By Monique
This is kind of an inflammatory title for a post, but it’s true: Disney and Pixar (or in its current configuration, Disney/Pixar) has a history of blocking other characters out and portraying a majority of their characters as white, even though their audience is much more than just white Americans. Finally, Disney/Pixar is working towards more diversity with their short film, Sanjay’s Super Team.
Thankfully, Disney has had some diversity under their belt and are adding more with Moana. But Pixar proper doesn’t have a great track record with diversity at all. The first black Pixar character is Frozone in The Incredibles. The first Asian Pixar character is Russell (and the character rumored to be Russell’s dad, if I’m remembering correctly). That’s pretty much it (apart from the Dia de los Muertos-themed film coming from Pixar, Coco). Sanjay’s Super Team will, hopefully, set a precedent for Pixar to embrace more sides of their audience by showing more diverse characters, not just in race, but in religion and culture, three things Sanjay’s Super Team combine effortlessly.
Here’s a clip from the short and get ready to watch the rest of it when it airs before The Good Dinosaur in theaters this Thanksgiving.
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Screencap of Sanjay’s Super Team
Julian 