic chemistry. The plot is simple enough: two grown-up sisters return to their childhood home one last time before it's sold, only to decide that the best way to say goodbye is to throw one final house party. But its the absolute chaos that unleashes from such a simple premise that makes Sisters feel timeless. Poehler plays the uptight, responsible one, while Fey is the messier, more impulsive sibling, making their dynamic a total blast as the night spirals into absurdity, all while Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena round out a surprisingly hilarious supporting cast. It's the kind of studio comedy we, unfortunately, don't see much of anymore—fun, rowdy and, most importantly, full of heart. Every Movie Leaving Netflix In June 2025 Note: The dates mark your final days to watch these movies.
The Independent
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Aston Merrygold gets emotional as sons interview him for Disney's Elio
got emotional on the press tour of Disney 's Elio after a surprise interview with his sons, Grayson Jax and Macaulay Shay. The JLS singer was surprised by Disney who had organised for his boys to interview him about his debut role as voice actor. Aston can be seen voicing the character 'Aston' in Disney's Elio, in cinemas June 20, alongside Zoe Saldaña, Yonas Kibreab, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Shirley Henderson and Remi Edgerly. His character works with Aunt Olga played by Zoe Saldaña at Montez Air Force Base, where they find themselves hearing rumours of life outside Earth.
