After the emotionally resonant final moment of Pixar’s new outer-space adventure “Elio,” the names of directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian pop up onscreen — typical for any feature film. But if you stick around until after the mid-credits tag, you might find something curious. Once the crawl starts, another person is also listed as director: Adrian Molina.
The discrepancy hints at some of the behind-the-scenes shake-ups involving the film about an orphaned boy who dreams of being abducted by aliens.
Midway through production, Molina, the original director, was replaced by Shi and Sharafian. All of the listed filmmakers have history with the company. Molina was one of the screenwriters and the co-director of the hit “Coco” (2017). Shi directed the red panda puberty story “Turning Red” (2022), while Sharafian was behind the Oscar-nominated short “Burrow” (2020).
During an interview with The Wrap last summer, Pixar’s chief creative officer, Pete Docter, said that Molina was moved off “Elio” and onto a “priority project that we’re not ready to talk about yet.” (Molina is reportedly working on a “Coco” sequel due out in 2029, though it’s unclear whether that’s what Docter was referencing.)
Docter, in the same interview, explained that Shi and Sharafian were crucial to figuring out story beats involving the awkward Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), who ultimately gets his wish and is beamed up to an intergalactic summit by kindly extraterrestrials who believe he is Earth’s leader. “I think they’ve made some major discoveries on him that really helped the audience to connect and to move forward with the character into the second act,” Docter said.
On animated films, one person often assumes the title of co-director, a role the Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton once described as a “jack of all trades.” That’s the part Molina had on “Coco.” But on “Elio” none of the listed directors have the “co” prefix.
“Elio” has had a lengthy journey to the screen. The project was announced at Disney’s D23 conference in 2022 and was originally scheduled for release in 2024. America Ferrera appeared at that event and revealed that she was playing Elio’s mother. That in itself offers some clues as to what changed. In the finished film, Elio’s mother is dead and Zoe Saldaña voices his overwhelmed aunt living on a military base.
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