Frozen 2: Idina Menzel backs 'great' fan campaign demanding Disney make Elsa its first lesbian princess
Elsa did not have a love interest of either gender in the 2013 original but #GiveElsaAGirlfriend could change that
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Idina Menzel has given her fierce backing to a fan petition asking Disney to give Queen Elsa a girlfriend in the upcoming Frozen sequel.
The award-winning actress, who voices the lead character in the animated film (meaning you can in part blame her for “Let It Go”), told reporters on the Billboard Music Awards red carpet that adding a same-sex romance to the follow-up would be “great”.
“I think it’s great,” she told Entertainment Tonight on Sunday. “Disney’s just gotta contend with that. I’ll let them figure that out. No matter what, Elsa changed my life.”
Recently, a shocking GLAAD report found that Disney failed to include a single LGBT character in its major 2015 movies, including those from its Lucasfilm and Marvel branches.
Elsa’s storyline could help change this bleak lack of representation as she did not have a love interest of either gender in 2013’s original Frozen, which focused on the sisterly love between herself and her compassionate sibling Anna.
The viral Twitter campaign #GiveElsaAGirlfriend began earlier this month when Feminist Culture founder Alexis Isabel Moncada posted the following tweet on her feed:
Moncada pointed out at the peak of her campaign’s publicity that Elsa is an obvious choice because of how connected the LGBT community already is to Frozen.
“Many in the LGBT community view this movie as a metaphor for the experience of coming out and accepting who you are,” she said.
Disney is yet to comment on the idea of making the ice queen the first animated LGBT character in its history but it remains in doubt after Kristen Bell, who voices Anna, revealed in March that the script was nearly finished.
“They’ve just written it and they’re still doing tweaks but I think we should be recording this month,” she told Collider. “The story is great and they exude quality. What I know about that whole team is that they wouldn’t just put something out to put it out. That’s why it took them so long to even announce that we were doing a second one. They wanted to figure out what story they needed to tell and what would be important and engaging and I think they found it.”
Following the success of #GiveElsaAGirlfiend, a new trending hashtag has emerged today calling for superhero Captain America, played by Chris Evans to be given a boyfriend.
Clearly, there is demand for improved representation of the LGBT community in mainstream cinema. Whether studio bosses will listen to what the audience wants and start reflecting 21st century society or continue resisting progress is another question entirely.
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