So, confession time: I didn’t mean to watch Elio.

I was scrolling through listings at my local theater, saw the words Galactic Assembly and Earth’s Ambassador, and thought, “Whoa — a new space travel documentary? Count me in.” Packed my notebook, my best space-themed hoodie, and prepared for some high-grade interplanetary trivia.

Turns out… it’s a Pixar movie.

And friends, what a delightful accident it was.

Elio isn’t a documentary about alien politics (though honestly, if it were, it’d be the most visually stunning one ever made). It’s a heartwarming, neon-soaked, slightly wobbly but utterly endearing animated adventure about a kid who gets abducted by aliens and is mistaken for the official spokesperson for Earth. As one does.

Now, I don’t typically review movies on my travel blog. I cover real destinations, earthly and occasionally questionable ones (still recovering from that inflatable water park incident of 2021). But Elio felt like the kind of trip worth writing about, even if it happens in a fictional galaxy far, far away.

Let’s talk setting: The Galactic Assembly is, hands down, one of the most fascinating “places” I’ve visited this year — real or imagined. The animation team outdid themselves designing creatures that are equal parts weird and wonderful. There’s a jellyfish made of bioluminescent mist. A being that’s basically a floating eyeball wearing a tiny bowtie (unconfirmed if it’s sentient, but I’m rooting for it). Every frame feels like a postcard from a world you wish existed.

Then there’s Elio himself. As a protagonist, he’s not your typical adventure hero. He’s soft-spoken, imaginative, and slightly awkward — basically me at 11, minus the alien abduction. Watching him fumble through diplomatic disasters and cosmic mishaps was both hilarious and surprisingly relatable. If I’d been randomly chosen to represent Earth, I guarantee I’d have made equally questionable decisions.

What really sold me, though, was the relationship between Elio and his mother, Olga. It’s tender, occasionally tense, and filled with those tiny, authentic moments you don’t expect in a story about space governments and weird tentacle creatures. As a travel writer, I’m always fascinated by the idea of home — what it means, where it is, and how we carry it with us. Elio quietly explores that in a way that hit me right in the feels between alien gags.

Of course, like any journey, it’s not flawless. The middle leg of this trip (ahem, movie) meanders a bit. Some of the jokes aim for the youngest members of the tour group, leaving us snarky adults glancing at our imaginary watches. And a few of the side characters I wanted to get lost with only got a brief cameo.

But listen — every great trip has a few detours. And Elio is absolutely worth the itinerary adjustment.