By: Anna Luo

Last Friday, Pixar’s latest movie “Lightyear” opened in theaters under great controversy due to the brief kiss a lesbian couple shared, leading to the movie being banned in 14 nations.

The population in many of these nations is mainly made up of Muslims, whose culture disapproves of same-sex relationships. Countries that banned the film include Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. In addition, according to the ABC News article by Jon Gambrell, “In some parts of the Arab world, members of the LGBTQ community have been arrested and sentenced to prison. Some countries even maintain the death penalty.” Though past films have been censored to cut out certain scenes, this has proved to be too much for the aforementioned countries. As a result of the “inappropriate” scene, the movie was banned entirely.

This setback clearly disappoints actor Chris Evans, who voiced Buzz Lightyear. “It feels good to be a part of something that is making social progress, but it’s with this ribbon of bittersweet frustration that at the same time, there are still places that have not caught up.”

Originally, the scene was going to be cut from the movie following Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill that was signed in late March prohibits in-class instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through 3rd grade. However, due to protests from staff and the public, the scene was added back in. The protesters also expressed their disapproval of the Disney CEO’s slow response in publicly expressing his disapproval of the bill, which may have played a part in adding the scene back in.

According to CNBC, the film brought in $51 million over the opening weekend, which is the best performance from an animated feature since the pandemic began. However, it still fell short of box office analyst’s predictions that ranged from $70 to $85 million, which were already uncharacteristically low for a Pixar movie.

Sources:

1. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/disneys-lightyear-banned-muslim-world-lesbian-kiss-85440534

2. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/19/lightyear-box-office-pixar-film-nabs-51-million-in-domestic-opening.html