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 PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
- HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?
- 'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP
- LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
- DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
- SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
- PIXAR REPORTEDLY SCRAPPED GAY ‘LU’ STORYLE: ‘HOW DO WE DO THIS WHOUT A LOVE INTERT?’
- WA A SEC — ARE THE MA CHARACTERS PIXAR’S ‘LU’ GAY?
IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
* luca gay pixar *
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.
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.
HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?
Dpe the queer them fans are seeg, the director behd Disney/Pixar's latt animated film tells Out this isn't a buddg gay romance. * luca gay pixar *
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. 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?
'LU' DIRECTOR ADMS THEY 'TALKED ABOUT' MAKG THE LEADS GAY BUT CID TO FOC ON A 'PRE-ROMANCE' IENDSHIP
The news amid Disney's creased scty over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. * luca gay pixar *
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?
LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
” “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.
DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
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.
SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
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.
PIXAR REPORTEDLY SCRAPPED GAY ‘LU’ STORYLE: ‘HOW DO WE DO THIS WHOUT A LOVE INTERT?’
"It's a shame that this cisn has e when a gay romance uld have so easily and naturally be explored, " he wrote.
WA A SEC — ARE THE MA CHARACTERS PIXAR’S ‘LU’ GAY?
"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. 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 '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 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 Lu and Alberto explicly gay or queer wouldn't have felt ntrived.
It would have been a meangful nfirmatn of what is already a story rich gay subtext. "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.