Lu director says film nearly featured gay romance between ma characters: ‘We talked about ’ | The Inpennt

Contents:

• LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
• SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
• WA A SEC — ARE THE MA CHARACTERS PIXAR’S ‘LU’ GAY?
• THIS CHARACTER DISNEY-PIXAR’S ‘LU’ WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GAY
• IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
• 'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP
• HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?
• LU DIRECTOR SAYS DISNEY FILM NEARLY FEATURED GAY ROMANCE BETWEEN MA CHARACTERS: ‘WE TALKED ABOUT ’
• DISNEY FILM LU NEARLY FEATURED A GAY ROMANCE BETWEEN MA CHARACTERS

LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE

Lu is marketed as a "metaphor for anythg" but the sea monster setup is a perfect allegory for a gay story, and LGBTQ viewers n read that way. Lu has arrived on Disney+ and, spe what Pixar says, the movie prents a strong allegory for growg up gay and fdg a nnectn wh other LGBTQ people.

This elis the fact that beg gay, queer, or LGBTQ+ is not simply a matter of partners or relatnships or sex. Young gay people often feel very different om others before such feelgs velop, which n occur squarely the age bracket the story plac Lu and Alberto. In the ments, Casarosa is enuragg such terpretatn, meang that, if you see there, Lu is a gay story, Pixar's first feature film wh LGBTQ+ leads.

The parallels of the boys secretly beg sea monsters and gay and LGBTQ+ people beg forced to hi their inti cuts closer than other mory groups, ratnalizg a queer readg of the movie.

SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY

So while Pixar ni Lu is a gay story due to s settg and the age of s characters, viewers should read the LGBTQ+ narrative for what is. In rponse to viewers who reacted to trailers by hopg the film might be a childhood gay romance, Lu director Enri Casarosa rapidly shut the notn down, sayg “I was really keen to talk about a iendship before girliends and boyiends e to plite thgs.

The Deep is portrayed as horrible place of self-nial, but they’re willg to make him suffer to keep him away om what they see as immoral, a clear parallel to the nversn therapy or wilrns therapy that so many young LGBTQ+ people are subjected to by homophobic muni. His rponse was simple: “I’d say is meant to be terpreted by the viewer […] If you thk Le is gay, of urse he is. ” Hal regnized that some people benefted om readg the character as gay, and acknowledged that there isn’t a sgle rrect terpretatn of Le.

WA A SEC — ARE THE MA CHARACTERS PIXAR’S ‘LU’ GAY?

When Pixar first revealed the plot synopsis of s upg movie Lu — a tale of two sea-monster boys named Lu and Alberto, and an “unfettable” summer on the Italian Rivera — many people quickly pared to Call Me By Your Name, the 2017 gay romance that also took place durg an unfettable summer Italy. But 2020, Pixar released “Out” through s SparkShorts program, which centered around a gay uple.

Eager for reprentatn, many fans have clung to the possibily that Lu might give them openly gay ma characters, and not jt one-note si characters. The film's director said 's about iendships, but many viewers observed a strong gay subtext.

Alberto and Lu's relatnship is laced wh gay subtextLu is immediately taken by the ee-spired Alberto when he meets a fellow sea monster off the ast of Portorosso.They're sually physil wh each other, sleepg si by si unr a star-filled sky, wrappg their arms around each other's waists, and watchg the sunset together. This is all about platonic iendships."This might seem rehg to some, to see a Disney movie explore iendships as opposed to a fairy-tale love story, but s a shame that this cisn has e when a gay romance uld have so easily and naturally be explored.Makg Lu and Alberto explicly gay or queer wouldn't have felt ntrived.

THIS CHARACTER DISNEY-PIXAR’S ‘LU’ WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GAY

It would have been a meangful nfirmatn of what is already a story rich gay subtext.

Sadly, this ntu Disney's trend of shuttg out the LGBTQ muny."Bety and the Beast" and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" both featured blk-and-you'll-miss- "gay moments:" a dance between two men and a kiss between two women."It was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they're beg reprented the film," the director JJ Abrams told Vany Fair before "Skywalker's" release.But the easily missed scen don't unt as reprentatn. Queer kids will still feel forted by this story bee the scene plays out like an allegory for g out and beg gay, even if Casarosa said isn't.—young_nova (@young_nova88) June 18, 2021. —ClassicMovieGay (@jblikmovi) June 19, 2021What would have ma even more powerful, though, is if the movie explicly embraced the unniable queer subtext through dialogue.Some will argue that Pixar ma the right ll to be more ambiguo, so that more people n take different thgs om the movie, but I feel queer dienc have been robbed of a goln opportuny for tangible reprentatn.

IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE

Instead, Disney seems happy to let dienc terpret the movie their own way — (almost) satisfyg LGBTQ dienc wh a movie that feels gay but actually isn't, whout beg brave enough to prent an openly queer story. Unfortunately, none of the tangible romantic chemistry between Lu and Alberto was ever ma official, and Lu director Enri Casarosa explaed that while makg the film's two lead characters gay was fely a possibily, he end up wantg to make the film about a "pre-romance" part of many children's liv. "The news of Giulia almost beg queer Lu on the heels of The Walt Disney Company beg hot water wh a lot of s LGBTQ+ fans for fundg and supportg legislators Florida who support the state's ntroversial "Don't Say Gay" bill.

'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP

In the same Variety report mentned earlier, was also revealed that Pixar animators jt rtored a same-sex between two characters the upg Lightyear movie after a group of ncerned employe released a statement earlier March claimg executiv at Disney had censored all attempts to portray stanc of "overtly gay affectn" om storyl var Pixar is streamg on Disney+. \u201cCryg joyful gay tears for all the nfed LGBTQ+ kids who will watch Pixar's LUCA and have their ner world validated. \u201d — ClassicMovieGay (@ClassicMovieGay).

Wa a Sec — Are the Ma Characters Pixar’s ‘Lu’ Gay? Specifilly, they want to know: Are the ma characters Lu gay?

HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?

Here’s what we PixarArticle ntu below advertisementAre the ma characters Pixar’s ‘Lu’ gay? Enri Casarosa, the director of Disney and Pixar's beloved 2021 animated film Lu, went on the rerd a recent terview wh The Wrap, openg up about how there were discsns about possibly makg the film's two lead characters -- the tular sea monster Lu and his fellow aquatic btie Alberto -- gay. Unfortunately, none of the tangible romantic chemistry between Lu and Alberto was ever ma official the film, and Casarosa is now talkg about why that was, even though makg the characters gay was reportedly a possibily.

Apparently, they felt unable to make clear whout providg Giulia wh a female love tert, and didn't want to feature romance the revelatn jt a few weeks after employe at Pixar wrote a letter that alleged Disney cut out "nearly every moment of overtly gay affectn" om their films, acrdg to Variety. Intertgly, this is not the first time that creators volved wh Lu have mented on the possibily of a romantic gay storyle the film. That outle holds an obv potential for queer allegory, and ed many Pixar fans trackg the film’s velopment quickly labeled Lu as the stud’s “gay movie”—a g-out story to be placed on Pixar’s mantle alongsi s medatns on grief, artistic exprsn, lonels, Ayn Rand-ian objectivism, and parentg.

LU DIRECTOR SAYS DISNEY FILM NEARLY FEATURED GAY ROMANCE BETWEEN MA CHARACTERS: ‘WE TALKED ABOUT ’

” That suggts a limed unrstandg of gay growg up, particularly of when our feelgs of affectn and special closens and difference n first velop. That character, played tartly but briefly by John McCrea, is slightly ls of a scrap than the embarrassgly ballyhooed “exclively gay moment” 2017’s Bety and the Beast—but Artie still barely registered amid Cella’s cynil clamor.

Last year, Disney punted Love, Victor—a seri spoff of the feature film Love, Simon, the first stud film about a gay kid g out—om Disney+ to Hulu, clarg the young adult show a better f for that more grownup streamg service. Greg Gayne/HuluThe first season of Love, Victor very much felt like a show tend for Disney+ that somehow wound up alongsi Handmaid’s Tale.

Love, Victor season two admirably exam life post-g out, as Victor (Michael Cimo) navigat his nascent relatnship wh barista Benji (Gee Sear) and tri to get his mother, Isabel (Ana Ortiz, queen of playg TV moms of gay kids), to fully accept his inty. Victor and Benji grapple wh tra-gay nflicts jt as much as they do wh the wary nsiratns of the straight world. Watchg the close relatnship the ma characters Lu and Alberto have, many even went and clared the animated versn of the gay g-of-age 2017 drama, "Call Me by Your Name, " starrg Timothée Chalamet and Armie "Lu" director Enri Casarosa has always said while dog prs that the story is based on his straight relatnship wh his bt iend growg up Italy, a recent terview wh The Wrap he did adm that for a moment while velopg the story they wonred if Lu and Alberto should be more than jt iends.

DISNEY FILM LU NEARLY FEATURED A GAY ROMANCE BETWEEN MA CHARACTERS

"It's a shame that this cisn has e when a gay romance uld have so easily and naturally be explored, " he wrote. "Makg Lu and Alberto explicly gay or queer wouldn't have felt ntrived, would have been a meangful nfirmatn of what is already a story rich gay subtext. When director Enri Casarosa says he didn’t tend to make Lu a gay romance, I believe him.