When can you watch Elio on Disney+? Here’s all you need to know

After underperforming at the box office, Pixar’s Elio will arrive on Disney+ next week. Pixar has announced that its latest animated flick will hit the streaming service Disney+ next week, on September 17, 2025. The company's post on Twitter (now X) reads,

"Get ready for the fun, heart & humor with #Elio, coming to @DisneyPlus on September 17!"

Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina, the animated film borrows voices from Zoe Saldaña, Yonas Kibreab, Jameela Jamil, and more.

The film was said to be a major money loser for Disney and Pixar, according to Variety, and made $153.7 million at the global box office in less than three months following its release on June 20, 2025.

However, lower ticket sales don't mean it was a bad film. Going by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a solid 83% score on its Tomatometer and a delicious 90% score on its Popcornmeter.

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Can Elio find success on Disney+?

What's done is done. We need to accept the fact that the film was a commercial disaster despite captivating the ones who saw it. Now that it is about to land on Disney+, the question is whether it will be a streaming success or not.

Given that Elio currently holds a healthy position on Rotten Tomatoes, it is very likely that it will find success on the streaming platform. As of this writing, the live-action Lilo & Stitch film is leading the charts there, followed by Thunderbolts, The Incredibles, The Incredibles 2, Snow White, Ice Age, Freaky Friday, The Amateur, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch.

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Elio's plot in a glimpse (without spoilers)

The protagonist of the film is an eleven-year-old boy of the same name who is full of imagination with a weird fantasy of getting abducted by aliens, which, of course, comes true. The real story begins from there.

What audiences are sure to like about the movie are its colorful visuals, which are a sure shot to cheer up the mood. However, we cannot say the same for the narrative craftsmanship, as it falls short there, according to some fans. Despite that, it is a fun watch, especially for children.

There are also themes like loneliness, as our protagonist lost his parents at an early age. Though his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) is there for him and has given up her career to look after him, there's a clear emptiness that the character is trying to fill.

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How was Elio's environment created?

This was veteran production designer Harley Jessup's final film with Pixar, which he called a "college project." To create the environment, they used VR and macro photography in water tanks, according to IndieWire. Jessup told the publication:

"I was able to bring some of that back into research on tiny, microscopic plants and animals. And how alien they look is still part of the natural world that the audience would recognize and feel believable. And everybody just picked up on that and ran with those ideas. Tests from every corner that were just astounding: oceanic characters that are outside of the ocean that are in our space, swimming through the atmosphere rather than water because their gravity is different."

Their goal was to create a version of space people haven't seen before. They did manage to light up that sky.

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