Pixar‘s fun sci-fi adventure film “Elio” recently landed a Best Animated Film Oscar nomination, but there is some behind-the-scenes drama after the studio removed an LGBTQ+ storyline from the pic (seemingly connected to ex-CEO Bob Chapek and others at Disney caving on the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill).
There are now reports that “Elio” saw poor test screenings, which led to a major overhaul and the exit of the original director, Adrian Molina (Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi stepping in for directing duties and overseeing changes). One of those key elements that got scrapped was that the titular protagonist, Elio, would allude to being gay in that earlier version. In the film, a lonely young boy named Elio desperately wants to be abducted by aliens, only for his wish to be granted and for him to be representative of Earth.
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The blunt reasoning for those changes was stated by Pixar’s Peter Docter to the Wall Street Journal, “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”
This quote from Pixar brass is quite the craven statement to make, given that MANY of the emotionally-driven Pixar movies focus specifically on loss and coming-of-age stories, including Docter’s own films such as “Inside Out,” “Soul,” and “Up.” The former title literally focusing a young girl’s anthropomorphic emotions throughout the story.
Some of the scrapped scenes mentioned in the WSJ report showed Elio with a pink bike and imagined a life together with his male crush. Pixar would also remove a transgender character from their animated series “Win or Lose” due to Disney’s request, not a great look for the animation studio.
Ultimately, the film struggled at the box office after some weak marketing from Disney, and possibly, combined with Disney+ subscribers simply waiting for the new movie’s streaming debut. When the dust settled, the pricey flick was only able to earn $154.2 million and was seen as a disappointment; those internal changes on “Elio” seemingly did nothing to move the needle.
Pixar had been trying to include more same-sex couples (like briefly seen in “Lightyear“) and LGBTQ+ characters (some queer-coding for Riley in “Inside Out 2“) in various movies leading up to “Elio,” but has seen plenty of pushback from bigots who were under some impression that seeing non-hetero cis characters in animated movies would somehow confuse or “brainwash” their children.
Previously, there was a feeling from some that Pixar originals saw brand damage when “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” were essentially dumped on streaming as Disney was trying to get movies off their slate despite COVID-19 impacting theatrical. Thankfully, Pixar’s latest original release, “Hoppers,” had an impressive opening weekend, making a solid $88 million globally.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
