Pixar’s 2025 animated film Elio flopped at the box office, and now a top executive at the company has defended their decision to remove any suggestions that the lead character might have been queer.
“We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy… As time’s gone on, I realised my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody.” Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter has told The Wall Street Journal.
The studio head confirmed to the paper that he’d ordered the original film to be reworked so all queer suggestions were taken out. While the lead character of Elio, an orphan who dreams of being an astronaut, was never overtly labeled as being queer, there were subtle suggestions in the original cut.
The inclusion of elements that suggested Elio might be gay were part of the vision of the film’s original director Adrian Molina who drew upon his own lonely childhood. After the cuts were ordered Molina walked away from the project.
Docter has defended his decision saying the inclusion of suggestions that Elio might be gay would have led to parents having to have challenging conversations with their children. It’s a defense that has been lampooned widely given the wide range of topics previous Pixar films have covered.
Tech website Gizmodo noted that previous films have touched on “becoming a widower, suddenly becoming a single or adoptive parent, environmental collapse, existential dread, motherhood… job burnout.”
They also laughed off Docter’s statement that films shouldn’t be a therapeutic experience, noting that he directed the animated films Soul and Inside Out. Soul is about a man who can no longer find joy in his life, while Inside Out is about the inner-workings of a person’s psyche.
The film was estimated to have a budget of up to US$200 million, plus significant marketing costs. It brought in $154 million at the box office, leaving the studio significantly in the red.
Maybe one day we’ll get a director’s cut.
