Well, isn’t that something? The most expensive Pixar film in recent memory crashes and burns at the box office, and what’s the post-mortem analysis from inside the studio? “We didn’t make it gay enough.” Not “We didn’t make it good enough.” Not “We misjudged the market.” Nope. Apparently, it’s all about the sexuality of a cartoon space kid.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
Let’s get this straight: Elio, a $200 million animated film about a boy accidentally teleported to some galactic UN of aliens, managed to rake in a paltry $20 million on opening weekend—and now anonymous insiders are saying it flopped because studio execs “scrubbed out” the queer coding? That’s the theory. Forget storytelling, forget character arcs, forget whether children and families—Pixar’s bread and butter—actually enjoyed the movie. All roads lead back to identity politics.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pixar staff were devastated that Elio didn’t get to sashay his way through a DIY fashion show in outer space or pine after his male crush. That, apparently, was the “heart” of the film. Without it? “Elio just becomes about totally nothing,” one 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.”
Elio is an 11-year-old child. Anyone thinking of him sexually is deranged. pic.twitter.com/TxqyhpJABy
— Amygator 🐊 *not an actual alligator (@AmyA1A) July 1, 2025
Let’s pause there. Totally nothing? You’re telling us that unless a film checks all the modern identity boxes, it has no meaning? No heart? Nothing worth watching? That’s not art—it’s activism in a costume.
And let’s not ignore what’s hiding in plain sight here. Adrian Molina, the original director and an openly gay filmmaker, reportedly left the project after a meeting with Pixar brass, apparently crushed after screening his version of the film. Soon after, he’s replaced, the film is reshaped, and according to the LGBTQ group within Pixar, people fled the building like it was on fire. Why? Because it was no longer their movie. It didn’t serve their agenda.
I’ll say it again. Because this level of dumb is very hard to fathom. They actually think Elio bombed because they didn’t rainbow hard enough on it. It’s absolutely stunning that’s the takeaway here. They’re incapable of learning because it’s a cult https://t.co/DNkBLpyFhQ
— BaconManLives 🐻🏈 (@baconmanlives) July 2, 2025
Think about that.
We’re not talking about a political documentary. We’re talking about a children’s animated movie—a space adventure meant to spark wonder in 8-year-olds. And somehow, somewhere along the way, that wasn’t enough. There had to be a message. There had to be representation. And not just any kind—very specific representation, or the project wasn’t “beautiful” anymore.
Then it flops. Spectacularly. Historically. And the lesson Pixar staff took away from this flaming crash? “Maybe we should’ve pushed the message harder.” That’s like crashing your car into a wall and blaming the lack of bumper stickers.
And look—this isn’t about LGBTQ content per se. It’s about what happens when studios start making movies for themselves instead of their audience. The average family doesn’t care if Elio is gay, straight, or from Mars—they want a compelling story, characters their kids can root for, and something that doesn’t feel like a lecture wrapped in digital animation. But somewhere along the line, Pixar stopped asking what works for families and started asking what earns virtue points on Twitter.
And let’s not forget—this is Disney we’re talking about. The same company that couldn’t decide whether to cut or reinstate a same-sex kiss in Lightyear, and quietly slipped in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it girlfriend reference in Onward. They’ve been tiptoeing this line for years, trying to please both Middle America and the online mob. Spoiler alert: it’s not working.
No comment from Pete Docter or Disney, by the way. Because why should they? When a $200 million project tanks, it’s just another write-off. They don’t need to explain themselves to the paying audience anymore—just to the activist circles within their own building.
But here’s the real kicker: What was in Adrian Molina’s version of Elio that got axed? What was so “beautiful” and “meaningful” that its removal triggered a mass walkout? The vague details about fashion shows and romantic undertones only scratch the surface.
All I am reading is that the core of Elio was rotten with LGBT stuff in a children’s movie and that there was no saving it.
The first mistake was making Elio a self-insert of the director.
Western animation needs to stop letting ppl use millions of dollars for art therapy. https://t.co/4IIXAMZqeC
— Scarebro 💀 🦴 (@TheScarebro) July 2, 2025
What if that cut footage actually is somewhere? What if there’s an alternate version just waiting to be “leaked”?
