Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter said that the reason why LGBTQ+ plot elements were removed from the company’s 2025 film Elio was that Pixar is “not [making] therapy”.

Docter was speaking to the Wall Street Journal in the wake of the successful release of Pixar’s latest film Hoppers, which opened at No 1 at the North American box office this weekend.

Rumours of internal dissent over LGBTQ+ related content emerged in 2022 after publication of a letter signed by “the LGBTQIA+ employees of Pixar & their allies” claimed that studio executives had “barred” moments of gay affection from films before they were released.

The letter read: “We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were.” It added: “Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest … Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it.”

The letter followed Pixar parent company Disney’s lukewarm response to Florida’s “don’t say gay” legislation, banning teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity until fourth grade, which was passed in 2022.

When asked about the issue, Docter replied: “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”

The WSJ suggested that Elio’s deleted scenes – inspired by co-director Adrian Molina’s childhood – implied the lead character was gay. They included a pink bicycle and a scene in which Elio “imagined raising a child with his male crush”. According to the WSJ, they were removed after test screenings suggested audiences weren’t excited enough to pay to see it. Molina left the film and was replaced by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, who oversaw the changes. In the event, Elio was a flop when it was released in 2025, recording Pixar’s worst ever box office and losing more than $100m.

Win or Lose, which arrived on Disney+ in 2025, was also dogged by claims that a trans character and plotline were removed during the development process. A statement at the time by Disney said: “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognise that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

Docter, who directed Monsters Inc, Up and Inside Out, was appointed Pixar’s chief creative officer after company co-founder John Lasseter stepped down in 2018 after claims of inappropriate behaviour.

Given that their films are so expensive to make, and often require costly last-minute overhauls, Docter said that Pixar would concentrate on making more commercially appealing films. After a series of failures of “autobiographical” films, which included titles such as Luca and Elemental, Docter told the WSJ: “As time’s gone on, I realised my job is to make sure the films appeal to everybody.”