US EditionPixar’s ‘Elio’ Reportedly Stripped of Queer Representation After Test Screenings
ARIZONA, JUL 08 – Original LGBTQ+ themes were removed after negative test screening feedback, leading to director Adrian Molina's exit and a loss of key creative talent, sources say.
- Pixar released the animated film Elio on May 20, 2025, in most countries including the United States where it earned $21 million its opening weekend.
- The initial concept for Elio centered on an 11-year-old gay boy who, after being bullied, is taken by aliens to represent humanity in an intergalactic council.
- Following negative test screening feedback in summer 2023, Disney and Pixar executives removed LGBTQ+ elements and altered the film's direction, prompting several creatives to leave.
- Despite costing over $150 million, Elio grossed under $72 million worldwide in two weeks and received critical panning as derivative and dull, marking Pixar’s worst domestic opening.
- Elio’s commercial failure and content changes suggest Pixar struggled to balance original storytelling with corporate concerns over queer representation amid prior film flops.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Contributor: Pixar’s ‘Elio’ is not a political movie, but it arrives at a political time
It's not a stretch to think that the premise of a Latino kid alienated for who he is and who believes that he won’t ever feel fully accepted in the place he calls home could speak to millions of Latino children across this country.
The story of Pixar’s latest flop: Why is ‘Elio’ the animation studio’s worst box office opening?
It could have been one of the cinematic stories of the summer; maybe even of the year. It was destined to be. However, Elio will end up being remembered, unfairly, as one of the big box office flops of 2025. There is always room for a comeback, as others have done before it, but the case continues to raise questions. The latest film from Pixar, the exquisite animation factory bought by Disney a couple of decades ago, hits Spanish theaters this W…
Eldiario.es
elDiarioAR‘Elio’, the Pixar Film that ‘Tends Hands’ to the ‘Rare Boys’ Who Feel Lonely because of Social Media
The film, directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrián Molina, denounces the danger that apps like Instagram make young people want to be all equalCriticism – ‘Jurassic World: The Reborn’ tries to put aside the nostalgia to face the vacuum of a drifting saga ‘Being unique sometimes means feeling alone’, says an Elio character in one of the scenes in the new Pixar film. The phrase, which is the premise under which Disney’s latest animatio…
'Elio' was lame. Making him gay wouldn’t change that.
Would Disney’s latest flop, “Elio,” have been saved if the company made the film “lame and gay” instead of just lame? Some of its creators seem to think so.According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Elio” was originally conceived as a story about a lonely, bullied 11-year-old gay boy who gets whisked away by spacefaring aliens to represent humanity in the “Communiverse” — an intergalactic version of the United Nations. In the original version, Elio’s…
Hartford Courant
Pixar’s ‘Elio’ reportedly stripped of queer representation after test screenings
By Anthony Solorzano, Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — The version of “Elio” that hit theaters on June 20 is not the same movie that Adrian Molina, the film’s original director, intended to put out. Pixar removed LGBTQ+ elements from the animated feature after receiving negative feedback from test screenings with audience members and executives, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film follows an 11-year-old boy named Elio who is mistaken fo…
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