Elio: Inside Pixars Kassenflop, America Ferrara, Regisseurwechsel

Spoilers for Elio, which is still good and you should go see it if you like Pixar films.

This article definitely helps make sense of some of the creative decisions the film makes that I was a little confused by. Olga being Elio’s mom, instead of Aunt, makes more narrative sense. Glordon’s problem was with his dad, so it should only make sense that, from a story, Elio should be having a problem with his mom.

And I’m all for non-traditional families but for a 10 year old kid losing his parents, even a year later, I’d imagine it would come up. I kept waiting for the scene where Olga drops the “I can’t lose you too” line, as cliche as it would be, would have really solidified that that her and Elio’s situation and relationship was born from the hurt of losing family.

But that doesn’t come. I’m not even sure if Olga lost a brother or sister. Now it seems apparent that the reason for that is the apparent rewrite.

I think the themes of “feeling alone” still shine through, but Elio being gay and struggling with how to tackle his identity in an ever hostile world would have made the made it shine better. Heck, it’s easy to recognize how lying about who he is as“the leader of earth” could be compared to lying about your queer identity, all to gain a social advantage.

I still liked the movie, I think a Pixar 7 is unobtainable by some other studios and franchises. So an 8 is still really good.

Why the movie bombed? Well, it really does seem like Disney doesn’t advertise anything anymore and then makes a surprised Pikachu face when things bomb. I was lucky when I realized the movie came out but like so many other Disney/pixar movies, I would have missed it even though it was a film I wanted to see.