WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Pixar's Turning Red, now streaming on Disney+.
The Disney brand took a hit following criticism by Pixar employees over the company's refusal to take an overt stance against Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill, which included allegations the entertainment giant cut depictions of LGBT affection from Pixar's content. It created a stir with creatives, such as The Owl House writer Molly Ostertag, who urged Disney to speak up; Marvel writers Christopher Cantwell and Jordan Blum also donated to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. And it doesn't seem like the discussion will go away anytime soon, after Pixar's latest release, Turning Red, proved the LGBT problem was real in terms of minimizing representation.
Fans called out last year's Luca for queer-baiting after it seemed like the title character and his friend, Alberto, were in love. Ultimately, it was kept platonic, but it felt like a missed opportunity for two characters who naturally made a good couple. Turning Red, on the other hand, downplayed a couple of key moments with Mei's fellow 13-year-old, Priya, who, along with Miriam and the feisty Abby, was trying to see the boy band 4*Town. They all swooned over the performers, but there was one moment when Priya seemed to shoot a wistful glance at a goth girl at school.
Later, in Turning Red's finale at the concert, Priya was found dancing up-close with the same girl. It was a moment of focus in which Priya totally forgot about her friends. For Priya to ditch the other girls when this concert was their driving ambition is odd, not to mention the girls were all cheering her on as if this was some big accomplishment for Priya.
It hinted that Priya was getting together with her crush, which would make sense, because this sequence did feel like some scenes were missing that would have contextualized why Priya wanted to dance the night away with someone other than her besties. Given that Mei's mom, Ming, was already skeptical of Mei's friends, one of them being LGBT would have been a very intriguing, real-world angle to address as well, educating parents on how to handle such topics and giving the movie a deeper level of maturity.
In addition, the girls met their old nemesis, Tyler, at the concert, which surprised many, as he was a toxic male throughout Turning Red. Some fans felt he was overcompensating, however, and that his marking out was a hint that he was gay. Director Domee Shi did say a lot of backstory was cut regarding him being Blasian and loving 4*Town's Aaron. As a result, that left fans vocal about if Tyler had a queer arc diluted. Admittedly, a story about a macho boy becoming one of the girls and revealing his true self like this would be nuanced and relatable for many teens today.
Ultimately, Turning Red wouldn't have been forcing these storylines had they been more overtly included. Given that this film was about puberty, menstruation and hiding one's true identity, aka Mei embracing her panda side, it would have been natural to have a teen come out of the closet, proud to announce that being bicurious or gay wasn't a monster they needed to hide. It'd have directly added equality, representation and diversity in a big way while proving that Pixar and Disney stood for marginalized groups in the art form itself rather than making reactive donations to the movement.
To see how a couple of potential LGBT arcs get ignored, Turning Red is now streaming on Disney+.