Elio

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Watch for

• Elio’s initial displacement, establishing his emotional state and the film’s central conflict.
• The diverse alien environments and characters, expanding the film’s visual and narrative scope.
• Elio’s evolving relationships, which gradually reshape his sense of self and belonging.
• The moments of realization, where connection and identity come into alignment.

Production notes

Elio had one of the most troubled productions of any modern Pixar feature. Adrian Molina (co-director of Coco) developed the film from 2018 as a deeply personal project about loneliness and a queer-coded young protagonist; he was the film's sole credited director through years of development. After internal Pixar leadership reportedly objected to elements of Molina's vision and pushed for the protagonist to be 'more masculine,' Molina left the project in mid-2024. Madeline Sharafian (director of the Pixar short Burrow) and Domee Shi (Turning Red) took over as co-directors, with Molina remaining credited as the third director. Substantial portions of the film were reworked under the new direction. Yonas Kibreab voiced Elio, Zoe Saldaña played his aunt Olga (replacing originally cast America Ferrera), and the cast included Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, and Remy Edgerly. Composer Rob Simonsen contributed the score in his first animated film credit. Production cost between $150 and $200 million.

Trivia

• Elio's troubled production was extensively documented by The Hollywood Reporter in June 2025; multiple Pixar staffers spoke on record about Pixar leadership pushing original director Adrian Molina to remove 'queer-coded' elements from the protagonist, including his love of fashion and environmentalism, before Molina left the project.
• Elio had Pixar's worst opening weekend in studio history — only $20.8 million domestically — and only $35 million globally; it briefly held the record before Pixar's 2026 release Hoppers came in much stronger.
• America Ferrera was originally cast as Olga and recorded considerable dialogue, but was replaced by Zoe Saldaña during the film's late-production rebuild; the reasons for the replacement have not been fully publicly disclosed.
• Adrian Molina, after leaving Elio, was announced in March 2025 as the director of Coco 2 — a return to the property he had co-directed in 2017 — making the move less of a departure from Pixar than a redirection.
• The film grossed approximately $154 million worldwide on a $150-200 million budget, ultimately ending its theatrical run as Pixar's biggest financial loss of the decade — though critical reception (83% Rotten Tomatoes, A CinemaScore) was substantially better than the box office reflected.

Legacy

Elio's commercial collapse and the subsequent revelations about its troubled production became one of the most extensively reported Pixar stories of the mid-2020s. The Hollywood Reporter's June 2025 coverage included multiple on-record accounts from Pixar staffers about leadership's removal of queer-coded elements from Adrian Molina's original conception of the protagonist; the article became a touchstone for ongoing conversations about LGBTQ+ representation in Disney/Pixar animated features. The film's $154 million worldwide gross on a $150-200 million budget made it Pixar's biggest financial loss of the decade, despite genuinely positive critical reception (83% Rotten Tomatoes) and an A CinemaScore from audiences. Elio's commercial failure has accelerated Disney's strategic preference for sequels over original Pixar features, and contributed to questions about whether Pixar's identity as a studio of original works can survive the post-pandemic theatrical economics. Among recent Pixar releases, Elio is the film whose 'what might have been' narrative has weighed most heavily on its public reception.