JOY AND ANXIETY — Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of freshly minted teenager Riley just as a new Emotion shows up unexpectedly. Much to Joy’s surprise, Anxiety isn’t the type who will take a back seat either. Featuring the voices of Amy Poehler as Joy and Maya Hawke as Anxiety, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters Summer 2024.© 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

A new rumor claims that Disney and Pixar executives instructed the Inside Out 2 team to remove any possible gay interpretations from Inside Out 2 after Lightyear’s box office failure.

WHO’S THERE? – In Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Joy (voice of Amy Poehler), Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith), Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Fear (voice of Tony Hale) and Disgust (voice of Liza Lapira) aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety (voice of Maya Hawke) shows up unexpectedly. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters Summer 2024. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

A report from IGN’s Alex Stedman, which cites multiple anonymous individuals at Disney, claims that Disney executives blamed the failure of Lightyear on its inclusion of a gay kiss. Lightyear only grossed $218.7 million according to The-Numbers. The film had an estimated production budget of $200 million.

One source told Stedman, “It is, as far as I know, still a thing, where leadership, they’ll bring up Lightyear specifically and say, ‘Oh, Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer kiss in it. That’s not the reason the movie failed.”

WHAT IS HAPPENING? – In Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Joy (voice of Amy Poehler), Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith), Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Fear (voice of Tony Hale) and Disgust (voice of Liza Lapira) are awakened to an alarming reality: everything is changing now that Riley is 13. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters Summer 2024. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Despite this source’s claim, Disney executives instructed Pixar creatives to make Inside Out 2 “less gay.” Stedman writes, “Sources describe rumors that there was special care put into making the relationship between Riley and Val, a supporting character introduced in Inside Out 2, seem as platonic as possible, even requiring edits to the lighting and tone of certain scenes to remove any trace of ‘romantic chemistry.’

One source told him that Pixar did “a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight.”

MEET ANXIETY — Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as a new Emotion shows up unexpectedly. And Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, isn’t the type of Emotion who will take a back seat either. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters Summer 2024. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

While Disney allegedly provided instructions to remove any gay implications, one source made it clear that Riley is not gay.

The source told Stedman, “Mind you, Riley is not canonically gay. In the film, what you saw, nothing about Riley says that she is gay, but it is kind of inferred based on certain contexts. And so that is something that they tried to play down at multiple points.”

INSIDE OUT 2 – FOGHORN’S JOY – In Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” newly minted teenager Riley (voice of Kensington Tallman), her besties Bree (voice of Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (voice of Grace Lu), and their hockey team the Foghorns win the championship. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters June 14, 2024. © 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

This should not be a surprise given Pixar released a short titled “Riley’s First Date” back in 2015, where she goes on a date with a boy named Jordan.

And it appears this strategy of stamping out any kind of gayness in the film, if true, worked out extraordinarily well for Pixar and Disney. The film grossed $652.5 million domestically and another $1.018 billion internationally for a global gross of $1.67 billion. The film had an estimated budget of $200 million.

Box office analyst OMB Reviews noted at the end of June when the film crossed the $1 billion mark that Disney made “roughly $200 million in net gain profit. So we’re talking about taking into account the splits domestic, international, and from China; taking into account the marketing costs; taking into account the $200 million reported budget.”

If this rumor is true, it is a drastic shift for The Walt Disney Company’s strategy. Disney Television’s Animation Executive Producer Latoya Raveneau admitted that she had been injecting a “not-at-all secret gay agenda” into the shows she works on just two years ago in 2022.

She said during Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow conference, “In my little pocket of Proud Family Disney TVA, the showrunners were super welcoming. Meredith Roberts and our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”

She added, “Maybe it was that way in the past, but I guess something must have happened in the last, they are turning it around, they’re going hard, and then like all that momentum that I felt, that sense of ‘I don’t have to be afraid to let’s have these two characters kiss in the background.’ I was just, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness. If you see anything queer in the show — no one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me.”

 

The company also launched Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nites at Disneyland last year. They continued it this past June as well with Disneyland Resort’s Public Relations Director Kelsey Lynch stating, “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite returns to the Disneyland Resort for its second year with colorful celebrations, joyful photo opportunities, event merchandise, fabulous food and divine drinks.”

She added, “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community, bringing allies and community members together as Disneyland park is illuminated with rainbow projections.”

Disney on X

Creative Marketing Director at The Walt Disney Company Amit Gurnani also shared a desire to push LGBTQ lifestyles on to children. A member of the O’Keefe Media Group asked, “I despise those kind of people that want to accuse Disney of grooming children. But I also want children to see LGBTQ content. Don’t you agree?”

Gurnani responded, “Yeah, of course. That’s the unspoken thing.”

He also later revealed, “So, big current projects that will take up the rest of the four…four or five months will be pride. We’ll have pride campaign across Disney and television.”

What do you make of this rumor regarding Disney and Pixar executives instructing creatives to stamp out the gayness from Inside Out 2?