In a recent episode of the It’s Giving podcast with host Sarah Fontenot, hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg was exposed for having a “gay panic” about Pixar’s family-friendly 2022 film Lightyear. In the interview last week, the veteran rapper admitted that he was surprised by the animated movie’s inclusion of a same-sex couple. Recounting how he took his grandson to the cinema to watch the film, the MC noted that he “did not come in for this s—” and was taken aback when his grandson asked, “Papa Snoop, how she has a baby with a woman? She is a woman.”

Lightyear is a spinoff film in the popular Toy Story franchise, and one that became immediately controversial after it was revealed to include one of the lead characters in a same-sex relationship with another woman. They are even shown having a quick kiss during the movie. After a brief back-and-forth, Disney removed the scene from the film in response to conservative criticism. Later, the decision to omit the LGBTQ+ moment was reversed after it drew criticism from Pixar employees and a group of LGBTQ+ activists who claimed the company was not being diverse enough.

On the podcast, Snoop recounted how, during the film, he had no ready response for his grandson when he asked him a question about the relationship between the two women. “They just said she had a baby. They are both women. How does she have a baby? S—. The movie ain’t over with,” Snoop recalled. “I’m scared to go to the movies. Like y’all throwing me in the middle of s— that I don’t have an answer for.”

He also said that he was simply unprepared for a same-sex relationship when he watched the film and that it “woke me up” out of his “deep sleep.” “It threw me for a loop,” he continued. “These are kids that we have to show that at this age, like, they’re going to ask questions. They are going to ask. I don’t have an answer. And I was just there to go to sleep and watch the movie. That s— woke me up.”

Reaction

A major question that has been raised online is the fact that Snoop Dogg is scheduled to perform at the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final in November this year. After the homophobic comments he made about Lightyear were brought to attention, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan spoke out in the rapper’s defense, with the league opting to keep Snoop as a headline act for the event. The AFL has also not issued any statement suggesting that they were reconsidering the decision to book the rapper to perform at the event.

In the past, Lightyear has been criticized by conservatives after it was first released in June 2022. One of the most famous pieces of backlash came in the form of an interview with Chris Evans, the actor who voices Buzz Lightyear in the film. In the interview with Reuters Television, Evans accused conservatives who disapproved of LGBTQ+ moments in children’s films of being “idiots” who are “afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before.”

Lightyear was an attempt to show how Buzz Lightyear, the space-age hero from the fictional world of Toy Story, “inspired the popular toy Buzz Lightyear and became a household name and childhood hero across the galaxy.” When the film was released, it received a tepid response from critics who were disappointed in what it had to offer despite being attached to the Toy Story name. At the box office, the film only grossed over $226 million worldwide, a comedown for the much-hyped Pixar franchise.