Inside Out is one of Disney and Pixar's most absorbing concepts. The 2015 animated movie by Pete Docter focused on young Riley and the emotions inside her brain. Each had its own avatar, led by Amy Poehler's Joy. Now, the Inside Out sequel from new director, Kelsey Mann, finds 13-year-old Riley going through puberty.
In addition, she is struggling in her coming-of-age story to embrace changes in academy and with her friends. Intriguingly, from the trailers and video clips, many fans were curious if this was a queer story teasing a conflicted Riley coming out. Fortunately for curious fans, Inside Out 2 provides a definitive answer to this topic.
Updated on September 23, 2024, by Robbie Robinson: There's nothing surpass than deep-diving into Disney's characters and reading between the queer-coded lines. Disney might be too afraid to grant fans queer protagonists, but that hasn't stopped fans from dreaming. Riley is a strong contender for an LGBT character, but will it ever arrive true? This article has been updated to add further analysis and to get this article up to current CBR formatting standards.
Riley's Feelings Towar
Pixar Wanted Riley’s Character in ‘Inside Out 2’ to Appear ‘Less Gay’ — Report
Former Pixar staffers who worked on “Inside Out 2” claimed they received continuous notes to make the film‘s main character, Riley, come across as “less gay,” according to a report in IGN about the film and animation studio.
Among 10 former Pixar employees who spoke to IGN, all whom remained anonymous, one said edits ramped up to “Inside Out 2” after the final word of the WGA strike last fall, with special attention given to removing any traces of “romantic chemistry” in the partnership between Riley and supporting personality Val. The sources told IGN the edits involved “just doing a lot of extra operate to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight.”
“In the film, what you saw, nothing about Riley says that she is gay, but it is kind of inferred based on certain contexts. And so that is something that they tried to play down at multiple points,” one source told IGN. Another said leadership allgedly felt “uncomfortable” about queer themes in the film, and the
Inside Out 2 team were reportedly told to make Riley "less gay"
18 September 2024, 17:02 | Updated: 1 November 2024, 17:26
By Sam Prance
Is Riley gay in Inside Out 2? Here's what Pixar employees have said about her partnership with Val.
A former Pixar employee has claimed that the team behindInside Out 2 were told to make Riley "less gay" in the film's concluding cut.
Fans of Pixar will already perceive that the firm has a distant and complicated history with queer characters. The company is yet to hold an out, Gay main character but many people ponder there are roles inLuca and Turning Red that are heavily queer-coded. Onward also had the company's first openly gay character in the form of Lena Waithe's Officer Spencer.
Another character in the Pixar cosmos that people contain interpreted as queer-coded is Inside Out's Riley, and the fan theory developed further with Inside Out 2's plot line. In the film, Riley is obsessed with another female hockey player named Val. Some people think Riley fancies Val but others believe that she is just meant to be a fan of her in a non-ro
Pixar Allegedly Made Inside Out 2's Riley "Less Gay" In Response To Disney Blaming Lightyear's Failure On Same-Sex Kiss
Pixar reportedly changed aspects of Riley's nature in Inside Out 2 due to the backlash against Lightyear's same-sex peck between Alisha and her spouse, Kiko. When the trailers for Inside Out 2 were released, there was speculation about Riley being gay and romantically interested in Val, but this possibility was not explored in the sequel. This has led to discourse about the Pixar film’s lack of explicit LGBTQIA+ representation despite needling it.
According to sources who spoke withIGN, edits were made to depict Riley as "less gay" due to fears grounded in Lightyear's backlash and box office disappointment. This included an emphasis on making Riley and Val's partnership as platonic as workable and even adjusting the lighting of certain scenes to avoid any connotations of "romantic chemistry” and "doing a lot of extra work to construct sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight." Another source says this is because Pixar’s leadership mistakenly believe “Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer peck in it.”