Ok, I heard a co-worker, who is part of the LGBT community talking about how offensive this movie is to transpeople. Is this true? Not being in that community myself, I don't see it. Is this person too sensitive, or not? I want to take my daughter to see it and I don't want her to see any type of discrimination. thanks!
shareAnyone can be offended at anything for any reason.
shareYes they're too sensitive. Nobodies allowed to even mention gay people nowadays unless you're saying that all gays are all wonderful people no matter what. Which is just as bad as saying they're all terrible I my opinion. Anyway point is this movie is fine for children to watch..
shareminor spoiler alert
there is a villain who at one point assumes a disguise which involves cross-dressing in order to infiltrate/influence the aristocracy. In attempting to expose this, Eggs pulls off the guy's wig. I suppose this must be what your friend was talking about. The character was never portrayed as transgendered, it was really just a disguise.
I can understand how that might look from a trans perspective, but I don't think any element of prejudice came into it, like ripping off a fake mustache and glasses, it seemed innocently conceived. I don't expect it to have much if any effect on children, but if you were concerned, it shouldn't be too difficult to address the issue.
If you think it's a film you and your daughter would enjoy, go ahead. It's a beautiful movie with a positive message.
Laika is very pro-LGBT! They're an awesome company to stand up and represent minorities unlike most major release films. I mean, c'mon, ParaNorman was THE first wide release 'family' film to feature an openly gay character.
shareNot to mention that the first teaser for Boxtrolls presented having two mommies/daddies (gay parenting) as normal and positive.
shareI thought that was one of the few funny moments of the film. Far from offensive.
shareIf they are offended by the cast of Monty Python cross-dressing, then okay, there's no stopping them being offended. I don't know what the argument is, maybe they should have cast a real transgendered puppet to play the part.
Sigh.
This is a good point you've put forward.
The character played a part in a show as a female singer - he was not transgendered, he was a performer in costume as a man playing a woman. So to your point, would it be less offensive if the voice actor/ess was a female impersonator?
Should Tracy Morgan be offended that his character didn't look "black" enough? Or that there weren't "other races"? Should all women be offended that most female characters were, again, in the background? Should all men be offended that all the bad guys were male?
Stereotypes in animation abound. Beyond that, this film is actually about the discrimination of the boxtrolls, believing BS about them without finding out the truth for yourself...and a bunch of other good messages the world should learn.
Yeah, a character cross-dresses and the disguise somehow deceives others, it's a simple as that, there's no insinuation it's a jab against the transgendered or gay men. I don't see what's offensive about it.
shareMy first reaction to the appearance of the singer was, "Wow, a drag queen in a cartoon." LOL
shareKinda reminds me of the controversy with ParaNorman, but only the opposite, where we find out one of the characters is gay, but the film doesn't express that character as obvious to acting as that preference; they just reveal it as a punchline, which to me, was a funny and surprising twist to that setup. I guess for the studio, incorporating subtle progressive issues with humor is more niche for the majority of an audience than they expected.
shareSpoilers ahead, but:
The character played a part in a show as a female singer - he was not transgendered, he was a performer in costume as a man playing a woman. So to your point, would it be less offensive if the voice actor/ess was a female impersonator?
I don't believe you sandylbc. What did you hear about it being offensive, details?
shareAnyone who says they're "Oh-fended" by this movie is full of Bovine Excreta.
My partner and I just came from the theatre, and we found it hysterically funny. This movie is the kind of thing Disney should be doing, instead of the crap they've been putting out lately.
And we are a gay couple who've been together for nineteen years.
Disney has evolved over the years. Frozen, for instance, has a very obvious subtext of acceptance. It's basically about a character who's afraid to come out as different, because she assumes that she's dangerous towards the ones close to her, and that people will reject her, becomes reclusive when word spreads out, then realizes, when her sister still loves her, that her difference can also be a source for good and beauty.
I have a relative who came out as gay after two decades of secrecy, and the Anna/Elsa scenes in the beginning of Frozen struck a chord with me as they mirrored our own relationship, particularly the emotional shut-in.
I don't think that Disney pushed a pro-gay agenda with Frozen, but it's easy to spot that there is a message of tolerance and that a situation like how a conservative family regards homosexuality was an inspiration to the depiction of the main characters.