Disney cut transgender storyline from Pixar’s animated Win Or Lose series

Disney sparked outrage among fans on social media after announcing it had removed a storyline featuring a transgender character from the upcoming Pixar series Win Or Lose.

The show, which premieres on the Disney+ streaming service on February 19, was set to feature a character who was transsexual in a later episode of the eight-episode first season.

However, some of the dialogue was removed from that episode to obscure the character’s gender identity The Hollywood Reporter.

A source close to production claimed that Disney decided to edit the episodes months ago.

In a statement, a Disney spokesperson addressed the reporting: “When it comes to animated content for younger audiences, we recognize that many parents prefer to discuss certain topics with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

However, the company declined to comment on further details about the episode

Each episode of Win Or Lose focuses on a member of a high school softball team, according to the show’s logline.

However, an entire episode was reportedly not dedicated to the transgender character.

The latest news about Disney’s editing of LGBTQ content comes after the company came under fire after people who worked on the Disney Channel animated series Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur claimed on social media that an episode prominently featuring a transgender character was dropped by the studio.

However, Disney denied that the episode was “banned” and said the decision not to release it was not related to the transgender character.

Notably, the studio offered claimed that the decision was made more than a year earlier, mirroring the Win Or Lose source’s claim that the dialogue about the transgender character had been edited months earlier.

The Disney+ series was originally scheduled to release in December 2023, but was delayed a year to December 2024.

The series then swapped its release date with another Pixar series, Dream Productions, for a February 19 release date, although it is unknown if the edited episode played a role in these delays.

The animated series was created, written and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who also serve as executive producers, along with David Lally, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lindsey Collins.

Disney’s tinkering was met with outrage by fans on social media.

“Disney is doing what Disney does best: appealing to profit over the people fighting to exist,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter). “Transphobes will praise this. Meanwhile, their praise disgusts me more than hating trans people.”

Another person blasted Disney and Pixar for having “the power to do anything” regarding the LGBTQ community and choosing not to do so for years.

They also said the company was reckless for allegedly trying to appeal to people it couldn’t win over.

“They’re afraid of people who are already boycotting them because Snow F***ing White isn’t white. Someone tell them they can’t win this,” the user wrote.

Some fans pointed to Disney’s pro-LGBTQ statements as evidence of the brand’s hypocrisy, including one person who reposted a photo shared by Disney’s account of the popular cartoon characters against a rainbow background.

One user concluded that the “era of prominent LGBTQ+ representation” was over at Disney due to the brand’s commitment to “getting money from the community and not kindness towards them.”

Another fan accused Disney of “prioritizing the comfort of conservative parents over educating families about a real minority whose rights and acceptance are constantly challenged everywhere.” [sic].’

Some fans also took a lighter approach to their criticism. One person added stills from the 1983 short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol to illustrate the brand’s changing priorities.

“Disney in 1983: “Let’s see Mickey bury his son,” they wrote alongside heartbreaking images of the famous mouse near a gravestone. ‘Disney in 2024: “I don’t know, guys, maybe it’s too much for kids who know about transgender people.”

Disney has been targeted by social conservatives and right-wing pundits after former CEO Bob Chapek criticized Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The studio has also made recent films with gay characters that underperformed at the box office.

Pixar’s Toy Story spinoff Lightyear featured a same-sex kiss and earned just $226.4 million, while Disney Animation’s Strange World featured an openly gay main character and earned just $73.6 million worldwide.

It’s unclear whether these instances of LGBTQ inclusion had a significant effect on the films’ box office takings, but the failures of Lightyear and Strange World may have contributed to Disney’s squeamishness around LGBTQ content.