As of right now, you can watch the first-ever Pixar short to feature a gay protagonist. Out, which just released on Disney Plus via Pixar’s SparkShorts, follows Greg, who’s kept his boyfriend, Manuel, a secret from his parents for quite awhile. The short kicks off when Greg’s parents arrive unexpectedly to help him move out, Manuel asks him to come out – and Greg and his dog do a Freaky Friday.
This just in from @Pixar’s #SparkShorts: Out. Streaming tomorrow, May 22 on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/3bfsc86IIR
— Disney (@Disney) May 21, 2020
Steven Clay Hunter, who previously worked in the animation department on Finding Dory, Hercules, The Incredibles and WALL-E writes and directs Pixar’s Out. It’s 9 minutes of touching shenanigans truly summarized best in reiterating that the premise is a gay man switching bodies with his dog while mustering up the courage to come out to his parents (and managing to keep his dog from going too off the leash while inhabiting a human body).
Polygon is also reporting that the story is based on a true story, but doesn’t delve into any more detail than that.
Notably, Disney has a long way to go when it comes to queer representation. Certainly we need not go into too much depth about the Russo brothers’ swing-and-miss (if it can be called that) from Avengers: Endgame, or the barely-there queer kiss in Rise of Skywalker. Out is full of the same heart you’d find in Pixar’s resume, sure, but Disney still has a long ways to go when it comes to queer representation.
