Why is “Elio” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some action/peril and thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of encounters with bullies (one leads to a badly bruised eye), several arguments about behavior and feeling alone, encounters with aliens that are bent on destruction, discussions of tradition and not fitting in, and some name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Animated feature about a young boy (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) devastated by the death of his parents, who decides to see if we really are alone or if there are others in the universe. Also with the voices of Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Young Dylan, Jake Getman, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ana de la Reguera, Atsuko Okatsuka, Shirley Henderson, Naomi Watanabe, Brendan Hunt and Anissa Borrego. Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian & Domee Shi. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in a made-up language and in an alien language with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:39]

Elio SEX/NUDITY 0

 – None.

Elio VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A cloned young boy cuts his finger off with a pair of garden shears; we see green goo and the severed digit is pressed back in place. Many alien vessels surround an alien planet and a young boy flies a vessel to the threatening ships to negotiate with them. An alien shoots a weapon attached to the arm of his suit at small creatures that burst into bits and scream (no blood is shown). A young boy is locked into a cell and we see a skeleton seated inside the cell; it crumbles into pieces.
► A clone of a young alien is placed inside a large armored suit with many spikes inside it and we see it closing around him as many others chant; the armor falls over later and green goo pours out (we understand that the clone is destroyed). An alien threatens and opens fire on many other aliens and we see some aliens being attacked and held by armor-clad attackers. A young boy is thrown off an alien vessel and he lands in the ocean; he makes it to shore coughing. A young boy clone melts to a puddle of green goo. A young alien lies motionless on the ground and another alien peels off his armored suit, wraps him in a swaddle and cradles him trying to revive him (the young alien revives).
► Two boys fight over a ham radio and one is struck in the eye (we see his eye is bruised and swollen and bandaged for most of the movie); a young boy bites another boy on the leg and they are interrupted by military police that take them to an office. Four boys wearing alien masks sneak into another boy’s tent at night and he runs away; they chase him and catch up to him on a beach where he is held by two boys and a third raises his fist to punch him and saying, “You’re so dead,” but they are interrupted and the boy is transported along a bright portal and onto an alien vessel (shaped like a shell). Two boys bully a younger boy, tell him to watch his back and push him to the ground. A young boy throws his helmet hitting a soldier and causes a distraction; he launches a small space vessel and he, a young alien and a woman, fly through space dodging debris; something hits the window of the vessel, it cracks and the vessel loses protective shield power every time it is struck by something.
► An alien and a young boy crawl through passages and lava flows toward them; the boy climbs inside the alien’s mouth (full of sharp teeth) to protect him from the lava and later the alien spits the boy out along with some goo. A woman takes a hair from a cloned young boy and it becomes animated and crawls like a caterpillar when she examines it under a microscope; the hair crawls back to the boy and onto his head and the woman panics when she sees that there is no eye under the patch the boy wears on his eye and the boy grabs the woman’s wrist.
► Aliens prepare to leave a young boy and send him back to Earth but he stops them by convincing them that he can negotiate with another alien to stop an attack. A liquid computer on an alien vessel equips a young boy with a translator so he can understand the aliens and they can understand him; it also controls levels of gravity as well as temperatures. Aliens are all different shapes, sizes, and colors; one type of alien is implanted into large armored suits equipped with weapons for war. A young boy falls through a passage and lands on a sticky strand where an alien being with many teeth in its mouth approaches him and wraps him in a cocoon. A young boy on a beach at night falls asleep and wakes up with a crab crawling across his cheek and an older boy leaning over him; he sits up startled and hits the other boy with the metal colander he wears on his head. A woman yells at a man when her nephew comes home from camp with a bloody nose (we see a trickle of blood) and accuses the man of running a “fight club.”
► Sparks fly around a control room with many computers and screens and the power goes out. A young boy prepares and sends a message through a government system inviting aliens to come and get him on Earth. A young boy wears a metal colander on his head in several scenes and uses radios and antennas to try to send messages to space. A young boy sets up a call spot on a beach with messages written in the sand; people walk across the area and seagulls swarm him a couple of times. A young boy hides inside a garbage can in a control center where space is monitored for any possible communication; the boy becomes excited when he hears sounds as a man announces that the sounds are from aliens.
► An alien representative tells a young boy, “None who fight are winners.” An alien asks a young boy, “Why is your face melting,” when he perspires after lying. An alien becomes upset when he is told that he is not a good fit for a group of other aliens and threatens to take them by force. An alien becomes upset when a young boy suggests that he might not be a very good parent. An alien threatens others by saying, “You will feel my wrath.” A woman and a young boy argue about the woman wanting to send the boy to a camp and boarding school. People argue about the possibility of alien life. A young boy hides under a table and runs away from a woman that is trying to take care of him. A young boy discovers a display about space and the universe and becomes intrigued by the idea of there being life on other planets. We hear that a woman has sacrificed her dreams of becoming an astronaut to care for her young nephew. A young boy talks about his parents having died and an alien says that his mother is gone a lot, fighting wars. A young alien is troubled about not wanting to be like the others; he talks about living a lie.
► A cloned young boy stretches unnaturally and its eyes are enlarged, before taking its proper shape. A cloned alien starts as a large blob before stretching and taking its correct form. A cloned young boy says that he will begin the “decomposition process,” and his face stretches unnaturally as he jellifies; a young boy stops him and he goes back to normal. An alien pulls mucus from a boy’s nose to clone him (we see a blob of green goo). A young boy uses a portable toilet and sighs when he opens the door afterward. A young boy is exposed to cold temperatures and mucus running from his nose freezes. A young boy and later an alien lean over walls and appear to be retching; we do not see goo.

Elio LANGUAGE 1

 – 2 mild anatomical terms, name-calling (bad parent, political assassin, dissident, crazy, enigma, headache, coward, betrayer, bargaining chip), exclamations (what, no way, oh my gosh, you’re so dead, are you kidding me, mayday). | profanity glossary |

Elio SUBSTANCE USE

 – Aliens drink a beverage that looks like a smoothie and is brightly colored (we are not told what it contains), and a woman sits at a table with a meal and a glass of wine.

Elio DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Death of parents, sacrifice, bullying, alien life, space travel, space exploration, tradition, pretending, living a lie, bespoke suits, dishonor, disappointment, loneliness, low self-esteem, being unique, fitting in, first contact, Carl Sagan.

Elio MESSAGE

 – Patience and understanding can help people (as well as aliens) come together.