Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Elio!

The тιтular protagonist gets an eyepatch during the story of Elio, and here is why he wears it and how it impacts the rest of the story. Throughout the marketing for Elio, the character has had a consistently unique design. The young boy has been seen sporting a cape, a sci-fi hat made out of a pasta strainer, and an eyepatch, with the trailers never fully revealing anything about these outfit choices. Before the movie’s release, there was a lot of speculation online about Elio’s eyepatch, and the Elio movie has finally revealed why he has it.

Elio is the latest original film from Pixar, with it following a young boy who becomes obsessed with getting abducted by aliens. When he successfully gets abducted, Elio is mistakenly identified as the leader of Earth, a тιтle that he accepts so that he can stay with the aliens. Unfortunately, this puts him in the middle of an intergalactic conflict. While the film has been a critical success, Elio has been a box office disappointment so far when compared to movies like Inside Out 2.

Elio Wears An Eyepatch After Hurting His Eye In A Fight

He Wears It Until The Injury Is Healed

When Elio starts, the тιтular character has two completely ordinary eyes, with him not wearing an eyepatch. He doesn’t wear an eyepatch throughout most of the film’s first act, which follows his efforts to get abducted. In an attempt to send a signal further into space, Elio starts a ham radio club. Two older kids show up to participate in the club. However, they are disappointed when they find Elio’s alien plans, causing a fight. During the fight, a piece of Elio’s radio contraption hits him in the eye, injuring it.

When Elio is next seen, his aunt is angrily marching him through the military base. However, she has taken care of the bruised eye by placing an eyepatch over it. Elio wears this eyepatch for the majority of the film after this point, with it becoming one of his defining design characteristics.

There Is A Deeper Meaning Behind Elio Wearing An Eyepatch

Here’s What It Means

In the lead up to Elio‘s release, some online Pixar fans theorized that Elio’s eyepatch could mean that he has amblyopia. Amblyopia, often referred to as lazy eye, is a condition in which one eye has abnormal or weaker vision, causing it to wander. This happens in early childhood, and it is often corrected by putting an eyepatch over the stronger eye, forcing the weaker one to strengthen. However, this was deconfirmed when Elio was released, as his eyepatch is due to the aforementioned eye injury.

Elio’s eyepatch does still have a thematic point though. Elio’s eyepatch makes him feel like even more of an outsider among the humans, especially with his peers at the military camp that he is sent to. Elio has always felt as if he doesn’t have friends, and having this visual difference makes Elio even more self-conscious about this issue. On top of that, the eyepatch plays a big role in the clone storyline that occurs later in the film, with it being essential in Elio’s aunt discovering the truth about the aliens.

What Elio’s Creative Team Has Said About His Eyepatch

They Confirm The Thematic Point Of The Eyepatch

Since Elio is still new, the creative team hasn’t said much about Elio’s eyepatch. Elio animation supervisor Jude Brownbill has discussed the choice, saying this to Cinema Blend:

Well, you didn’t get to see how he got his eye patch [in the footage], but he gets an eye patch. That’s all we can say. It was a bit of a challenge ’cause we were like, does he have to spend the rest of the movie with his eye patch on? It does provide a very useful way of knowing that it’s Elio. So it was really kind of like a handy identifier for him. And in the end, it wasn’t causing too much trouble. It one less eye for us to animate.

Elio co-director Madeline Sharafian has also discussed the thematic importance of the eyepatch. Here is what she said to IndieWire:

It was always part of his design because I think it was something that made him feel insecure and othered on earth. But when he’s in space, all of a sudden, this eye patch and the [green] cape make him look dashing like a space pirate, like a hero. It just helps add to the feeling for him that space is where he should be, and everything kind of works for him there.

So, Elio’s eyepatch clearly has thematic and practical importance, something that viewers of the film will undoubtedly recognize. This small detail shows the love and care that has been put into Elio, making it one of Pixar’s most impressive films in recent years.

Sources: Cinema Blend, IndieWire