An episode of the Disney animated present “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” targeted on a transgender character will now not air.
Information broke this week that the episode, which leaked on YouTube, has been pulled from airing on Disney Channel in 2025 due to its LGBTQ storyline.
In line with Polygon, the episode titled “The Gatekeeper” is concerning the transgender character Brooklyn, who’s voiced by “Pose” star Indya Moore. Brooklyn is competing on the woman’s volleyball workforce and faces discrimination from the opposing workforce’s coach, Greer (voiced by Amy Sedaris).
Greer reportedly makes use of a magical key to lock Brooklyn and her teammates within the woman’s locker room. Brooklyn breaks all the way down to her teammates and tells them, “I’m trans, my very existence breaks Greer’s rules.”
Brooklyn additionally wears pride-themed kneepads and has a “Trans is beautiful” sticker on her water bottle within the episode, in response to Polygon.
Derrick Malik Johnson, a member of the present’s storyboard revisionist workforce, addressed the episode being pulled in a since-deleted put up on the brand new social media microblogging app Bluesky.
“So guess I finally got hit with one of the projects (episode) I worked on is getting shelved because of which party that won the recent election,” he wrote. “It breaks my heart knowing this impactful and amazing is now about to be consider a lost media episode.”
Different animated artists spoke out on social media and equally speculated that the episode was eliminated as a result of Donald Trump gained the presidential election.
Emmy Cicirega, a storyboard artist on “Gravity Falls,” wrote on X, “Disney should be ashamed of themselves for canning this episode. You don’t get to approve approve approve something and then destroy it at the last minute, shattering the crews hard work and hopes.”
Matt Braly, who created “Amphibia,” responded to Cicirega’s put up and mentioned, “If an episode got this far, it was approved multiple times by multiple divisions, only to suddenly be struck down at the last second? Total break down of process and spitting on your team’s careful/thoughtful work. S&P approved this ep. It was good to go.”
“The action being preemptive makes it so much worse to me,” Braly added in a second tweet. “The absolute cowardice and second guessing when actually this is when this content is needed most.”
Nevertheless, a Disney supply advised Polygon that the present’s determination was remodeled a yr in the past and was not primarily based on the end result of the election.
“In this case, this decision was based on this specific episode, not because of the character being trans,” the insider claimed, including that the episode isn’t “banned” however is being “held.”
The supply additionally mentioned that Disney is “really proud” of the present and that the corporate is “respectful of the role that parents play in the discussions they have with their children.”
The Publish has reached out to Disney for remark.
“Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” relies on the Marvel Comics characters Lunella Lafayette and her dinosaur companion.
The present premiered in February 2023 and gained 5 Kids’s and Household Emmy Awards, but it surely was canceled after two seasons.
Nevertheless, Disney nonetheless has a number of extra episodes within the tank which are anticipated to air in 2025.
