WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Elio.

Pixar’s 2025 movie Elio proves that the company still hasn’t raised the bar on its original sci-fi concepts since 2008’s groundbreaking and Oscar-winning animated feature, WALL-E. Elio is the latest film from the legendary production company Pixar, which has collaborated with Disney to make some of the greatest animated movies of all time. It’s the first Pixar movie since 2024’s Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing film of last year, and has already received critical acclaim with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 85%. Elio is Pixar’s only theatrical release in 2025, with Hoppers and Toy Story 5 set to release in 2026.

Although Elio has had a slow start at the box office following its June 20, 2025, release, those who have seen the film generally enjoy it, resulting in an RT audience score of 90%. Elio centers on a young, orphaned boy who looks for connection not from the people or world around him but from beyond in the cosmos. Elio has his wish come true by being beamed up in a spaceship of planetary leaders who are collectively known as the Communiverse. Believing that Elio is the leader of Earth, based on an audio message he sent into space, the leaders of the Communiverse call on him to protect them from the formidable Lord Grigon.

Elio Is A New Type Of Sci-Fi Movie For Pixar

Elio Mixes Personal Story With Intergalactic Exploration

While Pixar has ventured into true sci-fi movies before, as seen in WALL-E and Lightyear, Elio is a bit different in its approach and greater themes. In WALL-E, humans are mostly background characters, while robots such as WALL-E and Eve take the spotlight. Lightyear plays into the classic tropes of the iconic Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear, resulting in more of a superhero-type movie. With Elio, the story feels quite small and contained, which is surprising since it mostly takes place in outer space. This is to highlight the central theme of loneliness and alienation that lives at Elio’s core.

Elio also features real-world archival audio recordings by the prolific scientist and author Carl Sagan. Sagan spoke extensively about the prospect of extraterrestrial life and played an integral part in the launch of Voyager 1, curating a variety of Earthly images and human sounds with the aim of making first contact with alien life. In this way, Elio feels less like an adventure movie, even though it certainly has elements of such, and plays out as more of a theoretical journey. It categorizes the alien characters as highly evolved, peaceful, and nonconfrontational, which is a very different portrayal of alien life than most movies that cast them as enemies looking to take over Earth.

Pixar’s First Sci-Fi Movie Was A True Masterpiece

WALL-E Is Great Cinema For All Ages

Comparing Elio, or any animated movie for that matter, to WALL-E is a tough challenge. Not only is WALL-E a six-time Oscar nominee and winner for Best Animated Feature, but it is also a box office smash, earning roughly $521 million worldwide. While Elio still has the potential to match these lofty levels of critical and commercial success, it will be a tough feat since it’s currently competing against Universal & DreamWorks’ live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon at the box office. Numbers aside, WALL-E is more focused on societal commentary, particularly the excessiveness of consumerist culture, pollution, and waste.

WALL-E received an outstanding 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and is consistently referred to as one of the greatest Pixar movies ever made. Not only is WALL-E, which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class, adorable, but the film is entertaining for both kids and adults and inspires a cautionary tale about humanity. Critics heralded WALL-E for its imaginative approach to what is, at its heart, a classic love story, while expanding on timely themes in an enjoyable and impactful manner. The first 30 minutes of WALL-E are a masterclass in visual storytelling, with very little dialogue and outstanding visuals and cinematography.

How Elio Compares To WALL-E

WALL-E Explores Themes Of Consumerism & Robotic Takeover

As two Pixar sci-fi movies, both Elio and WALL-E feature outer space elements and characters to achieve different narratives. One of the biggest differences off the bat is the setting. Elio takes place on modern Earth as we know it, breaking the barrier between human and alien life in a metaphysical, interdimensional way, which aligns more with modern thinking. WALL-E is set in a far distant future where pollution and waste have made Earth uninhabitable, forcing humanity to exist on a spaceship/cruise ship hybrid where life is dictated by convenience and digital screens in a floating utopia.

The main forces of antagonism in WALL-E are the robotic takeover of humanity, and humanity-adjacent robots such as WALL-E and Eve. This notion rings even more true today with the rise of artificial intelligence. Whereas WALL-E and Eve fight against broader systemic threats, like consumerism and corporate greed, to reroute the course of humanity, Elio’s journey is a truly personal one, which doesn’t thin his story but does make it feel smaller by comparison. There are also more classic sci-fi movie elements seen in WALL-E, making some elements feel like a Star Wars film, while Elio leans more into sci-fi concepts than filmmaking techniques.

Elio Doesn’t Beat WALL-E As Pixar’s Best Sci-Fi Movie

WALL-E Does Just About Everything Right

Elio is a strong and enjoyable sci-fi offering from Pixar, although its biggest difference, and point of weakness, compared to WALL-E, lies in its antagonistic forces. Elio volunteers to confront Lord Grigon, who vows to destroy the Communiverse after his overly aggressive personality leads to his rejection from the council. Elio befriends Lord Grigon’s son, Glordon, and their unique connection is what ultimately brings Lord Grigon down from his power-hungry pedestal. Apart from intergalactic intrigue and a strong premise, Elio doesn’t quite pack the same emotional punch as WALL-E, which presents exciting foes, thrilling action scenes, and more investable conflicts.

Elio is a comforting, even lighthearted reminder that nobody is ever truly alone, even when they feel like it, if they believe in the power of connection beyond the known world. This could be applied in a variety of contexts, even religious, as the film offers a soothing interpretation of what has struck fear in humanity for decades. WALL-E is ultimately more complex in its themes and execution, and offers an homage to the greatest sci-fi film ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This and more contribute to the fact that it may remain Pixar’s best sci-fi movie for many years to come.