Due to disappointment with Disney’s response to the bill, Pixar employees drafted a letter criticizing CEO Bob Chapek’s response and alleging that Disney has censored overtly gay affection in Pixar films. Now, it seems the controversy has led to a change in the upcoming Lightyear film.
According to Variety, a same-sex kiss that had been removed from the Lightyear film has been reinstated to the movie, per a source close to the production.
Lightyear (a film about the space hero that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story) features a significant character, Hawthorne, who is a woman in a meaningful relationship with another woman.
According to the source, the fact of the relationship was never in question at the studio but a kiss between the characters had been cut from the film prior to the recent reinstatement.
This character and moment is a new scope of representation for the studio. Pixar in the past has incorporated small moments of LGBTQ+ representation, but never an explicit kiss. Finding Dory features a brief shot of what appears to be a lesbian couple, Toy Story 4 shows two moms hugging their child, and Onward has a side character who mentions her girlfriend.
The inclusion of the lesbian police officer in Onward led to a change in the Russian release of the film and to the film being completely banned in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Stay tuned to AllEars for further updates from Disney studios.
Click here to learn more about the internal Pixar letter.
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
I’ll show my age and say that I never thought about the sexuality of animated characters. I’m not sure why it needs to be part of these storylines.
Kids won’t need to think about the sexuality of animated characters NOW either. They’ll just see different types of marriages and partnerships represented onscreen, which merely reflects a world they already live in. So far, these characters are not doing anything beyond what Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty did in their respective stories.