Pixar chief claims company’s movies are “not therapy” after LGBTQ+ scenes cut from ‘Elio’
Pixar chief Pete Docter has claimed the company is “making a movie, not therapy”, in response to the fact that LGBTQ+ scenes were reportedly cut from Elio.
Docter was speaking in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal after the release of Pixar’s latest movie, Hoppers, when he responded to the criticism that swirled around the company regarding the release of Elio last year.
Employees at the company reported that in 2023, when two new directors took over at the helm of the film from Adrian Molina, they cut a series of scenes which suggested that the lead titular character was gay.
These allegedly included the character riding a pink bicycle and a scene in which he imagined raising a child with his male crush.
However, Docter has now hit back at the dissent voiced over the decision to axe this part of the plot, claiming that Pixar wanted Elio to be an entertainment movie and not prompt parents into discussing the LGBTQ+ community with young children.
The chief creative officer said: “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”
It comes after employees previously voiced their dissatisfaction at Pixar’s handling of LGBTQ+ representation, writing in a 2022 open letter: “Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest.”
It added: “Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it.”
Elio became Pixar’s worst-performing film of 2025, losing the company over $100 million at the box office. Despite this, it has been nominated for ‘Best Animated Feature Film’ at the Oscars.
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