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:
- HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?
- DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
- DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAS VIEWERS SPECULATG GAY UNRTON
- IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
- LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
- SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
- ‘LU,’ CHILDHOOD IENDSHIP AND THE DISURSE AROUND GAY FISH
HOW GAY IS PIXAR’S LU?
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 undertones *
Viewers also noticed parallels to director Lu Guadagno’s crilly-acclaimed gay drama Call Me By Your Name, which starred Timothèe Chalamet and Armie Hammer as two men who fall love 20th century Italy. 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.
DO DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAVE A GAY CHARACTER?
Woke film reviewers are takg aim at Pixar's "Lu," sistg that the male iendship between two children is fact a gay romance. * luca gay undertones *
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. When director Enri Casarosa says he didn’t tend to make Lu a gay romance, I believe him.
DISNEY’S ‘LU’ HAS VIEWERS SPECULATG GAY UNRTON
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? ” “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. 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.
IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
How gay is ? Whatever the director’s stated tent, the answer seems to be: as gay as you want to be. 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?
LU MAY NOT BE A GAY NARRATIVE, BUT ’S ABSOLUTELY A QUEER ONE
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.
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! This observatn has brought cricism om people who believe viewers are “forcg” homosexualy to a children’s film. Not surprisgly, this isn’t the only recent Disney productn that has allud to gay characters.
SORRY, FOLKS, PIXAR’S LU ISN’T GAY
However, Mackie himself, believ fans have taken the “ship” of the two characters too far as he told Variety, “two guys beg iends and lovg each other 2021 is a problem bee of the exploatn of homosexualy. While, y, public advocy for LGBTQIA+ rights has skyrocketed, ’s not the recent advot who “created” the ia of potg out homosexual unrton media. Much like how Disney sprkl a ht of homosexualy to the backgrounds of their stori (LeFou is seen dancg wh a man at the end of 2017’s Bety and the Beast), Shakpeare had done the exact same many, many years prr.
And many, many years later, historians and stunts ntue to wre about Shakpeare’s gay unrton that nowadays, seem more blatant. So all the homophob out there need to take a seat and lm down. The film's director said 's about iendships, but many viewers observed a strong gay subtext.
‘LU,’ CHILDHOOD IENDSHIP AND THE DISURSE AROUND GAY FISH
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.