Disney Pixar fans have shared their horror after insiders claimed Inside Out 2 was made to be ‘less gay ’ amid ongoing backlash to Disney’s LGBTQ+ track record. Inside Out 2 – a sequel to the popular 2015 family film – checks back in with 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman) when puberty hits and Anxiety ( Maya Hawke ) runs riot in her mind as her emotions attempt to cope with this new phase of her life. The plot proved a major success and after comfortably pushing past the $1billion (£753million), Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time .
During the movie, Riley attends a hockey camp where she meets the effortlessly cool captain Val (Lilimar Hernandez) who she immediately puts on a pedestal – and LGBTQ+ fans were quick to speculate whether Riley was in the throes of a crush. This was only fuelled by the thread throughout the film that Riley was hiding a ‘Deep Dark Secret’. The dynamic was never explicitly addressed in the film, but now emerging sources from inside Pixar Animation Studios (a subsidiary of Disney) have claimed they were instructed to ensure the relationship came across as platonic.
Anonymous Pixar employees told IGN that they were told to make the film ‘less gay’ which led to numerous edits. Sources spoke about rumours that a particular focus was put on Riley and Val’s relationship, with lighting and tone adjusted to remove traces of ‘romantic chemistry. ‘[It was] just doing a lot of extra work to mak.