Elio

[D82]

I’m so excited for Elio! It’ll be nice to get something original again.

I'm excited for it too. Of all the new movies presented at the last D23 Expo, this was the one that looked more original and promising to me.

I wonder if those little dangly jellyfish things at the bottom of the planet will have any significance.

I was wondering that too. They probably will. And it's true they remind of jellyfish.

By the way, D82, thanks for being so nice to us newbies (MaQu, PatchofBlue, Lele)! Can’t speak for them, but I seriously appreciate it!

That's such a nice thing to say! You and the other new members are also very nice and respectful. I was just thinking the other day how lucky we are of having new members like you, guys, because not all fans are like that. The site is also more lively now thanks to you and it's great to meet new fellow Disney fans and hearing different point of views on things.

Speaking of that, I think we haven't thanked Sotiris and Luke (and whoever else might have contributed) enough for making it possible for new people to join the forum again. I'm so happy that function finally works. I guess it also means more work for moderators, because of the bots and all that, so I really appreciate the effort. All the improvements to the site and the forum must have taken a lot of work too. Just last year, it got to a point where the forum was down more often than not and we were worried about its future and now that's not only fixed, but I'd say it looks and works better than ever. That's incredible. I'm very thankful for that.

I've personally found a lot of their recent films really good (I know noooooone of you guys could have anticipated this but ... I REALLY liked ONWARD) and hope that they get to be seen as proper classics before too long.

We never would've guessed. I loved Onward too! I know there are more people in the forum who really liked it as well, but I'm glad we have yet another fan of the film here now.

[Woodrow Pride]

That's such a nice thing to say! You and the other new members are also very nice and respectful. I was just thinking the other day how lucky we are of having new members like you, guys, because not all fans are like that. The site is also more lively now thanks to you and it's great to meet new fellow Disney fans and hearing different point of views on things.

Aww, thanks! I agree, this place is amazing.

Speaking of that, I think we haven't thanked Sotiris and Luke (and whoever else might have contributed) enough for making it possible for new people to join the forum again. I'm so happy that function finally works. I guess it also means more work for moderators, because of the bots and all that, so I really appreciate the effort.

I second that!

[PatchofBlue]

That's such a nice thing to say! You and the other new members are also very nice and respectful. I was just thinking the other day how lucky we are of having new members like you, guys, because not all fans are like that. The site is also more lively now thanks to you and it's great to meet new fellow Disney fans and hearing different point of views on things.

Happy to join! You guys should feel proud that the conversation on this forum is so informed and civil such that so many fans want to become part of the club.

[D82]

Aww, thanks! I agree, this place is amazing.

I think so too. I feel fortunate to be part of it.

Happy to join! You guys should feel proud that the conversation on this forum is so informed and civil such that so many fans want to become part of the club.

I'm glad if that's the impression people get from this place. Of course, there's some drama occasionally, but I'd say it's true the conversation is civil for the most part. In fact, that's one of the things that made me decide to join in the first place. I'm quite shy and I didn't think forums were for me, but everyone seemed very nice here and that helped me to take the step of registering.

Back to Elio, I'm not sure if these pieces of concept art had been posted:


Source: https://twitter.com/zannaland/status/15 ... 6346993664


Source: https://twitter.com/DailyPop__/status/1 ... 7967361024


Source: https://twitter.com/Hekt_hor/status/1568390977848483842

This video by a Youtuber who attended the presentation also reveals a few details I don't think I had heard about. And I've noticed the lithograph D23 attendees received is titled "Elio in Star Field". I wonder if that's a part of the alien planet. It can't be the planet's name, since according to reports from the event like the one below, it's called the Communiverse.

Elio is described as an 11-year-old kid who is more well-read and intellectual than he is athletic. His mom runs a secret government project trying to decode a mysterious message from space and identify who sent it, but Elio makes first contact, whereupon he's transported to the Communiverse, a city where a bunch of different species meet. Elio then becomes Earth's ambassador to the rest of the galaxy.

Source: https://www.slashfilm.com/1001815/disne ... -elio-d23/

There are also some interviews with America Ferrera and Yonas Kibreab (who voice Olga and Elio, respectively), from D23 I don't think had been posted either. Here are some excerpts. The fact that Elio is loosely based on the director as a kid, who is openly gay, and the way America talks about the character, saying things like that her mother "has to learn to embrace everything about Elio, even the parts she doesn't understand or that kind of scare her" makes me think he could be gay, but I guess there are other things a parent can find scary about their child.

The first I heard of the project I was on a Zoom with Adrian Molina, our director, and Mary Alice, our producer, and Adrian just told me the story, which is loosely based on who he was as a little kid, and I just fell in love with Elio and who he is, but also the mother-son journey. They have a great relationship. There's fun, there's joy, but also Olga, my character, has to learn to embrace everything about Elio, even the parts she doesn't understand or that kind of scare her. And the fact that the whole movie is a story about acceptance; self-acceptance, parents accepting their children for everything they are, as a parent and also as a former awkward kid, is just beautiful.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPl7nZfjXSU

Elio is this adorable, quirky, weird, creative little kid who sort of can't find his place anywhere on Earth. And his mother, who I voice, accidentally beams him into space. And the only way to save Earth and himself is to embrace his most authentic weird little self. And it's so beautiful, and it's about self-acceptance and also for the mom and all the parents, the journey is how to accept everything that's weird and different about your kid that you don't understand and maybe even scares you.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17VLvb0w9vE

Elio is a very quirky boy who is just trying to find himself. He got swept up into space and all of these aliens really appreciate who he is and they really like his presence, they really like him as a person, versus down in Earth that people think he's just a loser and they just think he's all these boring things. He never really has a lot of friends, but as he starts to find himself and as he just starts to get more confident, then he makes lots of friends and he's just genuinely a cool kid.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGZxgAqTxEg

I just like that he's different from the others. He's super quirky, super fun, and he just has really good style and taste, just in everything.

Source: https://youtu.be/MPl7nZfjXSU?t=70


And here are a couple of interviews with director Adrian Molina and producer Mary Alice Drumm:

Adrian Molina & Mary Alice Drumm Talk Elio At D23 Expo
Elio - D23 Expo - Itw Adrian Molina and Mary Alice Drumm (Official video)
‘Elio’ Director Adrian Molina says everyone will fall in love with America Ferrera’s character, Olga
‘Coco’s writer/director Adrian Molina on whether ‘Elio’ will make us cry

[Sotiris]

I think there's a very good chance Elio is gay. I would be surprised if he wasn't at this point. However, I'm not looking forward to all the discourse and the backlash when this becomes public knowledge. I'm sure Disney will once again try to hide that element in the marketing and advertising for the movie which will backfire. You can't change minds and hearts through deceptive means. Trying to dupe parents who don't approve of LGBT representation in children's programming will only accomplish them not trusting the Disney brand in general.

[Disney's Divinity]

So America Ferrera is in this, another thing to be excited about. This one definitely looks more in the vein of Luca and Turning Red--not simply the aesthetic, but breaking away from the formula. Unfortunately, the sci-fi aspect makes me think the film's doomed regardless of how good the story is or not, but it does sound more interesting to me than Lightyear or Strange World.

[UmbrellaFish]

I don’t think Elio will be openly gay because not many 11 year olds are. I do think that Elio might act in ways which people associate with gay people. When I was 11 I don’t remember having a crush on anyone, but I’m sure people saw the way I posed for pictures (leg out!) or listened to the way I spoke or fixated on female characters and thought I was weird, or effeminate, or queer, or gay!

I think Elio looks much more appealing than Elemental. On paper it sounds much more like a Disney movie than a Pixar movie.

[D82]

I don’t think Elio will be openly gay because not many 11 year olds are. I do think that Elio might act in ways which people associate with gay people.

I think that's quite likely, especially after the last two movies with strong LGBT representation from the company bombed. I know there were a number of reasons why they weren't successful, but still. If he's indeed gay, maybe they'll show he has different interests than most little boys or he'll act differently, like you said, and her mother will be concerned about him not fitting in, but they won't make that totally explicit. By the way, since America Ferrera said Elio is based in part on Adrian Molina when he was a child, I guess this is yet another Pixar movie inspired by the director's personal experiences.

[Disney's Divinity]

I think Elio will be a less bratty Tyler from Turning Red, who was also coded as LGBT in a more oblique way. How would it be shown that the character is LGBT anyway considering, as far as we know, there is no other human character mentioned so far aside from Elio and his mother. There would have to be another character for a crush to be shown.

[D82]

Tyler is a good comparison. Perhaps it'll be a similar situation. And I think there'll be more human characters. They'll have to show Elio doesn't fit in with others at the beginning, for example.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Well, now that Elemental looks like it may bomb with mixed reviews out of Cannes (going by its 56% score on Rotten Tomatoes), it looks like it’s all on Elio to turn things around for Pixar at the box office next spring.

Anyway, I think we should stop saying that this movie is doomed because it’s a sci-fi movie.

Did you all forget that Wall-E is sci-fi Pixar and that was a hit for the company, financially, by way of almost making 3X its $175M budget back, and awards-wise?

Elio could follow suit if they make the exception to the way to handle Sci-Fi Pixar in Wall-E the rule to making Elio, while also adding some things about what made Coco work in Elio as well.

[Farerb]

I don't think it's doomed because it's sci-fi, I think it's doomed because it comes out on the same month as Kung Fu Panda 4, Snow White and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I don't think it's doomed because it's sci-fi, I think it's doomed because it comes out on the same month as Kung Fu Panda 4, Snow White and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

If it has great word of mouth, it’ll do well like Zootopia did.

Also, I don’t expect some of those other films to stay in those March dates. There is a possibility that some of them could move.

[Farerb]

If it has great word of mouth, it’ll do well like Zootopia did.

Zootopia didn't have competition.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

If it has great word of mouth, it’ll do well like Zootopia did.

Zootopia didn't have competition.

Even still, what films we have in March might not stick around.

[Farerb]

Trailer coming soon:

[Disney's Divinity]

That feels so soon, but I'm very curious to see more of this one.

[PatchofBlue]

I can vaguely remember the days when Pixar would release teasers like a year before their movie was due. I have positive associations with that time, so this makes me happy.

[Avaitor]

Huh, I wonder if they're already counting their losses on Elemental and want to get a head start on promoting this instead,

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Huh, I wonder if they're already counting their losses on Elemental and want to get a head start on promoting this instead,

Yes. That is exactly what I think they’re doing.