You are not alone.  It is a message Jesus gave to His disciples, it is something I try to remind myself of every day through prayer, and it is something often repeated in Elio.  Then again, with the film, it is also meant to work on two levels.  There are the title character’s (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) feelings of loneliness in the wake of his parents’ untimely death, and the broader notion that the Earth is not the only inhabited planet in the universe.  As to the latter of those ideas, there are those that think the possibility of extraterrestrial life disproves the existence of God.  If such a revelation were to come out, the Church maintains that would not be a theological question.  God is more infinite than we can imagine.  He is the universe and then some.  It could be that there are other intelligent beings out there, or we might be the only ones.  Either way, my opening statement stands.  Keep those first few words in mind as you read the rest of this review.

Indeed, Elio Solis is feeling alone as he hides under a table while his aunt, Olga Solis (voiced by Zoe Saldaña), tries to coax him into eating.  The loss of appetite is not the only sign of the hurt the eleven-year-old has been experiencing since his parents died.  He has also been running off and missing school.  This time, while she converses with some United States Air Force (USAF) colleagues they encounter at the museum they are at, he slips away.  In his wanderings, he stumbles onto an exhibit about Voyager 1, a deep space probe launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Its mission ,to send into the galaxy and beyond a record (literally) of our planets culture and people, attracts Elio.  In other words, it is searching for (hopefully) friends, something he is lacking despite his aunt’s encouragement.  She is trying her best as his guardian, but the visit captures the boy’s imagination.  Believing his place is with anyone out there in the cosmos, he does all he can in order to be abducted by aliens.  He spends an entire day on the beach, drawing arrows and circles in the sand in order to make himself a target for any passing unidentified flying objects (UFO).  When this does not work, he invents an amateur, or “ham,” radio society in order to get one to come out there to boost his signal.  Two people arrive.  The first one, Bryce (Dylan Gilmer), seems enthusiastic and friendly, but Elio is too distracted by the ham radio Bryce brings.  The other is Caleb (voiced by Jake Getman), who is too pushy.  His questions turn into a fight with Elio and the breaking of the communication device.  The scuffle lands Elio in the hospital where he is made to wear an eyepatch over his left eye.  He also has to go to work for one day with Aunt Olga.  Despite her stern warning to stay put, Elio gets distracted when he hears base technician and conspiracy theorist Gunther Melmac’s (Brendan Hunt) thrilled reporting of a signal heard record from space.  Sneaking into the control room Elio listens as Gunther’s theories are dismissed and everyone is sent home.  Using the equipment Gunther had already prepared, Elio records a greeting and sends it into the ether.  Once he is home with his aunt, though, she informs him that she is sending him to a camp to help him with his issues, which feels like another rejection from her.  Making matters worse is the fact that Bryce and Caleb also attend the same camp, and they are not happy about getting in trouble for their fight.  They chase Elio to a clearing and are about to beat him up when time comes to a halt.  Physics have stopped working because Elio is about to get his wish.  With exuberant cheers, he is beamed across time and space where he is welcomed as the leader of “Uh . . . Earth,” the vocal hesitation being picked as the name of his home planet.  Even better, they wish to give him membership in the “Communiverse,” a collection of representatives from civilizations from across the galaxy.  They gather in this floating utopia to exchange ideas and promote “tolerance and open-mindedness.”  Things are going swimmingly until he meets Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett), warlord and other candidate for joining the Communiverse.  Unfortunately, Lord Grigon is viewed as too violent and is thus denied entry, which he does not take well.  In fact, he threatens to destroy the Communiverse, and they plan to run away and hide.  Because this means Elio will be sent him without membership, he volunteers to negotiate with Lord Grigon.  The Communiverse sends the boy to Lord Grigon’s ship, which almost works until Elio makes an unintentional dig at the worm-like alien’s abilities as a father.  Instead, Elio is put in the brig.  Finding an escape route, Elio meets Lord Grigon’s son, Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly).  They form a friendship based on their mutual feelings of being ignored by others, but Glordon has the added pressure of not wanting to follow in his father’s warrior ways.  This gives Elio the idea of using Glordon as a bargaining chip to gain freedom for the Communiverse.  Also, to save Glordon from his fate, they decide to clone the prince, which Elio knows how to do from when they cloned himself to be sent back to Earth.  It all falls apart, though, when Lord Grigon can tell that they are being given an impostor Glordon.  Meanwhile, the real heir is in a smaller spaceship, which rockets to Earth.  When the lies are revealed, Elio, too, is returned to his home planet.  Luckily, he meets Aunt Olga soon after landing and they reconcile.  Together, they free Glordon and make their way across the stars to what is left of the Communiverse.  Once there, Glordon is returned to his father, which makes up for Elio’s mistakes.  Still, instead of staying with the Communiverse, Elio realizes his place is with his aunt.

Elio is one of many Disney characters that are orphans, but at least he has Aunt Olga to raise him.  Many have nobody, and must rely on magical creatures for their upbringing.  Still, it is evident that Elio loved his parents, and their loss makes him feel alone.  It takes him traveling the stars to realize that there are people out there who care for him.  What strikes me about this yearning, in him and other similar characters, is that it is evidence of something few outside of Christians acknowledge: God did not create us to be on our own.  This is why I found the notion of the Communiverse fascinating.  The Church is evidence of our tendency for community, and it is something that my pastor emphasized this weekend in his homily.  It was perfect because it was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known more familiarly as Corpus Christi.  One could look at it as a feast commemorating the taking of Communion, and there again we have the root word in “Communiverse.”  For our purposes, if you are Elio feeling alone in the universe, or some other Disney personality, the Earthly answer would be to go to Mass.  Doing so makes you not only a part of the real body of a parish, but a Heavenly one in Christ.  Further, doing so makes us brothers and sisters with one another as children of God.  Jesus gave us the Spirit of adoption through Him and His sacrifice.  Further, He instilled a longing for these things in us when He created us.  What should be emphasized about him and others like him is that he is not rejecting this idea, even if God is absent from the film.  At the same time, we are similar to Elio in that we look for that belonging in all the wrong places.  God is closer to us that we will ever know.

That Elio grows closer to Aunt Olga by the end of the film can be construed as his guardian modeling God’s love for us. Sadly, many people do not go to church, but the family is meant to be a little church where God’s presence is meant to be its guiding principle.  To this end, there are some interesting lines that underscore the importance of showing those feelings unconditionally.  As children, we depend on our parents for everything, which is why Elio feels so lost when they pass away.  This is not unheard of in real life.  That reliance is why Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 19:14 that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven requires a child-like disposition.  Yet, those children eventually become adults.  We are still called to have the same disposition, but our experiences muddy the waters.  This is why I appreciate Lord Grigon’s words to Glordon when they are reunited and reconciled.  With Elio’s encouragement, Glordon admits that he does not want to be a warrior.  It is part of the individuating process that we must all go through, to find the specific path that God has called us to follow.  Glordon is too young to know that latter part, but Lord Grigon again shows the correct candor when he tells his son that while he many not always understand his offspring, he will always love him.  That is about as close as a grown-up can come to recapturing some of that child-like spirit we lose as we age.  We are not meant to understand everything God asks of us.  He can lead us in directions that appear foolhardy from this side of it.  Yet, once we come out the other side, we can look back on it and feel God’s hand upon us.  As long as we trust in Him, or our elders’, good judgment, there is a good chance that we will be blessed for the experience.

Now that I have experienced Elio, do I recommend it?  I guess I do.  I do not intend this to be a half-hearted recommendation, but I must admit to not being as moved as I have been by other recent productions like Inside Out 2(2024).  I am sure the kids will like Elio, and there is nothing wrong with it.  I was just not as wowed as I thought I would be.