Last year’s Elio has been something of an oddity for Pixar’s body of work, with it going through an extraneous production that left many wondering what the original vision would’ve looked like. Recently, none other than Pixar’s own Pete Docter revealed why the film wound up going in the direction it did, and why a certain plot point was cut.
Directed by the trio of Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, and Domee Shi, Elio follows a young boy with an infatuation for space and a craving for adventure. When he encounters a space-faring alien by chance, Elio begins to form his own identity, traveling the stars and attempting to bring peace to an entire galaxy. Deadline noted that the film was originally supposed to be much more reflective of director Molina’s own experience as a child.
The film was meant to include a big emphasis on the young Elio being gay and learning just how it fits into his identity, just as Molina had to figure out as he was growing up. There were multiple ways this would manifest in the film as well, as several ideas were reportedly bounced around, Docter told the Wall Street Journal, before the idea was scrapped altogether.
Deadline also noted that Docter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, specifically said that the idea was scrapped because of the response of parents. It was felt that the parents bringing the children to the film wouldn’t want the topic to be addressed, and also wouldn’t want to have to discuss it with their children, saying that they’re “making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”
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