Malaysia: Disney refused to cut gay scenes in ‘Lightyear’ – Daily Mail

Malaysia’s film censors said that it was Disney’s decision to ax the animated movie ‘Lightyear’ from the country’s theaters after refusing to cut scenes that ‘promote’ homosexuality.

Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board said it approved the movie with parental guidance for those under 13 on the condition that scenes and dialogues ‘found to contain elements promoting the LGBT lifestyle’ that violated guidelines were ‘cut and muted.’

But Disney apparently did not agree to the conditions and decided instead to cancel the screening, the board said, adding that it would not compromise on any LGBTQ scenes. 

The board’s statement did not specify which scenes violated censorship guidelines but the $200 million film includes a lesbian space ranger character, Alisha, voiced by actress Uzo Aduba, and her partner starting a family together and greeting each other with a kiss on the lips.

Scroll Down For Video:  

The scene had been originally cut from the film by Disney earlier this year bit it was reinstated in March after Pixar staffers complained about the censorship in an open letter obtained by Variety.

The letter criticized the company’s CEO Bob Chapek on his handling of the issue, accusing him attempting to censor ‘gay affection.’

The note further criticized his handling of Florida’s controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which saw the company at first take a tentative stance on the bill before succumbing to public pressure and condemning it.

The bill bans the teaching of lessons on sexuality, gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten up to third grade.

Malaysia recently had similar qualms over gay scenes in ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ and Elton John biopic ‘Rocket Man.’ 

Disney’s decision to not cut any LGBT scenes from the Toy Story spinoff comes after authorities across much of the Muslim world have barred ‘Lightyear’ from being played at cinemas because it includes a brief kiss between a lesbian couple.  

Many Muslims consider gays and lesbians to be sinful and many Muslim-majority nations criminalize same-sex relationships. 

As of Monday, a total of 14 countries- Malaysia, The UAE, Indonesia, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria and Iraq- have barred citizens from seeing the film, set to hit theatres later this week.

The UAE – home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai – was the first to reveal they had banned the picture, which features actor Chris Evans voicing the inspiration for Tim Allen’s action figure Buzz Lightyear, made famous in the ‘Toy Story’ films. 

The country made the announcement through its Media Regulatory Office of the country’s Ministry of Youth and Culture, saying the film would not be opening Thursday, due to its violation of rules imposed on the nation’s media.

The film ‘is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country’s media content standards’, the office wrote.

The media watchdog further asserted that the ban was meant ‘to ensure the safety of the circulated content according to the appropriate age classification.’

The film was reportedly never submitted to censors in Saudi, due to producers’ assumptions that it would not pass because of the country’s outspoken disapproval of homosexuality.

The film has garnered controversy in the states as well, with many critics blasting the studio for trying to push a supposed ‘gay agenda’ to children. 

‘Disney works to push a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and seeks to add “queerness” to its programming, according to executive producer Latoya Raveneau. Parents should keep that in mind before deciding whether to take their kids to see “Lightyear,” which hits theaters this week,’ Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted about the film. 

Another person tweeted that it should be up to parents whether or not kids are exposed to a lesbian kiss: ‘No reason for it to be in the movie. Kids need to be kids not see things that they later on will discuss with parents, When the parents decide too. I’m gonna continue to be picky about the disney movies my family watches kids don’t need to see that yet,’ 

‘Disney wishes the whole world would become Hollywood. Old Walt, frozen or not, must be SPINNING!!,’ someone else tweeted. 

While another person tweeted: ‘Remember when a Disney movie could just be an escape from the world? No political messaging. Just a simple escape.’

Disney has been branded hypocritical for voluntarily cutting ‘overtly gay affection’ from previous films to appease homophobic foreign governments.

DailyMail.com can reveal at least four recent feature films were altered to appease the views of leadership in China, Russia and the Middle East.

The company has previously kept moments of LGBT affection in its American films, but removed or changed them in its more conservative markets.

Pixar released Onward, an animated feature that tells the tale of two elf brothers who embark on a magical quest to spend time with their late father, in February 2020.

The film included a secondary character, Officer Spector, a cyclops cop for the city of New Mushroomton, who was in a lesbian relationship.

Officer Spector, voiced by Lena Waithe, mentions her relationship during a parenting discussion with another secondary character: ‘It’s not easy being a new parent – my girlfriend’s daughter got me pulling my hair out, okay?’

The line sparked outrage is several eastern countries, resulting in a ban of its release in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Deadline reported.

Russia, which has a history of censoring gay content, changed the word ‘girlfriend’ to ‘partner’ in the parenting scene. Local advertisements for the film also avoided mentioning Officer’s Spector’s gender.

Meanwhile, members of the LGBT community have heralded Officer Spector as Disney’s first openly gay character.

The Marvel franchise, which is owned by Disney, included a same-sex kiss in Eternals, a November 2021 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name.

The character of Phastos, the inventor of the community of genetically-engineered Eternals, is married to a man named Ben Stoss. Together the pair raise a son, Jack.

In one scene, Phastos is seen kissing Ben. But, according to Out.com, that moment was edited out for audiences in the Arab Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Ethiopia, Palestine, Syria and Turkey.

The countries did, however, keep other scenes in which Phastos interacts with his husband and son. It is unclear if the familial relations between the characters were defined.

Out.com notes that in addition to the same-sex kiss, all scenes of physical intimacy, including those depicting heterosexual relationships, were also removed from the film, which is standard practice in those countries.

Another Marvel film, Avengers: Endgame, which was released in 2019 and grossed nearly $3billion worldwide, was also censored abroad.

Early on in the film, there is a brief scene in which a gay character attends a support group meeting with Captain America.

‘So, I went on a date the other day. First time in five years,’ the character said, before adding later: ‘He cried as they were serving the salad. But I’m seeing him again tomorrow.’

It was the first time an openly gay character appeared in a Marvel film.

According to Russian newspaper TJournal, the nation’s dubbed version of Endgame changed the dialogue to remove ‘romantic overtones’.

In the Russian version, the charcater says: ‘I was recently at dinner. First time in five years. […] He cried over a plate of salad. […] Tomorrow I’m meeting him again.’

The newspaper also claimed Disney may have changed dialogue in Marvel’s 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War to avoid additional conflict with the Russian government, however it is unclear what the nature of the dialogue was.

Similarly, Pixar was accused of downplaying gay tones in its 2021 film Luca, which details the friendship of two young sea monsters who appear human when on land.

The monsters, Luca and Alberto, develop a ‘profound friendship’ that many interpreted as a ‘coming out allegory’.

The film’s director told The Wrap the studio had ‘talked about’ the monsters’ relationship being romantic, but also noted officials ‘didn’t talk about it as much’ because the film focuses ‘on friendship’ and is ‘pre-romance.’

‘Some people seem to get mad that I’m not saying yes or no, but I feel like, well, this is a movie about being open to any difference,’ director Enrico Casarosa added.

Disney has reportedly refused to confirm if the pair were in a gay romance.

The films bosses are also accused of having toyed with the idea of making character Giulia, a human girl who befriends Luca and Alberto, a lesbian but decided against it because the creative team was ‘stymied by how to do it without also creating a girlfriend for the character.’

‘We very often came up against the question of, “How do we do this without giving them a love interest?”‘ a production source told Variety. ‘That comes up very often at Pixar.’

Disney has also been accused of cutting the majority of inclusive scenes in the 2022 Pixar film Turning Red, which was a coming of age story about puberty.

Pixar employees allege there was misrepresentation in the animated film and that it was riddled with ‘ambiguous possibly gay hinting,’ according to InsideTheMagic.

Several employees have called on the studio to ‘release the Gay Cut’ of the film.

It is unclear what specifically the alleged gay scenes depicted, however critics have posted stills to social media of scenes in which two female characters have their faces just inches apart.

Disney came out against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, whose official title is the Parental Rights in Education Bill, last month after facing immense pressure from staff members.

The bill prohibits public school instruction on gender and sexuality between kindergarten and third grade.

Supporters say the bill, which was signed into law in March, stops teachers from pushing inappropriate content on children, which they believe students may be too young to understand.

Opponents say the bill is homophobic, and that the vagueness of its wording could see a teacher reported to authorities for something as minor as mentioning their same-sex partner in class.

Disney initially stayed quiet on the bill.

But the firm – which has long had a good track record on supporting its LGBT staff – is said to have waded into the issue after being pressured by woke in-house diversity factions now said to exert growing influence over bosses there.

CEO Bob Chapek later spoke out after walkouts by a small number of Disney staffers – and angered DeSantis by openly suggesting that his firm would apply pressure on lawmakers.

After blasting the bill, he said: ‘As I wrote to our employees earlier this week, we are committed to supporting community organizations like these so they are equipped to take on these fights.

‘Meanwhile, we are also reassessing our approach to advocacy, including political giving in Florida and beyond.’

Favorite