Disney cut plot about transgender character from upcoming Pixar series Win or Lose (Win or Lose and VO).
Pixar has been making short films (and even collections) derived from its films since the end of the 2000s, notably for Cars et Toys Story. But it is only since the arrival of the Disney+ platform that the studio has launched into real serial content. In recent years, we have been able to see the first Pixar series: Monsters at Work, Welcome to Doug, Cars: On the road and lately Dreams Production.
If these titles are more or less forgettable (and are more like bonuses than works in their own right), their next title, Win or Lose, is intriguing. This will in fact be the very first original series from the studio, which will therefore not be linked to any feature film. The episodes will follow a softball team, called the Pickles and made up of middle school students, who must soon play a major championship game.
This will thus be the opportunity for Carrie Hobson (who notably provided reinforcement on Red Alert and story artist on Toy Story 4) and Michael Yates (story artist on Soulamong others) to move on to directing for the first time. However, a few weeks before its release, Win or Lose has already attracted attention, and not for good reasons.
DON’T SAY TRANS
In Win or Loseeach episode will focus on the life and point of view of a different member of the team. One of the characters was originally going to be a transgender teenager, until Disney pulled out the red card. The Hollywood Reporter thus revealed that the series had deleted the few lines of dialogue from the episode which referred to his transidentity.
An (anonymous) Disney spokesperson quickly confirmed the information to the media and attempted to justify this decision:
“When it comes to animated content for younger audiences, we recognize that many parents prefer to discuss certain topics with their children in their own way, on their own schedule. »
Chanel Stewart, a young transgender actress herself who voices the character, said to herself “ discouraged » by this umpteenth invisibilization:
“As soon as I received the script, I wanted to share my journey to help and empower other young transgender people. I knew this would be a very important discussion. Trans stories are important and deserve to be heard. »
Chanel Stewart’s mother, for her part, declared to Deadline that Disney assured her that her daughter would still be a part of the show, but that her character would instead be a cisgender, heterosexual girl (even though it was presumably about her gender identity and not her sexual orientation).
If this choice may be annoying, it is not very surprising given the increasingly cautious (not to say cowardly) policy of the parent company regarding LGBTQ themes, regardless of whether they are at the forefront or in the background.
One of the watchwords during the production of Vice-Versa 2 was for example to make the relationship between two teenage girls as platonic as possible so as not to allow there to be the slightest ambiguity about their friendship, at the risk of… allowing people to identify with them a little? And we remember that before attracting the wrath of part of the public, the half-second gay kiss in Buzz Lightyear had been removed by Disney before being reinstated in the face of outcry.
Win or Lose will be released on Disney+ on February 19, 2025 after being pushed back to give priority to Dreams Productionthe series derived from Vice-Versa.
