Disney+ is celebrating Pride Month by presenting a collection of shows, movies, and short films revolving around LGBTQ+ characters and stories. These offerings include High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Howard (a documentary on lyricist Howard Ashman who created songs for the Disney movies The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), and The Owl House (which just won a Peabody Award for “building a wildly inventive other world that makes room for everyone and giving queer kids a welcome template alongside which to explore their own budding creative energies”).
In case you were wondering, "Are there any Gay Characters in Clifford The Big Red Dog?" you might want to check out the Insider Database of LGBTQ Shows and Characters. Created “to bust the myth that kids can’t handle inclusion”, it lists 70 different series (including She-Ra, Steven Universe, 3Below, Adventure Time, and Young Justice) and 259 individual characters. For the click avoidant, the answer to the question is: "Yes, there are gay characters in Clifford The Big Red Dog, Dr. and Mrs. Mulberry".
As a side note, I need to make a correction. Back in 2019 (see "Confessions Of A Comic Book Guy - He-Man Missing In Action"), I wrote while Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power certainly had gay content (in context), but it wasn’t quite as gay as some of its online fans thought. Maybe it was because I’m so used to living in a presumptively heterosexual culture that it was only after I had watched the entire series over again did the obvious occurred to me; almost every member of the cast of She-Ra was a member of the LGBTQ community.
They came to this conclusion because “He-Man's transformation is full of rainbows" which “is associated with the LGBTQ movement”, and the trailer featured the song, "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler. The song is also included in the second episode of Marvel's Loki, a character who is, of course, is confirmed woke and gender fluid (I like to think I'm woke, but I'm still waiting for my confirmation).
The series is Princess Knight, not Nella The Princess Knight, a preschool series that ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. I mean, the 1967 series based on Osamu Tezuka's manga Ribon no Kishi, which is about a princess who has to pretend to be a prince to keep her/his kingdom out of the hands of an evil Duke. Princess Knight is considered one of Tezuka’s most influential manga, but I’ve never had the chance to see the animated series based on it - until now. Starting this month Princess Knight, as well as Kimba the White Lion, and Astro-Boy will be available for streaming on RetroCrush.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
