re: “Elio” set to be Pixar’s worst opening weekend ever

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Which is really sad, because it was an excellent movie with zero messaging that has upset so many people with Disney, myself included.

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Disney lost the trust of moviegoers and parents

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As others have said, Pixar is in shambles, they haven’t had much success in a while after they used to be banger after banger

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Creatively, Pixar is struggling with no movies with any sort of staying power since Coco in 2017.

Monetarily, Pixar is still very successful as they just keep using the sequel method to print money and keep riding the creative genius of 10+ years ago.

Eliot went through production hell

According to multiple insiders who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, Elio was initially portrayed as a queer-coded character, reflecting original director Adrian Molina’s identity as an openly gay filmmaker... this characterization gradually faded away throughout the production process as Elio became more masculine following feedback from leadership. Gone were not only such direct examples of his passion for environmentalism and fashion, but also a scene in Elio’s bedroom with pictures suggesting a male crush. Hints at the trash fashion remain in the released film, with the boy wearing a cape decorated with discarded cutlery and soda can tabs, although without any explanation for the unusual attire.

The writing was first on the wall for the troubled production when the film from Molina, known as the co-director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2017 hit Coco, conducted an early test screening in Arizona. Although viewers expressed how much they enjoyed the movie, they were also asked how many of them would see it in a theater, and not a single hand was raised, according to a source with knowledge of the event. This sounded alarm bells for studio brass.

“I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made,” says former Pixar assistant editor Sarah Ligatich, who provided feedback during Elio production as a member of the company’s internal LGBTQ group PixPRIDE. Although she praises Sharafian and Shi as filmmakers, Ligatich notes that a number of creatives working on the film stepped down after the directors shared their first cut of the movie. “The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work.”

The changes to Elio were clear to one former Pixar artist who worked on the film and asked to remain anonymous: “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.”

“Suddenly, you remove this big, key piece, which is all about identity, and Elio just becomes about totally nothing,” says the former Pixar artist. “The Elio that is in theaters right now is far worse than Adrian’s best version of the original.” Adds another former Pixar staffer who worked on the film: “[The character] Elio was just so cute and so much fun and had so much personality, and now he feels much more generic to me.”

In the meantime, the pain of the Elio process still stings for the creatives who saw the movie’s trajectory become something of a cautionary tale. “I’d love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it,” says the artist. “Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?”

This news makes the blandness of the movie make a lot more sense now. I think it was the right decision by the execs, but the movie really lacked depth. I guess instead of taking the guidance and pivoting, the creators just gave up.

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In the meantime, the pain of the Elio process still stings for the creatives who saw the movie’s trajectory become something of a cautionary tale. “I’d love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it,” says the artist. “Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?”

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Yes, they would have lost more.

A bland movie loses money but doesn't hurt the brand long term.

People take their family to a Pixar movie and get a 2 hour LGBT queer celebration that's the last Pixar movie they are going to, ever.

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The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work

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This statement by one of the orignial writers says a whole lot.

My question to her would be; Who are you making a movie for? Kids? The millions of current and former Pixar fans? Or.......yourself?

11 year olds having gay sex isn’t that big of a draw outside of Hollywood

Took my 13 year old grandson to see it yesterday. He really liked it and I struggled to stay awake.

How insane are these people that they think the general public is starved for queer-coded life stories of the writers

People want to be entertained with their families, you insufferable losers

I guarantee that some Disney exec is claiming the movie bombed because they took all the gay out, making it not authentic