Onward has a lot of people excited for a lot of different reasons, but now there’s news that some of those surprises won’t be making their way to theaters in Russia. The Moscow Times is reporting that the first openly gay character in a Disney Pixar movie will be cut from the theatrical version of the film in the country. The fantasy adventure sees Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as brothers on an adventure to set things right after an accident leaves a chance to see their father in jeopardy. The drama around the LGBT character has taken on a strange dimension in Russia.
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Movie website Kinopoisk.ru says that the police officer character named Specter is the one undergoing the changes. She’s a self identified lesbian in the movie and she casually mentions having a girlfriend in the scene she appears in. For the Russian version of the film, they dubbed over the mention of the word girlfriend with “partner” instead. In addition, nothing is said about the character’s gender. All of this is made more easy by the fact that the design of Specter’s appearance is a bit ambiguous.
This isn’t the first dust-up with the character and the choice on social media. When the news broke about Disney and Pixar unveiling that first LGBT character, people were very skeptical. The fact that Specter was a police officer drew a lot of criticism. Also, a lot of people pointed toward the fact that Lena Waithe’s character couldn’t possibly be a big part in the movie. So, something that was probably meant to be celebrated became a focus point in animation fan discourse. It remains to be seen if these sorts of edits will make their way to other countries.
How many “first openly gay” characters has Disney made already? https://t.co/lBi5NKg0EI
— certified catboy (@renazyk) February 21, 2020
Check out a synopsis for Onward down below:
“Onward follows two elf brothers who are given a magical staff by their late father, which will grant them the magic ability to bring him back for one day so he can see them grown up. The magic doesn’t work out quite as well as advertised, as only the bottom half of their father is resurrected. The duo then heads out on a quest to finish the job the staff started before their father disappears for good and they miss their chance.”
Onward rolls into theaters March 6th.
