Pixar’s newest animated film, Elio, may look like a sweet, intergalactic adventure, but behind the scenes, it has become another flashpoint in the ongoing controversy around LGBTQ representation in mainstream animation. Originally directed by Adrian Molina, Elio reportedly contained gentle nods to queerness in its earliest version. According to The Hollywood Reporter, early test audiences in 2023 saw signs that the 11-year-old titular character might be queer.
One playful moment showed Elio designing a pink tank top from beach trash for a “trash-ion show” held for a hermit crab. Another featured his bedroom decorated with images that hinted at a crush on a boy. While the film was never meant to be a coming-out story, Molina had hoped to include these early markers of identity.
But those moments were erased from the final cut. The Hollywood Reporter claims Pixar executives were dissatisfied with the original version, and Molina reportedly left a leadership screening in 2024 feeling hurt. He eventually exited the project. The film was then reworked under co-directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi. An anonymous Pixar artist said,
“It was pretty clear through the production of the first version of the film that [studio leaders] were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio’s sexuality of being queer…A lot of people like to blame Disney, but the call is coming from inside the house. A lot of it is obeying-in-advance behavior, coming from the higher execs at Pixar.”
The revised version, which removed much of the queer subtext and presented Elio as more masculine, has struggled at the box office—earning just $41.9 million domestically so far against a reported $150 million budget. The artist also asked whether they would have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story. Elio is now playing in theaters.
