The following contains spoilers for Elio, now playing in theatersElio looks like a very different movie than how it was first teased. Announced in 2023, Elio was set to focus on a boy who is abducted by aliens under the mistaken ᴀssumption that he’s the leader of Earth. On a surface level, that’s exactly what happens in the critically acclaimed Elio. However, there are several character and story elements teased in that original teaser that were either altered or dropped by the finished film.
In fact, the original teaser for Elio had the eventual villain as a supporting character, changed Elio’s surviving family, altered Elio himself, and changed the ending of Elio. A lot of these changes seem to have been set in motion by behind-the-scenes events, which resulted in the departure of the film’s original director. Here are the biggest ways Elio became very different from the original concept and how it impacted the emotional core of the film.
Elio’s First Teaser Is Different From The Finished Movie
Elio’s Teaser Featured Elio’s Mother And A Different Central Threat
This seems to set the stage for Elio to try and prove Earth’s worth to the galaxy at large, which is a very different conflict from the finished film. In Elio, the council is peaceful, trusting Elio and eventually offering him a place among their ranks. Elio actually gets along fine with the council for much of the finished film, and they never seem to have any interest in attacking anyone, let alone Earth. This immediately establishes a tonal difference between the two films, which is carried over to other elements of the film.
The teaser seems to position Grigon as the comic relief of the film, pairing off the hulking alien warrior with the goofy and innocent-looking Elio. In the finished film, Grigon isn’t a member of the Communiverse as he is in the teaser. Quite the opposite, in fact — he’s now the main villain, with his son Glordon serving as Elio’s best friend. Zoe Saldaña’s Olga seems different than what was intended for America Ferrera’s character, who the teaser introduces as Elio’s mother. Elio’s parents are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in the finished film, and Olga is his aunt and guardian.
Even Elio himself is presented differently. In the teaser, Elio seems to be lonely but relatively normal. The circumstances around his abduction are completely different (he’s alone in the teaser, instead of being in the middle of a fight as he is in the finished film), and the version of Elio in the teaser seems to be far more afraid of being abducted, compared to his excitement in the finished film. Elio is a more unique character in the finished film, an alien-obsessed goof whose singular focus leads him to be inconsiderate of others. It’s quietly a very different character.
What Happened Behind The Scenes Of Elio?
The Original Director Of Elio Didn’t Finish The Film
While it doesn’t seem to have been contentious at all, the behind-the-scenes differences at Pixar seem to be the root cause of the film’s altered storyline. Announced in 2022 at D23, Elio was set to be the directorial debut of Adrian Molina (who co-directed and co-wrote Coco). Described by Molina as a very personal film that took direct inspiration from his child growing up on military bases and feeling like he didn’t fit in, Elio was initially intended to have a March 1, 2024 release date. However, the film was ultimately not finished by Molina.
Instead, the filmmaker left the project in 2024 and eventually shifted to the upcoming Coco 2, which is scheduled for a 2029 release. Directorial duties were taken over by Turning Red director Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, who worked on the film’s storyboards.. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the film, Shi recalled that Molina “entrusted Maddie and myself to finish what he started. It’s like we were handed a box of toys and we had to figure out how to tell the best story in the most meaningful and entertaining way with ’em.”
While the characters and world were already developed by the time Molina left the project, the new directors on Elio altered the story to tell a broader tale about feeling isolated and misunderstood. While the personal touch of Elio sharing Molina’s childhood situation remains, Shi and Sharafian brought their own voices to the characters and story. According to Sharafian and Shi, they also worked with Saldaña on crafting the new take on the material figure. While the core of the original Elio plans and the finished product are similar, the result feels like a different movie.
Elio’s Sweet Core Suffers From The Tonal Jump
Elio’s Emotional Elements Feel Just A Little Too Disjointed
Elio is a good movie, but there’s something about it that just doesn’t land quite right — and I think it’s because of that creative shift. That’s not to say Shi and Sharafian did anything less than good work. Elio is a charming, cute, and at times really effective movie. On a scene-by-scene basis, it’s got some great moments and good emotional beats, including an all-time dark Pixar joke with the fate of Elio’s clone. The core elements of the film that feel reflective of Molina’s original story are still powerful, if a little broad in their expansion.
What gets me about Elio is the slightly disjointed emotional core that comes naturally from the behind-the-scenes shifts. All three people who served as directors on Elio brought their own energy and tone to the film, but the shift halfway means some of the arcs land differently. Elio is a broader character in this new version of the story, with Grigon conflict with Elio feeling far blunter than his more comedic introduction in the teaser. His arc with Glordon parallels the challenges faced by Olga and Elio, but it lacks the accidental randomness and desperation of the original story.
By comparison, Turning Red is a highlight of Pixar’s recent output, a deeply personal and perfectly stylized story from Shi that feels perfectly attuned to every aspect of itself. The emotional arcs, visual concepts, and overall execution were perfectly in sync. Elio, by contrast, has elements that work really well but have others that feel unearned. Glordon’s near-death and the parental arc Grigon experiences feel underdeveloped, while the councilors all blend into one another. Even Elio himself feels at times emotionally grounded and at others like a goofy cartoon.
With that change in filmmaker, there was going to be some seams showing. Maybe more time with Elio and Olga in their present lives could have helped smooth out the emotional core, which could have helped their relationship feel fleshed out. Maybe retaining the danger posed by the Communiverse could have raised the stakes and given the film more momentum to cover up those structural fault lines. Elio isn’t bad, but it feels a little too broad and disjointed in execution to be a true classic. Which is a shame, because a lot of the ingredients of Elio are great.
Via: Entertainment Weekly
