Pixar Execs Made Employees Scrub ‘Inside Out 2’ For Any Hints of Gayness

It’s no secret that Disney/Pixar movies are severely lacking in queer representation, with an occasional background bone thrown to us, but after reading this article about what went on behind-the-scenes while Pixar made a sequel to the beloved Inside Out,  many are wondering if we’ll ever see a major queer character from the studio.

On top of firing 14% of their staff before the movie came out, essentially negating their ability to receive a bonus from the success of the movie (and it was a VERY successful move), sources say that there was a push to essentially “de-gay” Inside Out 2 as much as possible, as a direct result of the backlash from the BLIP ON THE RADAR same-sex kiss in the movie Lightyear. They attributed the failure of that movie (that movie that was, I’m sorry, very boring) to that one brief kiss, and worked extra hard to try to keep Riley and Val in the new movie from seeming anything but platonic.

This is ridiculous for many reasons. One, that’s definitely not why Lightyear failed. In fact, it’s probably the only reason some people even watched Lightyear, myself included. Two, you could have two female characters both say “Wow I’m so straight and I love being straight, don’t you?” at each other, and we will still find queerness where we want to. Employees say that the powers-that-be want “universal stories” that can appeal to anyone, but clearly that doesn’t apply to queer people. Our whole lives, we’re forced to find ourselves in straight stories, but goddess forbid straight audiences have to do that for once and suddenly it’s not “universal” enough.

My heart goes out to the laid off employees of Pixar who just wanted to tell great stories, and to those who are still there being forced to crunch for Elio because it “worked” for Inside Out 2. Hopefully these sources talking publicly about this will force the studio to consider making a change.

And I know Pixar, despite being owned by Disney, is its own studio, but all I’m saying is, if Disney gives Elsa a male love interest in Frozen 3, I’M going to become an ice queen and freeze all of California and Florida.

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