Disney’s ‘Onward’ isn’t Frozen for boys – adults need to stop projecting gender norms onto kids

Despite what some money-hungry marketing teams tell us, children like what they like. They should be free to do so without having to succumb to societal biases, writes Matthew Jenkin

Why should we differentiate kids’ films based on gender – or toys for that matter? (Disney/Pixar)

There’s a long-held belief in Hollywood that there isn’t a market for female-led superhero movies. Why? Because it’s presumed only boys want to watch modern-day knights in spandex save the world. It’s claimed Marvel boss Kevin Feige almost quit over Disney’s reluctance to diversify the Avengers franchise. So when last year’s Captain Marvel, starring Oscar-winning Brie Larsson in the titular role, smashed box office records, the Mouse House sat up and listened.

The studio has now green-lit a raft of blockbusters featuring female and LGBT+ characters, kicking off with Scarlett Johansson’s first solo outing as Black Widow in May 2020. It’s fantastic news, of course. But attitudes won’t change just because of greater representation. It’s about educating audiences that these movies are for them after all. And that should start at a very young age.

The rub is, the monster under the bed that is marketing doesn’t like equality – it likes customers it can compartmentalise and sell to. It likes boys and girls, cars and unicorns, supermen and princesses. So powerful is this consumerist machine that when Disney Pixar’s latest animated adventure, Onward, was released on Friday, some reviewers instinctively labelled the tale of two elf brothers as Frozen, but for boys.