Pixar's Onward - Yet another adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist

[Uranus Pink]

One good example of that is the scene in Shazam where they leave the strip club and the fat kid says "eh, not really my thing" implying he's gay and it feels so awkwardly shoehorned in, it was a good movie otherwise but good grief was that awkward.

İn fairness to the fat kid, that scene works very well in "they choose poorly" with picking that one strip club and fatty isn't a degenerate deviant and way being polite about it.

 

[Dom Cruise]

İn fairness to the fat kid, that scene works very well in "they choose poorly" with picking that one strip club and fatty isn't a degenerate deviant and way being polite about it.

No, the scene is pretty clearly implying that he's gay.

 

[BeboRefugee]

One good example of that is the scene in Shazam where they leave the strip club and the fat kid says "eh, not really my thing" implying he's gay and it feels so awkwardly shoehorned in, it was a good movie otherwise but good grief was that awkward.

It isn't an entirely new phenomena either, one thing it reminds me of is in 1980s movies like Summer Rental and Short Circuit there's scenes of characters angrily switching or turning off radio stations with Preachers on them, as well as tons of "crooked televangelist" characters in movies and TV back then.

Anytime something is in a movie or TV show solely to “stick it” to someone it feels awkward.

Because writers feel compelled to give minority representation, but they can't commit to it fully. A lot of the mentioned examples here are purely through dialogue. Meaning, in East Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East (most of the world actually) can freely dub over to erase that representation if the marketing department thinks these already janky lines would do meaningful damage to the product's box office performance.

There are stories out there where, for example, a child is adopted, or from a minority ethnic group, or a character is an amputee with prosthetics and everything. In plenty of stories, these aspects of the characters are never touched on in the plot, they're there for representation's sake. And that's fine, plenty of children's TV shows do this. The intention is generally to remind the audience that people are different... but you aren't bigoted for questioning why those decisions were made if they're not essential to the story itself. It's the author's story, tear away, but altogether it can make for some weird results on a macro level. We're seeing it now with gay representation, but since the 80s black people in America have been far and away over-represented in media, simply because most shows and commercials want to include that 12%, so a disturbing number of shows and movies have at least 1 black secondary character that isn't really driving the thrust of the story. The Black Best Friend is a trope, "My girlfriend's daughter" probably won't because its far too awkward.

I think a lot of this wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that there's a very loud contingent on the internet that will fight and heap praise on anyone that throws them these fig leafs. It makes the wider society acutely aware of what's going on, and loathe the politicisation of media that's supposed to be escapism. It feels unnecessary because you've got one group that thinks going YAAAAAASSSS, believing it will help normalise gay parents, marriage, etc, (sort of unintentionally creating a schism by drawing attention to it) while a much larger segment of the population winds up quesey about such things because all the noise around it makes the inclusion look political and vestigial to the story.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

No, the scene is pretty clearly implying that he's gay.

Maybe the joke is the kid can't get a half-chub unless there's fat strippers.

 

[BobsSpergers]

I didn't see the film but I'm pretty interested what they tried to subvert, is it the usual where they shift the evil and good races?

No, funnily enough. There's a money grubbing pawn shop owner goblin. I also thought it was funny when the older brother basically tries to redpill the biker pixies by telling them their wings don't work because their descendants were lazy.

 

[omori]

Positive or negatively stressing over a second’s line read is dumb, especially when the line itself was never purposely written and adlibbed by the voice actor. Disney just said “fuck it” and left it in.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

One good example of that is the scene in Shazam where they leave the strip club and the fat kid says "eh, not really my thing" implying he's gay and it feels so awkwardly shoehorned in, it was a good movie otherwise but good grief was that awkward.

I dunno, let's not forget they are all little kids, so it makes sense he doesn't like a strip club. I took it as something similar to Billy asking for "the finest beer" and not liking it. Makes sense with the themes of kids suddenly facing adult issues.

That being said, in the current year, him being gay is possible.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I dunno, let's not forget they are all little kids, so it makes sense he doesn't like a strip club. I took it as something similar to Billy asking for "the finest beer" and not liking it. Makes sense with the themes of kids suddenly facing adult issues.

That being said, in the current year, him being gay is possible.

The way he said it though just really jumped out to me as implying he was gay.

I have pretty strong Spidey senses for current year virtue signaling, I always pick up on it right away even when it’s pretty subtle.

It doesn’t always bother me as sometimes it’s really no big deal, but media didn’t used to be this way so when a“current year” moment happens it’s always immediately obvious to me.

 

[Cyril Sneer]

In that case, nope. Your analogy isn't accurate. The insertion of it is so small and insignificant that anyone who gets angry about it (or praises it and calls it "history-making") deserves to be laughed at.

That's what they always say about every little attempt to push the envelope, "it's no big deal! You're overreacting, man, stop being, like, you know, such a square!" and now here we are with the talking heads dutifully attempting to normalize schoolchildren being stuck in the same room as demonic-looking transvestites for extended periods of time on a regular basis and 11-year-old "drag kids" demonstrating how to snort ketamine.

I don't see how it's off-putting. The line was "It's not easy being a new parent. My girlfriend's daughter got me pulling my hair out, okay?".

The line wasn't "It's not easy being a new parent. My girlfriend's daughter cries every night as she and I try to scissor each other and swap spit during our nightly S&M roleplays, okay?".

It feels like they just tried to pass off the idea of a homosexual individual existing in this universe that somewhat mirrors our own in certain respects as normal and something that just exists, just as it should be in our own.

There's simply no reason to include any reference to homosexuality in a family film.

 

[XYZpdq]

What if the fat kid just has better taste than strippers? I'm hetero as all fuck but strippers are kinda gross, and you can't even grope and fuck them. Or if you can grope and fuck them then they're even more grubby.