In just nine minutes, Pixar and Disney+ take a step forward in representation with the launch of Out, an animated, fun-for-all-ages short film featuring a gay protagonist. The short, released Friday, marks the first time the giant has centered a story of any length on an LGBT character.
This is not a case in which a character just happens to be gay, or might be if you scrutinize a screenshot with a magnifying glass. Out’s story concerns the struggles of a man named Greg, who is closeted from his loving parents. The depiction is tender, empathetic and honest, but there are also fantasy hijinks involving a Freaky Friday-ish body-swap with a scrappy dog. (This is a cartoon aimed at kids, after all.)
Greg is preparing to move (Out! It works on two levels!) from his suburban home to “the city” with his partner Manuel. When Greg’s parents (Mom looking fairly June Squibb-ish, Dad more Paul Bunyan) show up unannounced to help him pack, he shoos Manuel away and stashes a picture of the two. Cosmic wackiness ensues when Greg switches consciousness with his dog Jim.
After some pratfalls and slapstick, the story concludes with familial love and acceptance; it’s very sweet. It’s also got at least one solid gag involving a hot fire fighter calendar, plus a bookending structure involving a dog and cat that descend from the heavens on a rainbow bridge. Also, the short contains Pixar’s first same-sex smooch.
Out marks the writing and directing debut of Steven Clay Hunter, an animator who has worked with Pixar for over 20 years, and is part of the company’s SparkShorts series. It is one of seven titles, all available on Disney+, that, as Pixar president Jim Morris puts it “discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows.” Others include Smash and Grab, about overworked robots; Loop, about a non-verbal girl and a chatty boy learning to work together; and Purl, concerning an anthropomorphic ball of yarn facing discrimination when she goes to work for the B.R.O. corporation. Additional SparkShorts are in the works.
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