Last weekend, Walt Disney Animation unveiled its heartfelt short film, Versa, at the Animation Is Film Festival.
Since then, snapshots from the film have exploded across X (once known as Twitter), prompting thousands to voice opinions on the work. A notable image features a man and woman clasping hands amid a soft pink heavens, a star highlighting the woman’s expectant abdomen while two more stars radiate by their chests.
By comparison, a different shot portrays the pair beneath a somber sky, with just two dim stars flickering near their hearts. As per animator Malcon Pierce, known for his contributions to Moana, the story tracks a youthful duo enduring various feelings, spanning sorrow and bereavement to eventual delight, while engaging in a mystical “cosmic dance of existence.”
Across online platforms, numerous responders inverted the typical narrative, leveraging the movie to ridicule or condemn those with homophobic views who resist LGBTQ+ portrayals in youth-oriented cinema. One individual posted, “My 3-year-old granddaughter gazed at me with her pure eyes and asked, ‘Grandma, is it okay for a woman to love a man?’ Revolting…”
“Compelling my granddaughter to witness this vile hetero propaganda; children shouldn’t have such perspectives imposed at that tender stage,” the comment continued.
Someone else inputted, “Woke garbage spoiling all,” while another remarked, “This better be satire because indeed it’s standard for women to adore men.” Yet another contributed, “Being straight, I’m horrified to witness my convictions rammed so overtly into others.”
In a similar vein, an additional commenter urged to “shield this repulsive heterosexual reproduction propaganda from kids’ susceptible thoughts.”
The brief movie delves into motifs of affection and bereavement.
Disney has progressively incorporated LGBTQ+ figures into its features, like in Onward, Lightyear, Cruella, and Thor: Love and Thunder, albeit with modest presence. Such additions have drawn flak from right-wing factions, deeming them “propaganda” targeted at youngsters.
Versa debuted back in June during France’s Annecy Animation Festival. Pierce elaborated that Versa’s narrative drew from the heartbreaking passing of his and wife Keely’s baby boy, Cooper, along with their path through romance, tragedy, mourning, and recovery.
The stellar motif stemmed from Cooper’s star-themed prenatal celebration. Pierce’s mother-in-law presented them a crystalline star, positioned on their kitchen sill. “Each dawn we’d descend, and tiny rainbows would scatter throughout the home from that small star, serving as a means to recall Cooper and hold him near,” the filmmaker and Disney artist recounted, according to Variety. The piece unfolds via melody and movement, featuring an ice routine, conveying the figures’ sentiments through dance steps sans spoken words.
Online audiences reversed standard digital fury, dubbing the movie “heterosexual propaganda.”
Haim Mazar, the composer, employed a 69-member ensemble to craft a musical backdrop that progresses alongside the protagonists. Pierce noted Mazar revised it thrice prior to settling on tones that optimally captured the figures’ sentiments. Additionally, Pierce drew motivation from a volume bestowed by Frozen II’s co-helmer Chris Buck, called Permission to Mourn, which examines how bereavement can fracture someone and that grieving is essential for commemorating the departed.
Malcon Pierce had earlier collaborated on Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Moana.
“In many instances, when considering figures facing such ruin in their existence, there’s a notion that you recover from it, and upon recovery, you’re mended,” he stated. “What I’ve discovered is that sorrow, those phases, offer a method to engage with sorrow and maintain the lost ones far nearer.” The brief movie originated from the demise of Pierce and his spouse’s young child, Cooper.
For an extended period, the artist evaded entering Cooper’s nursery to dodge confronting the agonizing sentiments of his absence. Upon finally doing so, it “fractured him,” yet it also bestowed resilience and aided in rekindling ties with his partner. The movie integrates the Japanese craft of Kintsugi, where fissures in ceramics are mended with gold, representing restoration. Pierce labeled his deceased child as his “North Star,” for both the endeavor and his existence.