Snoop Dogg recently criticized Pixar’s “Lightyear,” detailing an experience he had showing the film, which briefly features a lesbian couple, to his grandchild. Now, a writer who contributed to “Lightyear” is defending LGBTQ+ inclusion, saying she stands by it to infinity and beyond.
The writer in question is Lauren Gunderson, a screenwriter who added additional material to “Lightyear.” Gunderson said Wednesday that she added the moment of queer representation to the 2022 Pixar film.
“So. I created the LIGHTYEAR lesbians,” Gunderson said in a Threads post Wednesday, alluding to the Snoop Dogg controversy. “In 2018, I was a writer at Pixar – such a cool place, grateful to work there, learned a ton from kind and impressive creatives. As we wrote early versions of what became LIGHTYEAR, a key character needed a partner, and it was so natural to write ‘she’ instead of ‘he.’ As small as that detail is in the film, I knew the representational effect it could have. Small line, big deal. I was elated that they kept it.”
“I’m proud of it,” she continued. “To infinity. Love is love.” You can view the full statement below.
The moment in question comes early in “Lightyear,” a Pixar film intended to be the fictional movie that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy line from “Toy Story.” When Buzz (Chris Evans) and his crew are marooned on the planet T’Kani prime, the Space Ranger begins testing hyperspace fuel to get them home. This causes time dilation effects for Buzz, with years passing in what feels like seconds for him. During this time, Buzz sees his friend and commanding officer Alisha (Uzo Aduba) grow old, with a few brief moments revealing she has a wife and child.
Snoop Dogg recently went on the “It’s Giving” podcast, hosted by Sarah Fontenot. During this appearance, he recounted the story of taking his grandson to see the animated sci-fi adventure. During the film, Snoop Dogg’s grandson raised questions about Alisha and her wife — questions Snoop Dogg didn’t wish to answer.
“What you see is what you see, and they’re putting it everywhere,” Snoop remarked, before revealing that his grandson was confused when “Lightyear” revealed that one of its characters had two mothers. “They’re like, ‘She had a baby — with a woman.’ Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie, [was] like, ‘Papa Snoop? How she have a baby with a woman? She a woman!’”
“It’s like, f—k me! I’m scared to go to the movies, man. Y’all throwing me in the middle of s–t that I don’t have an answer for!” the rapper later added. “It threw me for a loop. I’m like, ‘What part of the movie was this?’ These are kids. We have to show that at this age? They’re going to ask questions. I don’t have the answer.”
Snoop Dogg’s podcast appearance launched a renewed online debate around the scene, one mirroring reactions to the brief scene in 2022. Several days after Snoop Dogg’s comments, Gunderson reemphasized why she felt it was important for the character’s to appear in such an ordinary scene.
“I had very little to do with the final script. But I was proud to see a happy queer couple (even for a few seconds) onscreen,” Gunderson said on Threads. “I know they got a lot of s–t for this inclusion, but stuff like this matters because beautiful love like this exists. It’s *not* fiction.”
