Pixar director Enri Casarosa drew heavily om faiar g-out stori and other "gay narrative" trop for his animated movie Lu. (It’s all there, om nversn therapy to passg privilege.) But he’s still nyg any gay ntent, shuttg down queer viewers who see themselv the film. The bate mirrors other s, om Star Wars’ Le Skywalker to Anthony Mackie’s ments on The Faln and the Wter Soldier, where LBGTQ+ viewers terpret stori through their own lens, and the creators try to ny them. Here’s why eedom of terpretatn matters.
Contents:
- IS LU A GAY METAPHOR?
- LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
- DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
- IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
- ‘LU’ DIRECTOR “TALKED ABOUT” THE FILM BEG A GAY LOVE STORY
- I'M SORRY, BUT "LU" IS TOTALLY A GAY MOVIE, AND THE 18 TWEETS PROVE IT
- 'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP
- IF LU AND THE FALN AND THE WTER SOLDIER ARE GAY TO YOU, THEN THEY’RE GAY
- “LU” IS GAY AND YOU CAN’T CHANGE MY MD
- SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
IS LU A GAY METAPHOR?
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. * luca gay metaphor *
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 MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
* luca gay metaphor *
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.
DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
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.
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.
IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
Are Lu and Alberto Gay?
Therefore, even while no character the film intifi as openly gay, fans strongly relate to the story of Lu and Alberto. 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.
‘LU’ DIRECTOR “TALKED ABOUT” THE FILM BEG A GAY LOVE STORY
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.
I'M SORRY, BUT "LU" IS TOTALLY A GAY MOVIE, AND THE 18 TWEETS PROVE IT
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.
'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP
” Hal regnized that some people benefted om readg the character as gay, and acknowledged that there isn’t a sgle rrect terpretatn of Le.
IF LU AND THE FALN AND THE WTER SOLDIER ARE GAY TO YOU, THEN THEY’RE GAY
When director Enri Casarosa says he didn’t tend to make Lu a gay romance, I believe him.
OK, but isn’t still a ltle b gay? Still, there have been so many siar discsns about queer inty Disney movi that you n almost predict the disurse ahead of time: “They’re gay!” “But why do they have to be gay?
Isn’t healthy to have a movie wh two boys showg affectn for each other whout makg romantic?” “But why n’t they be gay?” It’s the same loop that played out wh movi like Frozen and Brave. For both live-actn and animated movi, the stud has overhyped what have bee known as “exclively gay moments,” ty morsels of reprentatn that are eher so subtle you hardly notice them (a kiss between two women the background of a Star Wars movie) or so plot-irrelevant that they n be easily chopped or overlooked by ternatnal censors (here’s lookg at you, Endgame’s unnamed Grievg Man).
“LU” IS GAY AND YOU CAN’T CHANGE MY MD
Meanwhile, while Disney has ngratulated self and claimed to blaze new trails, plenty of other animatn studs have been ahead of them: Laika’s ParaNorman, for example, featured an openly gay character way back 2012. Ironilly, the Disney movie that gave the term “exclively gay moment” the first place took a different tack: The live-actn Bety and the Beast’s LeFou is more the spir of the stud’s long-standg tradn of strongly queer-d, if not explicly gay, villas. Fans have sce picked up on homoerotic unrton Raya and the Last Dragon and the live-actn Mulan, but the movi rema rabow Rorschach tts, wh dienc havg to read between the l or project their own meangs to fd queer reprentatn.
SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
How gay is ? Whatever the director’s stated tent, the answer seems to be: as gay as you want to be.