Pixar’s animated film Lu may not be a gay narrative, but ’s a queer one - Polygon

Contents:

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

DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?

Jt a ltle over halfway through Pri Month, we are seeg people flock to Twter to prent their theori on why and how the lead duo Disney and Pixar’s latt g-of-age animated feature film, Lu, is, fact, gay. So do Lu have a gay character after all, or is this jt a se of fans creatg a headnon that’s gag tractn and onle clout? Do Lu have a gay character?

While Disney has not e on the rerd sayg that Lu and Alberto are gay, we (and many a Twter er! ) believe that the great mds at Pixar may have meant for the movie’s plot to be an overall metaphor for gayns and acceptance. I KNOW #Lu isn’t an explicly gay movie.

SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY

So while no character Lu has been intified by Disney outright as gay, we n very well read the subtext, metaphors, and straight-up visual evince (all of those nocent touch! 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.

HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?

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.

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?

IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE

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? ” “But why n’t they be gay?

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). 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.

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

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.

How gay is ? Whatever the director’s stated tent, the answer seems to be: as gay as you want to be. 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.

” 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.

DISNEY FILM LU NEARLY FEATURED A GAY ROMANCE BETWEEN MA CHARACTERS

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.

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

Victor and Benji grapple wh tra-gay nflicts jt as much as they do wh the wary nsiratns of the straight world. Wa a Sec — Are the Ma Characters Pixar’s ‘Lu’ Gay? Specifilly, they want to know: Are the ma characters Lu gay?

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

Here’s what we PixarArticle ntu below advertisementAre the ma characters Pixar’s ‘Lu’ gay?

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.

PIXAR REPORTEDLY SCRAPPED GAY ‘LU’ STORYLE: ‘HOW DO WE DO THIS WHOUT A LOVE INTERT?’

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.

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. 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.

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

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. For queer folks who watched Disney and Pixar’s 2021 film Lu, the gay subtext between ma characters Lu and his iend Alberto were credibly hard to miss. In spe of how queer this msage feels and how a possible gay romance was talked about for Lu, Casarosa speaks about beg surprised at “the amount” of people talkg about a romantic nnectn between the two boys.

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

Nohels, the Disney director fds the gay muny fdg solace Lu and s msage to be “wonrful and even more powerful. 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.

The New York Tim their review of Lu, saw the queer allegory plaly, offerg the cheeky alternate tle of Calamari By Your Name — a reference to Call Me By Your Name (2017), the Amy Award-wng gay g-of-age film starrg Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer.