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http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...-closer-than-you-think/ar-BBsVwGU?form=PRHPTP
The antelopes next door were gay — maybe.
For viewers of the animated Disney hit “Zootopia,” it’s been a bit of a guessing game. In an early scene, rookie rabbit police officer Judy moves into her new apartment and meets her new neighbors. Bucky and Pronk are both antelopes and both men, who live together and bicker like a married couple. But . . . were they?
The answer, available to sharp-eyed movie fans, comes in the closing credits: Bucky and Pronk share a last name, Oryx-Antlerson.
While gay and lesbian characters are standard players in movies and TV shows for adults, they remain a fleeting or barely acknowledged presence in children’s entertainment.
Last week, a campaign to change this caught fire on Twitter, under the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend — a plea to Disney to make one half of its beloved princess duo a lesbian in the forthcoming sequel to its 2013 animated blockbuster “Frozen.”
A kids’ movie may seem like the last place to be talking about sex. But advocates note that in almost every gaudy princess film or action-packed superhero cartoon, there are relationships — moms and dads, aunts and uncles, princes and princesses — that, thus far, have quietly reinforced a very traditional standard for romantic love.
Yet Disney and other giants of children’s entertainment have evolved over the decades to reflect changing norms — from including characters of many races to ditching the trope of helpless damsels in distress. Could creating a hero with two dads, or giving a princess a girlfriend, be the next step?
“There is no doubt that kids seeing positively portrayed gay characters could have a significant effect that would contribute to such children’s learning about the world and who is in it,” said Edward Schiappa, a professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But doing so is a risk for children’s entertainment companies, who have a financial incentive to make movies as widely accessible — and therefore as non-controversial — as possible.
The antelopes next door were gay — maybe.
For viewers of the animated Disney hit “Zootopia,” it’s been a bit of a guessing game. In an early scene, rookie rabbit police officer Judy moves into her new apartment and meets her new neighbors. Bucky and Pronk are both antelopes and both men, who live together and bicker like a married couple. But . . . were they?
The answer, available to sharp-eyed movie fans, comes in the closing credits: Bucky and Pronk share a last name, Oryx-Antlerson.
While gay and lesbian characters are standard players in movies and TV shows for adults, they remain a fleeting or barely acknowledged presence in children’s entertainment.
Last week, a campaign to change this caught fire on Twitter, under the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend — a plea to Disney to make one half of its beloved princess duo a lesbian in the forthcoming sequel to its 2013 animated blockbuster “Frozen.”
A kids’ movie may seem like the last place to be talking about sex. But advocates note that in almost every gaudy princess film or action-packed superhero cartoon, there are relationships — moms and dads, aunts and uncles, princes and princesses — that, thus far, have quietly reinforced a very traditional standard for romantic love.
Yet Disney and other giants of children’s entertainment have evolved over the decades to reflect changing norms — from including characters of many races to ditching the trope of helpless damsels in distress. Could creating a hero with two dads, or giving a princess a girlfriend, be the next step?
“There is no doubt that kids seeing positively portrayed gay characters could have a significant effect that would contribute to such children’s learning about the world and who is in it,” said Edward Schiappa, a professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But doing so is a risk for children’s entertainment companies, who have a financial incentive to make movies as widely accessible — and therefore as non-controversial — as possible.
