Trolls Band Togetheris being hailed and criticized, depending on where you look,for its LGBTQ+ representation. This is particularly notable due to the gap inLGBTQ+ representation in animationand children’s media. It’s a gap that has always been there but is only becoming more pronounced as social acceptance of the queer community grows, yet media corporations continually refuse to keep up.
In 2022,Varietyreported on the statement Pixar employees wrote exposingLGBTQ+ censorship at Disney. This came despite the fact that then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek had publicly expressed “unwavering” support for the LGBTQ+ community after Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation was passed.
The reasons for this censorship are predictably rooted in financial greed. The 2020 Pixar filmOnwarddabbled in queer representation when Lena Waithe voiced a cyclops police officer named Specter. Specter says one line, in passing, referring to her “girlfriend’s daughter,” and for that,the film was banned in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The more international markets that deem a film “inappropriate,” the more money the distributor loses out on. So, when Universal releasedTrolls Band Together, audiences were surprised to find it was a little fruitier than most.
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Trolls Band Togetherisn’t the first Universal film starring Anna Kendrick that LGBTQ+ fans were able to find representation in.ThePitch Perfectfranchise is infamous for feeding into (and eventually exploiting) its queer fandom. See, fans had begun to “ship” characters Beca and Chloe after the shower scene in the first film. Universal then took advantage of this by queerbaiting fans witha Snapchat adforPitch Perfect 3that showed Beca and Chloe about to kiss.
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Sapphics flocked to the theaters to watch what we thought and felt was going to be the payoff to three movies' worth of buildup… but it never came. Both Kendrick and Snow were huge supporters of the pairing themselves but bumped up against the all-too-familiar censorship gods time and time again. They did, however, manage to trick the director into filming an outtake where they kiss at the end of the third movie.
Trolls Band Togetheris a fun movie with a positive message and outstanding vocal talent…but it’s, unshockingly, about as LGBTQ+ as a corporate Pride parade. While the mere inclusion of rainbows and RuPaul in the voice cast was enough to p*ss off Christians,nothing about it is overtly queer. So, what are folks seeing in the latestTrollsinstallment that they’re flagging as representation? Well, aside from the casting of some “out” actors, there are two main characters that are queer-coded.
Floyd, aka ‘the Sensitive One,’ and Veneer in Trolls Band Together
Trolls Band Together
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Trolls Band Togethertakes us back to the Skittle-hued Trolls kingdom where westart with a flashbackfrom Branch’s (Justin Timberlake) childhood. We see he was brought up in a boy band family as the youngest of five brothers, which ends up being his “role” in the group. When we meet them, the band is bristling against the eldest, John Dory (Eric Andre), who seems to have lost the plot. He’s obsessed with hitting the “perfect harmony” — so much so that he puts the others in a (literally) compromising position. Meanwhile, all little Branch wants is to be a family and trick out their home with his closest sibling, Floyd (Troye Sivan), aka “The Sensitive One.“The casting choice and the nickname make a strong case for Floyd being queer-coded.
After a performance mishap,the band breaks upto pursue solo careers. However, they don’t just take some space; they totally abandon Branch. The incident that prompts the brothers to reunite is that present-day Floyd has been taken by a Ryan-and-Sharpay-esque musical duo named Velvet and Veneer. Through some pretty dark sci-fi logic, Velvet and Veneer can physically siphon Floyd’s musical talent — an act that is suggested could very well kill him eventually.
These greedy siblings have no raw talent of their own and despite Veneer’s attempts to persuade his sister to rehearse so that they mightbecomegood, she isn’t interested. Veneer being the sibling with more of a conscience adds to the Ryan-and-Sharpay parallels, further bolstering the evidence that he is queer-coded. This is on top of the fact that he’s quite flamboyant. Check out this fan edit of Veneer being, well, himself:
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This is the most queerTrolls Band Togethergets, though…so we’re still in “implicit, wink-wink-to-the-adults-only” territory. We’re still in Beca and Chloe territory. So, if the question is “DoesTrolls Bands Togetherhave positive LGBTQ+ representation,” we have to first ask, “DoesTrolls Band TogetherhaveanyLGBTQ+ representation?” And, as far as “positive” goes, he was the villain.
Production was probably trying to do the best they could within their confines, but all in all, for parents who wish to show their child a positive, musical, expressly LGBTQ+ cartoon, a better place to start would be the seriesSteven Universe.Trolls Band Togetheris streaming onNetflix.
