Just before the holidays, news broke Disney would be cutting a storyline for a transgender character in the upcoming Pixar series, Win or Lose. At the time, Disney said the removal would allow parents to “discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,” which sparked plenty of discussion online, since it’d been the second show with a trans-focused storyline to recently get the ax.
Win or Lose, which hits Disney+ in February, centers on a co-ed softball team; one episode would’ve been devoted to a character named Kai, who remains in the episode but without any references to their gender.
Now, former creatives at Pixar have shared their feelings on the matter with the Hollywood Reporter. Former Pixar assistant editor Sarah Ligatich, who is trans and consulted on the episode, said the removal would cause problems, since the overall show has been completed for “quite some time,” though repeatedly delayed from its planned 2023 release. That Kai’s storyline was cut wasn’t much of a surprise to Ligatich, but she still felt “devastated” nonetheless: “Disney has not been in the business of making great content,” she stated. “They’ve been in the business of making great profits. Even as far back as two years ago when I was at Pixar, we had a meeting with [then-CEO] Bob Chapek, and they were clear with us that they see animation as a conservative medium.”
That sentiment was shared by her fellow ex-Pixar workers speaking to the outlet. Some found it ironic that Disney had no problem cutting a trans character’s story, but has spent years giving a pass to media with considerably heavier themes, like dealing with (and moving on from) the death of a loved one. Others acknowledged how the now-finished episode would need to have several story elements adjusted ahead of Win or Lose’s mid-February launch. One anonymous former employee called it “very frustrating that Disney has decided to spend money to not save lives,” explaining that the episode “was so beautiful—and beautifully illustrated some of the experiences of being trans—and it was literally going to save lives by showing those who feel alone and unloved, that there are people out there who understand.”
Disney’s recent history of throwing queer people under the bus (until it doesn’t), and with Pixar projects in particular, has been previously documented. But the incoming second term of Donald Trump has Pixar staff worried Win or Lose will be just one among several projects that will cut particular messages or viewpoints. A former Pixar artist speaking to THR alleged the studio’s 2026 film Hoppers has to downplay any messages of environmentalism. The film is centered around a girl swapping brains with a beaver, and as that artist pointed out, “when you have your whole film based around the importance of environmentalism, you can’t really walk back on that. That team struggled a lot to figure out, ‘What do we even do with this note?’”
For Ligatich, Disney’s handling of Win or Lose is also a reminder that for queer creatives and audiences that they might have to look elsewhere to find stories that reflect themselves. She singled out Netflix, which revived and released last year’s queer-centric film Nimona after Disney previously scrapped it, and said that streamer “is more than happy to host content that tells authentic LGBTQ stories. That’s really how it’s going to go moving forward, is you’re going to see a lot of indie studios pop up to tell stories.”
Win or Lose premieres February 19, 2025 on Disney+.
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