Disastrous Test Screenings And Creative Clashes: New Report Explains What Went Wrong With Pixar's ELIO

Disastrous Test Screenings And Creative Clashes: New Report Explains What Went Wrong With Pixar's ELIO

Elio has flopped since opening last month, and a bombshell new report reveals why director Adrian Molina walked away, orders to make the title character more "masculine," and issues at a test screening...

By JoshWilding - Jul 01, 2025 11:07 AM EST
Filed Under: Disney
Source: THR (via Toonado.com)

Pixar's Elio has an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score and 91% on the Popcornmeter, but it still bombed when it debuted on June 22 with a disastrous $20.8 million opening weekend. Elemental and Mufasa: The Lion King were similarly written off as flops. However, the Pixar movie has made only $72 million worldwide to date, so a repeat of the surprise success those movies found isn't likely. 

The Hollywood Reporter (via Toonado.com) has published an in-depth article exploring what went wrong with Elio, and it appears that the movie we got was not the one the filmmakers originally intended to make. 

The trade uses the example of a scene shown to the crew two years ago, which saw Elio collecting trash on the beach and turning it into homemade apparel. That included a pink tank top, which, according to multiple insiders, was part of plans to portray him as a queer-coded character (to reflect original director Adrian Molina's identity as an openly gay filmmaker). 

Molina had no plans for this to be a coming out story as the title character is only 11, but Elio was made more masculine "following feedback from leadership." His love of environmentalism and fashion was dropped, as were any hints that he might have a male crush. Elio still wore trash, but there was no explanation. 

The movie's issues go well beyond those changes, though, as a test screening was reportedly held in Arizona in the summer of 2023. When the audience was asked how many of them would watch it in theaters, "not a single hand was raised."

Rumour has it Molina was hurt by that and the feedback he received from Pixar boss Peter Docter, leading to him being replaced by new co-directors, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, shortly after. Molina was offered the chance to remain as co-director, but left as a continued series of sweeping changes were made to his original vision for Elio

It was Molina's departure that prompted Barbie star America Ferrera to walk away from the movie, despite having already recorded her lines. The budget, meanwhile, is thought to have ballooned to $200 million after Pixar decided to completely reshape the filmmaker's original story.

As one unnamed artist who worked on Elio puts it, "I’d love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it. Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?"

"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," they added. "Suddenly, you remove this big, key piece, which is all about identity, and Elio just becomes about totally nothing."

That may be the case, but Elio still received a positive response from critics and those who watched it, so the bigger issue at Pixar might be figuring out how to get people to show up for these original stories.

However, the fact that Molina's vision was essentially decimated by execs suggests that the studio is no longer the creative-driven/filmmaker-friendly force it once was. Pixar's Win or Lose series on Disney+ also came under fire for cutting a trans character, so diversity is definitely on the back burner.

Elio is now playing in theaters. Have you watched it yet?

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Mandalorian47
Mandalorian47 - 7/1/2025, 11:21 AM
Why does an 11 year old cartoon character in a movie made for kids need to have sexuality explored at all? I want to see this with my kid, but why is stuff like this being brought up in children’s media at all?
JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 7/1/2025, 11:25 AM
@Mandalorian47 - I'd imagine the director went through something similar when he was 11, so why wouldn't he put his life experience into a story he's telling? It's really no different than if Elio had a crush on a girl, informed by what a straight filmmaker went through at that age.
Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 7/1/2025, 11:28 AM
@Mandalorian47 - to be hot as hell AND provide Kick-Ass rule 34 for the usual users of this site
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 7/1/2025, 11:58 AM
@Mandalorian47 - Do you feel the same way about every movie where a character has a chilhood crush or the like for a character of the opposite gender?
AC1
AC1 - 7/1/2025, 12:17 PM
@Mandalorian47 - Because it teaches gay kids that there's nothing wrong with them, and teaches straight kids to be more accepting.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 7/1/2025, 12:18 PM
@FinnishDude - it's always an agenda when it ain't straight or white. You have to know these points
HistoryofMatt
HistoryofMatt - 7/1/2025, 12:34 PM
@Mandalorian47 - You know why.
l0rdleg0las
l0rdleg0las - 7/1/2025, 12:42 PM
@Mandalorian47 - I haven't seen the movie, but I have to ask. What is the difference in a main character at age 11 having a crush on a girl versus having a crush on a guy? Kids are rarely the ones who have issues seeing depictions of queerness in media. It's more often than not parents making issues out of nothing. There is nothing immoral in seeing queer relationships in any movie, as it is just showing relationships that are likely to be seen in real life and to show that there is nothing wrong with love regardless of who you may be attracted to.
ManofSteel79
ManofSteel79 - 7/1/2025, 1:54 PM
@JoshWilding - User Comment Image
dragon316
dragon316 - 7/1/2025, 1:54 PM
@Mandalorian47 - that happen in movie ?
HashTagSwagg
HashTagSwagg - 7/1/2025, 11:30 AM
WTF kinda credit is "other", what does this guy actually do?

User Comment Image
Nolanite
Nolanite - 7/1/2025, 11:40 AM
@HashTagSwagg -

Other means that he got bones in the butthole

Nolanite out
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 7/1/2025, 12:28 PM
@Nolanite - bahaha
Odekahn
Odekahn - 7/1/2025, 11:34 AM
So…. This article exists on comicbookmovie.com why??
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 7/1/2025, 12:28 PM
@Odekahn - slow news day?
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 7/1/2025, 11:35 AM
I mean, I can understand trying to reflect yourself in your works, but if true, I'm not surprised that in a Red State like Arizona, the OG vision didn't test well. Also, the marketing for this wasn't anything special as well.
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 7/1/2025, 12:48 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - Arizona teeters back and forth between red and blue. That is part of what makes it a good place for test screenings.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 7/1/2025, 1:23 PM
@Shivermetimbers - Good looking out, I thought it leaned Red.
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 7/1/2025, 2:27 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - yeah, you’re not wrong. In the past it was heavily red but the last few election cycles it’s been back and forth. I live in AZ. There has been a ton of transplants from Cali, Illinois, and Washington among lots of other places. We have a democrat governor for example but I think trump won the state in 2024 and Biden won it in 2020.
clogan
clogan - 7/1/2025, 11:35 AM
In situations like this it is best to stick to the original creator’s vision, you hired them for a reason. The balance between the need to be a corporatist and supporting an artist is a thin line in this business, sure. But this is like taking someone else’s child.
Vigor
Vigor - 7/1/2025, 11:39 AM
Did anybody see win or lose?
It was really good and full of creativity
mountainman
mountainman - 7/1/2025, 12:30 PM
@Vigor - It was an enjoyable show, but was brought down with this terrible bean mouth art style that needs to completely go away.
Gabimaru
Gabimaru - 7/1/2025, 11:45 AM
That's what you get disney when you always pander to something the rest of the world doesn't give two cents
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 7/1/2025, 12:16 PM
@Gabimaru - aliens?
EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 7/1/2025, 12:44 PM
@Gabimaru - Sounds like Disney pivoted away from what you're describing so this argument doesn't hold up.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 7/1/2025, 12:00 PM

Never heard of it.

But it sounds life a giant goat furk disaster.
AC1
AC1 - 7/1/2025, 12:15 PM
Honestly the only marketing I've even seen for this movie is a poster in a bus stop I drive past sometimes. Literally seen nothing online, nothing on TV, don't even think I've seen anything in or around movie theatres.

Also I'm surprised they still bother with test audiences when they're notorious for sanitising films with their feedback and wiping any originality out in favour of more generic, colour by numbers fare. Almost never does the film any favours and in this instance seems to have directly lead to Pixar wasting an enormous amount of money trying to "fix" it.
dragon316
dragon316 - 7/1/2025, 1:57 PM
@AC1 - trailers was not that exciting about kid have no friends try make friends unsuccessful at it he hopes alien a take him he’s outcast on earth fits in with aliens
HistoryofMatt
HistoryofMatt - 7/1/2025, 12:34 PM
I'm glad Pete Doctor stepped up and took out all the inappropriate bullcrap. What's unfortunate is all that stuff was greenlit in the first place. Leave the kids alone. Adult stuff for adults.

Always kids. It's always kids. Y'all ever notice that? For example, it's never reading books to the elderly. Lonely, elderly people who would welcome any human interaction. It's always, always a captive audience of kids.

User Comment Image
TowelSeatbelt
TowelSeatbelt - 7/1/2025, 12:35 PM
Put an 11 year old boy in it and make him gay!
EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 7/1/2025, 12:47 PM
Story-wise, I could see a humorous beat out of this, after all an alien would likely have no concept or concern about what constitutes male/female attire or interests on Earth.

Granted, I don't know how far the original story was going to go.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 7/1/2025, 12:52 PM
So tha gay director is now the victim in all of this, got it.

Didnt they learn from lightyear before hiring the guy?

Hollywood is so messed up im glad i have Ne Zha 2.
CaptainMexico
CaptainMexico - 7/1/2025, 2:21 PM
I went and saw this with my daughter, we both thought it was good! The themes of acceptance could be interpreted in a few ways, I didnt feel like it was pushing anything about sexuality. Jeez, too bad. I was bummed when I heard how poorly it did. Some people read to far into things.

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