Disney are being called out over their "first openly gay" animated character

24 February 2020, 16:35

By Sam Prance

Officer Specter is a lesbian cyclops and police officer who features in the new Disney Pixar movie Onward.

Disney have confirmed that Onward will feature their "first openly gay" animated character. However, fans are not impressed.

Onward is Disney Pixar's latest animated film. It stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as elf brothers, who go on a quest to try and bring their father back from the dead. The highly-anticipated new movie is scheduled to come out March 6 worldwide and it currently has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

READ MORE: Avengers: Endgame is being called out for doing "the bare minimum" with first gay character

Now, Onward director Dan Scanlon has confirmed that the film will make Disney history with the company's first-ever openly LGBTQ+ character in an animated film. Onward stars a lesbian, cyclops cop named Officer Spencer played by Lena Waithe who appears in one scene in the film.

People are criticising Disney for failing to make its "first openly gay" animated character a) human and b) a significant part.

Speaking to Yahoo, Dan Scanlon said: "The scene, when we wrote it, was kind of fitting and it opens up the world a little bit, and that’s what we wanted. It’s a modern fantasy world and we want to represent the modern world." Officer Spencer helps the elf brothers on their quest and reveals she's queer by making a brief reference to her girlfriend while talking to the elves.

Given how small the part is, people are disappointed to say the least. One person tweeted: "disney is so full of shit like how many “first openly-LGBTQ” disney characters are there that have had their blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “gay” scenes which are ALWAYS cut for international release? oh yeah,,, ALL OF THEM."

Another added: "im tired of disney being cowards. give us a gay prince/princess you corporate infidel. make it LOUD so i can hear it. longer than 3 seconds please."

Here are just a few of the complaints.

Previously, Disney teased that Beauty and the Beast would feature a gay scene and yet it was just two men briefly dancing together. Meanwhile, fans theorised that Elsa may get a girlfriend in Frozen 2 only for her sexuality never to be addressed. And more recently Marvel's first openly gay character was only a minor part in an Avengers: Endgame support group.

As great as it is to see Disney include an LGBTQ+ character in Onward, it's frustrating to see them do the bare minimum. The film doesn't even feature Officer Specter's girlfriend, let alone give Specter any significant screen time. We deserve more.

What do you think? Are Disney doing the bare minimum?