Elio

image for Elio

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (violence, themes, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Elio
  • a review of Elio completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 24 June 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence, themes, and scary scenes.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes, and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Elio
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and animated violence
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Since the dawn of time, humans have gazed at the stars and wondered if we are alone. No one feels more alone than young Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab) who has lost both of his parents and is taken in by his loving Aunt Olga (voice of Zoe Saldana) who has sacrificed her career as an astronaut to stay on a Military base in order to care for Elio. Coming across a deserted exhibit at a museum, Elio becomes obsessed with ‘Voyager’, a mechanical mission sent off into space years before he was even born, with an audio message scientists hope will be intercepted by alien life forms and which will usher in a new age of intergalactic communication and shared knowledge. But, as Elio grows older, he feels more and more alone, and more and more as though he does not belong here on Earth. He lays on the beach begging to be abducted by a spaceship, and he does everything he can to communicate with extraterrestrials, until finally one night he hears the message he has been waiting for. When the adults and military personnel completely ignore it, Elio sends his own response and soon finds himself sucked onto a spacecraft and brought to the ‘Communiverse’ where all the greatest alien minds come to share their understandings. Wanting desperately to join them, Elio allows the community to believe that he is Earth’s ambassador and when the Communiverse is threatened by Lord Grigon (voice of Brad Garrett), Elio promises to negotiate with the warlord and broker peace for them all. However, things don’t quite go according to plan and Elio is placed in a dungeon, while Lord Grigon prepares his army for war. Meanwhile, Elio makes friends with Lord Grigon’s son Glordon (voice of Remy Edgerly), who doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his father and who agrees to be Elio’s bargaining chip to ensure that the Communiverse is left in peace. But once again, Elio’s plan falls apart. His betrayal is discovered, he is sent back to Earth, and it seems that all his efforts were in vain, until he discovers that there is no greater love than that of a parent for its child, that parents come in many different forms and that he has never truly been alone.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Bullying; Aliens; Loneliness; Family Breakdown; Death of parents; Separation from parents; Cloning; Revenge.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Elio attacks and bites a teenager on the beach.
  • Elio is punched in the face by a bunch of bullies. Elio’s clone later takes the full hit.
  • Lord Grigon threatens to destroy the Communiverse.
  • Lord Grigon shoots a fluffy little creature. He does this repeatedly and encourages Elio to do the same.
  • Elio tries to miss by shooting at a metal beam instead of the creature, but the bullet ricochets off and hits the creature anyway.
  • Lord Grigon uses a massive weapon capable of firing numerous rounds at once and shoots at hundreds of tiny creatures simultaneously.
  • A cloned Elio cuts off his finger with gardening shears and then simply reattaches it.
  • Elio is locked in a cell with a skeleton.
  • Elio must crawl into Glordon’s teeth-filled mouth to escape being burned by lava.
  • Lord Grigon and his army fire on the Communiverse and attack the aliens gathered there.
  • Elio is shoved into a portal and, as he falls back to Earth, he watches the Communiverse leaders being pushed to the floor with weapons at their heads.
  • Elio and his aunt are repeatedly hit by falling debris as they navigate their way back into space. Their shields begin to fail and Glordon slowly freezes.
  • All the members of the Communiverse are imprisoned by Lord Grigon.
  • Lord Grigon wants his son to be a war machine and he talks about death and destruction.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Elio is chased through a dark forest during a storm by three bullies wearing Alien masks. They pursue him relentlessly shouting things like: “You are SO dead!”, and Elio is clearly terrified.
  • Lord Grigon and his army appear very menacing and dangerous. They have multiple glowing eyes, huge machine bodies and arms equipped with guns, lasers and axes.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Elio is stuck to a web while, what appears to be, a screeching monster lurks on the sidelines before rushing forth to swaddle him in more web and potentially devour him. Elio is terrified until he learns the creature is friendly and trying to help.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Elio is presented a drink in a fancy type of wine glass when he first arrives at the Communiverse.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Butt.

In a nutshell

Elio is an animated, sci-fi adventure from Pixar Studios. The film blends realistic animations, vibrant visuals and heartfelt emotion as it delves into the personal and complex topics of identity and belonging. It is best suited to audiences over the age of eight.

The main messages from this movie are to embrace your individuality and stay true to yourself; that imagination is a powerful tool; that families come in all shapes and sizes; and that being unique can sometimes feel like being alone, but that you are never truly alone.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Creativity
  • Determination
  • Courage
  • Resilience
  • Open-mindedness
  • Communication
  • Cooperation.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Allowing the behaviour or opinions of others to determine how you feel about yourself.
  • The impact of fighting, bullying or using violence instead of attempting to establish a peaceful solution to a conflict.
  • Failing to communicate about how you really feel.
  • The complications of cloning technologies.
  • Being dishonest about who you are and placing yourself, or others, in a dangerous situation.