13 Animated Movies That Will Get You Fired in Florida
When she decided to show her students the 2022 Disney film Weird World, Florida teacher Jenna Barbie says she was unaware of the Parental Rights in Education bill (derisively titled “Don’t Say Gay”), which bans all mention of ” sexual orientation or gender identity” in classrooms, has been expanded from elementary school to include the entire Florida school curriculum .
The teacher signed a permit to show PG-rated films; she decided she would be safe by showing The Weird World , an animated adventure film about a family of explorers searching for lost lands. Unfortunately for Barbie, this family includes 16-year-old Ethan, who is shown to be in love with a boy named Diazo.
Furious, parent and school board member Shannon Rodriguez reported Barbie to the Hernando County School District Board, stating, “As a leader in this community, I have no intention of standing by and allowing this minority to infiltrate our schools…here.” Florida, the punishment for educators who commit the crime of acknowledging the existence of queer people while teaching ranges from suspension to having their licenses revoked.Barbie is currently under investigation by her local council and the state, despite having already filed This is clearly a good use of everyone’s taxpayer time and money.
Just in case you too are worried about inciting the wrath of reactionary weirdos in the Sunshine State, here are other seemingly harmless children’s films that contain dangerous and forbidden ideas that can make kids speculate about the existence of people that deliver Ron DeSantis discomfort.
Light year (2022)
At its core, “Lighter” is a characteristically charming, poignant Pixar film with a strong sci-fi flavor. It was also a pretty big box office bomb, in part because its deeply convoluted premise was hard to sell (it’s presented as a movie about Buzz Lightyear, which inspired the toy in the Toy Story series). It also caused controversy: Buzz’s commanding officer and best friend Alisha marries Kiko over the course of the film, the two women end up being Izzy’s (Keke Palmer) grandparents, who teams up with Buzz many decades later (time dilation, you know). ). The chaste kiss between Alisha and Kiko was first interrupted and then reinstated by Disney (such a hesitation is guaranteed to piss off almost everyone), and the film was banned in a number of countries and censored in others.
Likelihood of getting fired for this: 9. Is the main character gay? Who is married? With kids?!
Where to stream: Disney+
Forward (2020)
The reputation of the lesbians in this cute Disney film is fairly minimal and therefore didn’t cause much of a stir in the US, although it was enough for the film to be banned in most of the Middle East and redacted in Russia, Poland and Hungary. . In the film, a pair of elf brothers discover that they can resurrect their dead father, but only for a day and only after a rather wild adventure. Lesbian actress Lena Waite plays Spectre, a cyclops cop who briefly mentions his girlfriend’s daughter.
Chances of you getting fired for showing this: 4. The line identifying Phantom as gay is crystal clear, but that’s about it.
Where to stream: Disney+
DC Super Pet League (2022)
The movie itself is cute and even a little touching at the end, but in the midst of all the super-pet action, there’s a reference to a gay couple when a dog friend tells Superman Puppy Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) says he has every reason to be worried about Clark’s wedding. and Lois: this dog’s owner, Nancy, stopped paying almost as much attention as soon as she got engaged… to a lady! (We get a very quick shot of Nancy with her fiancée.) The minor switch-on moment didn’t cause much drama after the film’s release, although you can find one of the many reaction videos on YouTube explaining how a split-second shot of two cartoon women standing next to each other with a friend, ruining the movie, and indeed DC in general, if you’re so inclined.
Likelihood of getting fired for showing this: 2. You really have to pay attention to even notice.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Steven Universe: The Movie (2019)
As a television series, Steven Universe was groundbreaking in its approach to presentation, highlighting characters from across the queer spectrum both casually and more directly. Two of Steven’s magical guardians are women who eventually marry (and also often merge into the same body), while the third is non-binary (like Steven’s creator, Rebecca Sugar) and once fell in love with Steven’s mother. There is even a fun song about love.
Likelihood of getting fired for this: 10. Strange and gender non-conforming characters? This show is more gay than me and I’ve been married to a man for decades.
Where to stream: HBO Max , Hulu
Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
The title lights up the entire Mitchell family, and rightfully so, but our starring role is Cathy (Abby Jacobson), a quirky aspiring filmmaker whose relationship with her technophobic, nature-loving father becomes increasingly strained as she prepares to head off to college. What doesn’t seem to get in the way of their relationship at all is Katy’s pride flag, her crush on classmate Chloe Chang, and her obsession with Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Celynn Sciamma. Katie’s weirdness is presented as not such a big deal, but it’s more than just weird coding: we find out at the end that she has a new girlfriend at film school.
Chances of you getting fired for showing this: 7. Katy is openly homosexual, but it doesn’t really affect the plot in any way.
Where to stream: Netflix
Zootopia (2016)
The quarrelsome cross-species couple next door with hyphenated last names didn’t seem to bother viewers much in 2016, when we were more inclined to convince ourselves that the middle-aged men living together were just roommates, or also perhaps brothers who kiss. . There’s no kissing here, of course, so it would be easy to overlook the mostly subtext relationship between Bucky and Pronk (Byron Howard and Jared Bush), though screenwriter Jared Bush went so far as to confirm that the apparently married couple, in fact, intended become a married couple.
Likelihood of getting fired for showing this: 3. Increasingly sharp-eyed fanatics may be more likely to pay attention to Bucky and Pronk’s relationship status today than they were in 2016.
Where to stream: Disney+
ParaNorman (2012)
The stop-motion animated film ParaNorman was critically acclaimed (it’s fantastic), but was only a modest box office success. The plot revolves around the titular Norman (Cody Smith-McPhee) who can communicate with the dead; no one believes him and he is mocked for his claims of his abilities. Norman’s best friend’s older brother, Mitch (Casey Affleck), is in many ways the stereotypical dim-witted jock, but we discover he’s gay at the same time as Norman’s sister. Unlike Norman, who struggles to find the best way to express his abilities in a hostile world, Mitch is completely content with who he is. When it came out, it didn’t seem to generate much hatred, although the National Review took the time to warn parents that the film might burden innocent children with the knowledge that sometimes boys go out with other boys.
Chances of you getting fired for this: 6. Mitch is a relatively minor character, but he’s clearly gay and not a stereotype at all.
Stream Where: Starz or digitally rent on Prime Video , Apple TV+ , Vudu , Redbox
Wendell & Wilde (2022)
Wendell & Wild (from The Nightmare Before Christmas / Coraline director Henry Selick) is not aimed at young children like most of the films on this list, so you might not think of showing it in your class. But just in case! Wendell and Wylde are a pair of demons (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) who meet their mate in Kat (Lyric Ross), a punk-loving teenager with few friends besides Raul (Sam Celaya), a cute trans boy. who is also an incredibly talented artist trying to expose the injustices of their city’s convoluted prison system. Raul is the highlight of the film, even in a minor role.
Likelihood of getting fired for showing: 10. The film is about demons and acknowledges the existence of both transgender people and black people. Oh, and it also criticizes our American prison-industrial complex. If it was on DVD, people would burn it.
Where to stream: Netflix
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling (2019)
Set 25 years after the original Nickelodeon series, the film introduces us to Rachel Bighead (series creator Jo Murray), the trans woman we knew as Ralph back in the 1990s. Rachel is no accident here; the reunion film centers around Rocko’s quest to find and convince Rachel to revive his favorite TV show , The Fat Men . Murray worked with Nick Adams, GLAAD’s director of transgender representation, to ensure that Rachel’s story (which includes a scene of her revelation with her parents) was carefully crafted even in Rocko’s surreal world.
Chance of getting fired for this: 9. Even if Rachel isn’t the main character, the plot revolves around her.
Where to stream: Netflix
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019)
Over the decades, there have been many different takes on Wonder Woman’s friend Etta Candy, from the outrageously positive sweet tooth in her early days to the more subdued companion Lucy Davis in the 2017 live-action film. Here, voiced by Adrienne S. Moore, she’s not only black (as she sometimes is in the comics), but also unabashedly weird, balancing her military skills with a clear interest in Diana’s women-only home on Paradise Island. Early on, Diana promises to introduce Etta to some (meaning more than one) of her friends from home, and at the film’s conclusion, Etta celebrates Wonder Woman’s victory in the arms of two flattering Amazons.
Likelihood of getting fired for this: 7. Lesbians and polyamory?
Where to stream: HBO Max
Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (2022)
Subtext has become text for at least one movie: The 37th direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movie has been featured in about a dozen TV shows. Velma, voiced here by Kate Micucci, is depicted as having a crush on Halloween costume designer and criminal Coco Diablo, confessing to Daphne, “Oh, who am I kidding? I’m crushing big, Daphne! What should I do? What can I say?” Velma has always felt rather strange, and it’s surprising that it took her so long to come out… even if the follow-up HBO series Max Velma focuses on how much she’s in love with Fred.
Chances of you getting fired for this: 6. It would be higher, but who didn’t think Velma might be gay?
Where to stream: HBO Max
Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors (2018)
While Marvel’s live action struggled hard with diversity, this 2018 animated film took over a group of young heroes from the comics, stepping over the MCU in terms of performance in the process. Kamala Khan (Katherine Khavari) is in the lead, but America Chavez stands out the most on the team. In the movie, as in the comics (more or less), America is a confident, lesbian-identified Hispanic woman with two moms who sacrificed themselves to save their home. Contrast this with her live action counterpart (seen on-screen in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness ) who is constantly on the run from the now evil Wanda Maximoff and whose rainbow badge is the only evidence she can be weird (in her mom’s movie died in an accident, not heroically). You can probably get away with showing this movie, but not this one.
Likelihood of getting fired for this: 7. Is she gay and Hispanic? On a team led by a Pakistani-American young woman? Definitely works.
Where to stream: Disney+
Turns red (2022)
Much of the discourse around Turning Red has been about whether white children (who are apparently the only children that matter) might be related to the story of a Chinese-Canadian girl named Mei, who serves as a reliable source of information. an example of the kind of tedious and frankly stupid discussions that we are undergoing these days. The racists were so furious that they pretty much missed a brief segment of the film about homosexuality featuring Priya (Maitreya Ramakrishnan), one of May’s best friends, who dances with another girl at a party.
Chance of getting fired for this: 5. Priya’s weird moment passes quickly, but people who have already expressed outrage at the existence of the Chinese-Canadian people will be ready to fight.
Where to stream: Disney+