Disney reveals its first gay main character in short animation
DISNEY has aired its first Pixar animation featuring a gay main character.
Out, a short film released on the company’s streaming service, Disney Plus, last Friday, tells the story of a man struggling with whether to come out to his parents.
The main character, Greg, is planning to move to the city with his boyfriend, Manuel, and his inner turmoil rises as his parents come to watch him pack.
In a fantastical twist, Greg switches bodies with his dog, but as he tries to cover up evidence of his relationship, he soon realises he shouldn’t hide who he truly is from his parents.
Out was directed by Steven Clay Hunter, who has worked on hit films including Finding Nemo and WALL-E.
It is part of a new series of short films that will be shown on the streaming service.
Jim Morris, the president wrote on the studio’s website: “These films are unlike anything we’ve ever done at Pixar, providing an opportunity to unlock the potential of individual artists and their inventive filmmaking approaches on a smaller scale than our normal fare,”
Many people have called for Disney to make some of its main characters gay, with some campaigners previously asking the company to make Elsa from Frozen a lesbian as a positive example to children.
Pixar has featured some LGBT characters in the past, including in Onward, in which Lena Waithe voiced a purple Cyclops, a minor character who mentioned she had a girlfriend.
Eagle-eyed viewers spotted quick shots of same-sex couples in the backgrounds for Toy Story 4 and Finding Dory, but this made fans ask why they could not write more prominent LGBT roles.
However, some other Disney properties including Star Wars and Marvel have begun to feature characters who are LGBT.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker featured the franchise’s first ever samesex kiss, and Marvel film The Eternals is set to feature its first openly gay hero. And in the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast, Lefou, Gaston’s sidekick, was presented as gay.