Pixar CCO Pete Docter on Removing Elio's Gay Storyline

Pixar’s big 2025 movie, Elio, might have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but it was the animation company’s biggest theatrical flop to date. It was also a movie that was heavily retooled during production to remove elements that indicated its lead character might be gay, according to a June 2026 The Hollywood Reporter article. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter addressed the company’s recent setbacks in the lead-up to the release of its new movie Hoppers. In regards to the Elio changes, as well as the decision to remove a transgender storyline from the animated series Win or Lose: “Docter said Pixar found some parents didn’t want entertainment to force them to have a conversation they weren’t ready for with their children. ‘We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy,’ he said.” Advertisement Docter also revealed that why, after years of encouraging directors to focus on telling autobiographically-driven stories like Turning Red, Luca, and Elemental, Pixar’s mandate had changed to focus more on “universally relatable” concepts: “As time’s gone on, I realized my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody.” Related Video Elio, post-retooling, was a commercial flop, but Turning Red and Luca were released directly to Disney+ for streaming and had no chance to prove their box office potential, while he wide-released Elemental made a “small profit,” per the Journal. Hoppers, the newest release from Pixar, did open at number one at the box office this weekend, raking in $46 million at the box office. The environmentally-themed movie featured a new track by SZA, “Save the Day.” For more, here’s Docter and the creative team behind 2020’s Soul telling Consequence about how personal experience drove the success of the Academy Award-winning film. Load More