Written by Nick Duffy
Disney quietly featured a married gay couple in their latest film.
The entertainment giant has never featured an overtly LGBT character in its releases – but fans have spotted proof in Zootopia, released in cinemas in March this year, that two male characters are married.
Zootopia features a city populated by animals – and follows Judy Hopps, a young rabbit seeking to fulfil her dream of being a police officer.
However, when she moves to the city she is frustrated with her loud next-door neighbours in the Grand Pangolin Arms apartment block.
The two antelope characters, Bucky and Pronk, are seen loudly bickering when Judy is first shown to her apartment.
Though their living situation is never explicitly confirmed on screen, eagle-eyed viewer have spotted a tiny confirmation that the characters are married.
The film’s credits list them as Bucky Oryx-Antlerson and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson – with their double-barrelled last name appearing to suggest that the pair tied the knot to live unhappily ever after.
Of course, they might not be the film’s only LGBT characters – Clawhauser, who works as a dispatcher at the Zootopia police department, is portrayed as camp and effeminate, though his sexuality is never confirmed.
Disney’s 2013 release Frozen attracted attention for hinting at a gay character, with sauna owner Oaken implied to have a husband in one scene.
The implied relationship led pastor Kevin Swanson to complain the film is “evil”.
He said: “You wonder sometimes, I’m not a tinfoil hat conspiratorialist, but you wonder sometimes if maybe there’s something very evil happening here.
“Friends, this is evil, just evil. I wonder if people are thinking: ‘You know I think this cute little movie is going to indoctrinate my 5-year-old to be a lesbian or treat homosexuality or bestiality in a light sort of way’.
“I wonder if the average parent going to see Frozen is thinking that way. I wonder if they are just walking in and saying, ‘Yeah, let’s get my five-year-old and seven-year-old indoctrinated early’. You know they’re not, I think for the most part they’re oblivious. Maybe they do pick up on pieces of it but they just don’t get up and walk out.”
Source: https://www.thepinknews.com/2016/05/11/theres-a-married-gay-couple-in-disneys-zootopia-but-nearly-everyone-missed-it/