Did 'bean mouth' really kill Pixar's Elio at the box office?

Jackson Weaver · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 28, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Why did Pixar's Elio put up the worst numbers successful the studio's past successful its opening weekend? The reasons professionals give for the sci-fi household movie's paltry $35 cardinal US planetary box-office earning vary. But if you inquire the internet, there's a acold simpler contented astatine play.

"Nobody wants the legume rima benignant of quality design," wrote 1 scholar erstwhile commenting on a post-mortem of Elio's bombing by the website Cartoon Brew. "It feels lazy, overused, and unoriginal."

"The 3D CalArts 'bean mouth' benignant besides conscionable enactment a batch of radical off," read a post on a Reddit thread astir Elio's failure. "Doesn't substance however bully the communicative is, galore radical hatred that animation style."

The bean-mouth disapproval is an sentiment astir Elio that's echoed crossed virtually each level that allows comments: a one-to-one transportation betwixt quality design and the audience's determination to enactment home. 

More than that, it's go synonymous with an astir vitriolic hatred for a peculiar and supposedly ubiquitous creation style. Animation writer John Maher calls it a "pejorative and insult" that far outstrips the style's reach and misunderstands its origin.  

"It is simply a reflexive net criticism," said Maher, the quality manager for Publishers Weekly. "People recovered a word that was snappy and catchy and casual to use. And truthful they hung onto it."

Where legume rima began

The presumption "CalArts style," "bean mouth" and "thin-line animation," all person antithetic origins and meanings, but they each generally refer to a drawing method exemplified by bladed line-work, simplified features and bean-shaped mouths and heads. 

When it comes to however the "CalArts style" sanction came to beryllium — Maher and others often constituent to Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi. 

Starting successful the aboriginal 2000s, Kricfalusi wrote blog posts criticizing a peculiar benignant of creation and derivative mentality helium believed came retired of the California Institute of the Arts — an influential arts and animation school founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, successful 1961. 

His criticisms were pointedly astir the benignant championed by Disney, past copied to diminishing returns — including successful movies like Treasure Planet and The Iron Giant. 

Though the animation successful those movies looks nothing like what astir radical contiguous deliberation of arsenic the CalArts style, the sanction stuck. And as galore graduates of the schoolhouse became associated with shows and movies that shared a akin bean-mouth design — including Elio, which has a brace of CalArts alumni listed arsenic directors — the 2 names came to picture a communal gripe. 

"That operation has go a shorthand for a much just criticism. Which frankly is: 'Animation arsenic innovation alternatively than animation arsenic imitation,' " Maher said. "But to telephone it each CalArts is conscionable truthful silly and reductive and inaccurate — conscionable fundamentally inaccurate."

When asked if CalArts teaches the style, oregon adjacent observes it successful communal usage among students, Maija Burnett, the school's director of the Character Animation Program, says that's not the case. 

"Luckily, I tin decidedly dispel that," she said. "The results of the enactment from our programme is highly diverse. And truthful I bash not deliberation it typifies what comes from our programs astatine all."

She besides says it's improbable that Pixar chose that animation benignant due to the fact that it's cheaper, noting that the workplace does astir of its animation in-house, developed implicit years done immense teams, truthful they wouldn't request to default to immoderate peculiar benignant an extracurricular workplace would find easier to enactment with.

It's hard to accidental however pervasive the benignant is among Pixar movies. Typically lone Luca, Turning Red and Elio have received the "bean-mouth" criticism. But Burnett says what radical are apt identifying is an intentional method studios employ. 

"Often, we tin benignant of archer like, 'Oh, yea that seems similar it's coming from Sony,' " she said, noting it's earthy that Pixar would person a recognizable benignant due to the fact that it's important to them some arsenic a marque and arsenic a studio.

She says there's besides apt a crushed definite elements of the benignant are much wide utilized today. 

TV series, for example, often trust connected animation techniques that work with modern technologies — specified arsenic the 1920s "rubber-hose" benignant of Felix the Cat, the "flash" animation of the aboriginal 2000s seen successful Canada's 6teen, or the simplified "limited animation" style of Hanna-Barbera, the studio behind The Flintstones that fundamentally birthed a question of low-budget animation successful the '60s and '70s.

LISTEN | Canadian manager Domee Shi connected crafting Elio: 

As animation techniques progress, Burnett says they'll likely alteration again to autumn successful enactment with new technologies. She besides notes that every creation signifier and manufacture has eras wherever the output shares akin characteristics: from cubist paintings, to creation deco architecture, to postmodern literature. 

The thought that the bean-mouth style is someway much pervasive contiguous mightiness beryllium related to nostalgia, she says, noting that the CalArts style was archetypal identified astir the clip that social media became popular, making it 1 of the first animation trends to beryllium taxable to wider net scrutiny.

Finding similar minds to sermon the creation you grew up with gives radical thing to enslaved over, she says, and truthful does being capable to sanction and shame the benignant that seemingly replaced it.

Other issues plaguing Elio

But box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian says the look of animated movies is seldom the astir important origin successful summons sales, making it improbable that's what sank Elio. 

"To me, that's a non-starter," helium said, pointing to the Oscar-winning movie Flow — animated with the free, open-source bundle Blender — arsenic an illustration of however communicative trumps animation techniques. "That, to me, is similar grasping astatine straws to find a crushed that the movie didn't bash it."

The much apt culprits, helium says, see the movie's minimal marketing, its PG rating and a deficiency of franchise tie-ins. And the much competitory scenery for archetypal stories makes the market for animated movies vastly much challenging than erstwhile Pixar's Monsters Inc. or the archetypal three Toy Story movies premiered.

Maher agrees, and says the thought that fans abruptly abandoned Pixar implicit an animation technique is much depressing than believable. 

"That has thing to bash with reasoning that it's like, a lesser enactment of creation due to the fact that of the signifier of the character's mouth. Give maine a break," helium said.

"If that's truly what we are condemning creation for astatine this constituent — we don't similar the benignant truthful we're not adjacent going to fuss to recognize the substance — we're successful trouble."