The Case for The Owl House
In this video, I argue that the best way for Disney to start being more representative of the LGBTQ+ community - and truly a reflection of the world outside our window - is to bring back The Owl House, one of only one-and-a-half-ish?... You can count The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder if you want, but compared to The Owl House it's as straight as, like, any other Disney show... Only one-and-a-half-ish current proudly queer Disney shows, as well as the only one where the protagonist's own queerness is part of the story, and the only Disney show ever¹ with a protagonist who is queer, female, and of color, which was canceled because it "did not fit the Disney brand." Please take the time to watch the video, and if you agree with it, share it as far and wide as you can. They win by making you think you're alone... But you never are. (Seriously, in addition to being Disney's only proper queer show, and I say this as someone who identifies Marvel as my raison d'être, this is the best Disney show right now. It's Harry Potter but also Phineas and Ferb. Even if there wasn't the element of the show's censorship, I cannot recommend it highly enough, including to adults. Both seasons are on Disney+.)
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ReplyDeleteAs it stands now, the two greatest animated series of all time - and this is a verifiable historical fact - are Star Wars: The Clone Wars (7 seasons) and Star Wars Rebels (4 seasons). The first two seasons of The Owl House were significantly better than the first two seasons of Star Wars Rebels, and MUCH better than the first two seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Just ONE more season - let alone two to four - and I fully believe The Owl House could be the greatest animated series of all time.
ReplyDeleteIf you're still here, I assume you don't care about spoilers for the show, but, y'know, spoilers... Not until the year before their 100th anniversary - a FEW WEEKS AGO, as a matter of fact - did the company that first combined sound with animation have a same-sex kiss between main characters in an animated series... And it was a lame-duck series that was explicitly canceled for being too queer. The very least - no, not the very least. but the very FIRST - that Disney could do is bring the show back.
ReplyDeleteI paused halfway through Stranger Things 4, Vol. 1 to watch the The Owl House s2 finale, and I legitimately think it might be better.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely better. Allow me to bring back Agent Pander and say,
Delete"If I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
"And I'd get him to swap the two shows' places.
Be runnin' up that hill,
Be runnin' up that hill"
I wish I could say that sounded better in my head, but... It always sounded just as bad.
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ReplyDeleteFor a little context on how important The Owl House is, DC themselves published an article today that includes the line "Fortunately, things have progressed and today queerness is much better represented in animation, with shows like Steven Universe, The Owl House and DC’s own Young Justice leading the charge." Think of what a godsend Disney is giving their biggest competitor by getting rid of the show that they positively singled out for its representation, explicitly BECAUSE of its representation.
ReplyDeleteWhat more proof do you need that a show is good for business than your biggest competitor praising it?: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2022/06/30/maggie-sawyer-dcs-queer-trailblazer
DeleteFor some reason, that doesn't seem to have taken, hold on... https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2022/06/30/maggie-sawyer-dcs-queer-trailblazer
DeleteWell, it's not registering as a link, but you can copy-and-paste that URL to visit the link. It's jarring.
DeleteThere's some sort of lesson to be found in the fact that, while discussing one of the most violent animated series I've ever seen that is also a shining example of bisexual representation, I brought up Constantine, one of the top three most violent series I've ever seen, which is also an epic example of bi erasure. Let me know if you ever figure out what the lesson is.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a friend of mine, I explained the plug being pulled on The Owl House, and she replied "Because of DeSantis?" Think about that. To a completely objective observer, Disney is doing exactly what they claim to be opposing in Florida.
ReplyDeleteThe Owl House is the ONLY kids'(ish) show right now with a character who is presented as bi within the context of the show itself, as opposed to confirmed in an interview or tie-in comic or something.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's Young Justice, but that's an even higher maturity level than The Owl House.
DeleteTonally, not in terms of gore/violence
DeleteWikipedia recognizes it as a "Teen animated television series".
DeleteI mean, you COULD count Young Justice, in which case DC would have this and Disney wouldn't...
DeleteAaaaaaaaaaand now Young Justice is canceled.
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ReplyDeleteToday I went to a Pride event (WE ARE NO LONGER CONTAINED TO A SINGLE MONTH!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!), and this one person there was wearing a collection of various Pride flags, including a quote from the 2021 DC Comics Pride Month special, and coven logos from The Owl House.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, Daredevil: Born Again was revealed, and on the official Marvel website is a video of Justin Warner saying "We did it, friends!" The internet successfully came together to demand more of a good show, and Disney provided it, acknowledging the fan efforts. I'd trade it for The Owl House Season 4 in a heartbeat, but we don't have to. The internet needs to successfully come together like we did over the past three years.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when watching TV, I like to wonder, "What would I think of this show if I was just coming in the room and didn't know any of these characters?". I was just watching Harley Quinn (another queer animated series where two of the three seasons have 100% on RT), and I realized hat I would've known it was an adult animated series as soon as I heard Harls talking about her ex-girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, in the following episode, Frank the Plant delivered a metafictional description of the show that is also very fitting for The Owl House: "Look at how intricately woven this storytellin' [CENSORED] is, Peabody Award-winning [CENSORED] here."
DeleteAnother moment I thought I should share from History of the Sitcom, when someone from Will & Grace said they were constantly asking "How gay can you go?" And "it turned out... You couldn't go gay *enough*".
ReplyDeleteNick from *Heartstopper* is actually portrayed as a big MCU fan, so if Disney had more bisexual representation, he *definitely* wouldn't have gone through his whole painful questioning phase. It was painful to watch and entirely avoidable. Every young bi nerd who Googles "I like girls and now I like a guy??" is on Disney.
ReplyDeleteAlthough funnily enough, "on Disney" is a place where no one will ever see that.
DeleteHey, you remember when a coded minor character from *Gravity Falls* told his boyfriend, "If being delightful was a crime, you'd be breaking the law."? The horrible truth is, being delightful *is* a crime, and he *was* secretly breaking the law. This was also the same episode in which a guy married a bird. Disney started at the bottom of the slippery slope.
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ReplyDeleteNot that another reason was needed, because again, *The Owl House* has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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DeleteWell, the original post was a little wordy, but the gist of it is that people specifically like when kids' shows border on the edge of maturity and even horror. Good examples include the animated *Star Wars* series, *The Legend of Korra*, and *Gravity Falls*.
DeleteI remember - and I swear this is real, I might've mentioned it somewhere before - one day when people on Twitter were sharing their top 4 favorite bisexual characters, and Luz was on everyone's list, right up there with Korra and Constantine.
ReplyDeleteOf course, most of them overlooked characters whose bisexuality isn't a big part of their stories, like the Doctor and Star-Lord, who form my top three along with Luz.
DeleteBTW, I very much doubt that most of the people reading this knew the comics version of Star-Lord is bisexual. No one outside of nerd circles does.
DeleteOr the Doctor, come to think of it, so Luz is my favorite visibly bisexual character.
DeleteI was just recently wondering whether two male characters from a show I'm watching are into each other, and I couldn't remember if the show was in the Wikipedia category for queer shows, because it's really only noteworthy if it's a kids' or Disney show. Of course, only one show in history has ever been both.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm putting together a sort of supplement to this video that will explain the concept of bisexual erasure and list people and fictional characters that people think are straight or gay but are actually bi, and I just now happened to be watching *She-Ra and the Princesses of Power*, and I thought, "Oh, this is the queerest show in existence, I'll have to add like a bunch of characters from this to my list", and then I realized, "Not really, even shows like this mostly have characters of undefined non-straight identities, kids don't really learn about the second-largest sexuality group after straight people until they're, like... Carry the two, and then... Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow... Never."
ReplyDeleteStill working on this, BTW!
DeleteSince neurotypicals generally don't remember episode titles, I was thinking of how to describe "Enchanting Grom Fright" (it's "Fright", not "Fight", right? I swear I didn't mean that to rhyme, I'm sorry), and I thought about "the dance episode", but that didn't sound fun enough, so I thought "the famous dance episode", then I thought that sounds lame, so I thought "the infamous dance episode", but THAT didn't work, because EVERYONE LOVES THE QUEEREST EPISODE OF THE OWL HOUSE.
ReplyDeleteI just found the perfect analogy for Disney's statement about the Don't Say Gay Bill: An ad I came across on Hulu that said "Women have to overcome more obstacles to success", followed immediately by a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen reading "Please do not attempt". Now, it was talking about dancing on a moving escalator, but preaching a message of equality immediately followed by "Please do not attempt" was the most Disney thing since The Daily Show with Trevor Noah edited together an image of Mickey Mouse fighting Thanos.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Disney has been punished for taking a stance they're not even taking proves that, to quote a song that Sara Bareilles wrote after an unidentified friend came out as gay, "... Your history of silence
ReplyDeleteWon't do you any good
Did you think it would?"
(Which is a dumb question, I mean, *I* thought it would do them good to remain neutral when one side is actively attempting to make things even worse for the LGBTQ+ community. But the point still stands)
DeleteI'm not gonna use anyone's name but IMDb held an actual poll on favorite LGBTQIA+ shows, and someone wrote of TOH, "Well-written, emotional, lots of positive representation [... ], and overall high-quality TV. Sucks that Disney cut off its final season to only 3 specials. Was a comforting escape which showed my identity wasn't something to be ashamed of in the conservative area I live in." I don't know what more there is to say.
ReplyDeleteOh! "That's the whole ball game"! That's the phrase I was looking for!
DeleteRight now, "the owl house" is the highest-trending search term on Disney Wiki, not counting "2022" and "2023".
ReplyDeleteDC Pride 2022 was the second-most-read single issue on DC Universe Infinite this year. That's it. That's the whole reply.
ReplyDeleteTo quote some comment I once saw somewhere (I don't remember all the details), "If they make something people see themselves in, the money will make itself."
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics for Disney Channel's Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur's "Where You Come From" includes: "Just keep your light on, never hide your pride" ("Light" is English for "Luz"). The music video was apparently storyboarded to "Good to Be Bad" from Disney Channel's Descendants 3, since if you mute the video and start it at the same moment as the song, the song's beat perfectly matches the movements of the video, so I guess they wanted everyone to get their chance. They said that being from the Boiling Isles was bad, well, IT'S GOOD TO BE BAD! And The Owl House is proof of that.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, The Owl House's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than all non-documentary entries and all but one entry overall on the Disney+ homepage's "Critically Acclaimed" list is proof of that.
DeleteI loved the owl house and I absolutely agree with all of your points in this video.
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