<
https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/disneys-strange-world-is-its-first-animated-movie-with-a-gay-lead-why-is-it-being-buried>
"Disney has two movies in theaters right now starring queer characters—but
you’d be hard-pressed to name both of them. In
Black Panther: Wakanda
Forever, Michaela Coel plays a warrior with a female partner, a relationship
given the most cursory of nods toward the end of the movie when the pair calls
each other “love.” That feint toward sexual diversity is par for the course
with Disney movies these days: sprinkle a little queerness in there for the
folks at home, but not too much, so that it can be easily excised for the
overseas release. (Either way, bigots are unhappy.)
Very much not par for the course, though, is the other Disney movie with a
queer hero playing this weekend.
Strange World boasts not only a queer teen
lead, voiced by IRL queer comedy icon Jaboukie Young-White, but that queer teen
is also biracial. Between the explicit queerness and the interracial family at
its center,
Strange World is shockingly progressive—well, as far as Hollywood
family films go. Especially ones from Disney.
Yet
Strange World has landed neither with a bang nor a whimper. Instead, the
biggest studio in the world has released a new feature film with practically
zero fanfare. There are no
Strange World toys at McDonald’s right now.
YouTube isn’t bombarding us with trailers. Reviews dropped two days before the
film’s release, generating no conversation. And even Fox News has made nary a
peep about
Strange World’s discourse-ready casting."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
