Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press Posted on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:58 AM EDT Last Updated on Monday, June 13, 2022 10:02 AM EDT
DUBAI, UAE – The United Arab Emirates banned on Monday that Pixar’s upcoming animated film “Lightyear” be screened in theaters amid rumors that the film includes a kiss between two female characters.
The UAE’s decision comes when Malaysia also bans the film, raising the possibility that other Muslim-majority nations may follow the same in one of Disney’s biggest animated films of the year as the film industry is emerging from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Emirates, based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, announced through its Media Regulatory Office of the country’s Ministry of Youth and Culture that the film would not be released in the country on Thursday.
The film “does not have a license for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country’s media content standards,” the office said in a tweet. “The office confirms that all films screened in cinemas across the country are subject to monitoring and evaluation before the public screening date, to ensure the safety of content broadcast according to the appropriate age rating.”
The office did not delve into the tweet and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. The tweet included a picture of the movie poster, with the profile picture of its main character, Buzz Lightyear, with a “no” symbol on it in red.
The cinemas of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhs from the Arabian Peninsula, had already announced the film’s opening hours. But over the weekend, a campaign on social media with the Arabic label “Ban Show Lightyear in the Emirates” caught the attention of Emirati conservatives. They described showing a lesbian couple on screen as one against their culture and religion.
The film, with actor Chris Evans inspiring the Buzz Lightyear action figure from the “Toy Story” movies, features a character with the voice of actress Uzo Aduba kissing another woman with who is in a relationship.
The United Arab Emirates, many other Middle Eastern countries, is a Muslim-led nation that criminalizes same-sex relationships. The US State Department warns that Islamic law, or Sharia law, in the UAE may include the death penalty for homosexual conduct, while Dubai may impose a 10-year prison sentence and Abu Dhabi allows up to 14 years. .
However, these processes are rarely reported and LGBTQ people live in the city-state of Dubai, full of skyscrapers, home of the long-haul transport company Emirates.
The $ 200 million “Lightyear” is expected to be a big draw for Disney, and analysts estimate it could raise more than $ 100 million on its first weekend.
In the past, studies have allowed censors to cut movies to the global distribution of content, including in the Middle East market. Disney has recently faced protests from activists and its own staff for what they described as the slow response of CEO Bob Chapek to publicly criticize Florida law that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay “.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill in late March, banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
The film may also be banned in Malaysia. The Star, the country’s leading English-language newspaper, quoted an anonymous, non-governmental source as saying that Lightyear would not be screened in Malaysian cinemas. No reasons were given. A newspaper from the island kingdom of the Persian Gulf of Bahrain has speculated in the same way that the film would not be screened there.
Officials from the Malaysian Film Censorship Board and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as The Walt Disney Co., could not be reached immediately.
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Associated Press writers Malak Harb in Dubai and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.