By now, you've heard about Disney including an animated same-sex kiss in its upcoming release "Lightyear," a film that ostensibly tells the origin story of the iconic character Buzz Lightyear from the "Toy Story" franchise.
Although, I thought Buzz Lightyear was a toy. How, exactly, does a store-bought toy have an "origin story" featuring his life on another planet that brought him, eventually, to earth? I guess you'll have to buy a ticket to find out.
The reaction to the same-sex kiss has been typical on all sides of the political/cultural spectrum.
The moral and intellectual giant Perez Hilton represents the typical thought-provoking analysis we've come to expect from the cultural left these days:
Buzz Lightyear got banned in multiple countries over a gay kiss. CARTOONS KISSING, Y'ALL. That's some commitment to homophobia. https://t.co/BNejd7hLyN
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) June 15, 2022
"Buzz Lightyear got banned in multiple countries over a gay kiss. CARTOONS KISSING, Y'ALL. That's some commitment to homophobia," he tweeted.
Uh-huh...
This is the standard response whenever objections are raised to the slow-motion degradation of our principles and values that we try to instill in our children.
When same-sex marriage was proposed, we were called reactionary for being concerned about how a state-sanctioned imprimatur on these relationships would confuse children with a radical redefinition of marriage. "This has nothing to do with your children," they bellowed. "We just want to love whomever we love in the privacy of our own bedrooms."
Fast-forward to today as children's books in pre-K curriculums are riddled with titles like "Mommy, Mama, and Me" and, my favorite, "Daddy Dog and Papi Panda's Rainbow Family: It Takes Love to Make a Family."
And now, Disney has decided to warp its credibility with parents everywhere by letting us know that even its cartoons are no longer free from content that might be objectionable or challenging for parents who just want to be able to put their kids in front of a movie and have confidence that the only agenda of the filmmakers is to entertain.
But Hilton (and no doubt Kimmel, Noah, Colbert, and the rest of the late-night hosts who love to mock parents for daring to hold more traditional values than a Hollywood or New York comedian might hold) will mock and laugh and innocently ask, "It's just a cartoon kiss, what are you so afraid of?"
Well... if it's "just a cartoon kiss," why were the filmmakers at Disney so insistent on putting it in the film in the first place?
Variety answers that question for us. They insisted on putting the kiss in as a reaction to Florida's law that prohibits in-class instruction on gender ideology or sexual relationships of any sort.
According to a source close to the production, Pixar’s next feature film, “Lightyear” — starring Chris Evans as the putative real-life inspiration for the “Toy Story” character Buzz Lightyear — does feature a significant female character, Hawthorne (voiced by Uzo Aduba), who is in a meaningful relationship with another woman. While the fact of that relationship was never in question at the studio, a kiss between the characters had been cut from the film. Following the uproar surrounding the Pixar employees’ statement and Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, however, the kiss was reinstated into the movie last week.
It was clearly important for the writers and animators to include the same-sex kiss in the film, and they insisted on re-inserting it as a direct reaction to a law they didn't like that – they believed – unfairly precluded any discussion or representation of same-sex relationships to children under eight years old in Florida schools.
Disney's decision clearly says, "If your kids aren't allowed to hear about gay relationships in schools, we'll be sure to expose them to the issue in our movies."
So while American parents are mocked and ridiculed for caring about "just a cartoon kiss," can't the Disney filmmakers also be mocked for caring so much about the very same cartoon kiss? Clearly, the kiss is important to them. So why can't it be important to anyone else?
Larry O'Connor hosts "America's Morning Show," O'Connor and Company on WMAL in Washington DC every weekday morning. His growing Locals community is available to the public and is fast becoming a place where everyone can discuss all the things you're not supposed to talk about in polite company.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member