As a huge Disney fan, I was seated in theaters for Toy Story 5 the first weekend it came out.
Of course, I loved seeing Woody back with the gang as they work hard (and play hard) to make sure Bonnie has a childhood filled with fun, creativity, and adventure. But, as Disney movies tend to do, a brand new character in the franchise made me smile and I'm so excited that she's a fresh face for young girls watching the movie.
In Toy Story 5, we meet Blaze Manoukian, an eight-year-old girl who lives in the countryside with her parents on a farm full of animals. She is a certified horse girl, running around in cute cowboy boots and caring for animals. Her pig in particular, is a 10 out of 10.
The new girl of Toy Story 5 is Black and Armenian, and is the first half-Black, half-Armenian Disney character. As a mixed-race person who grew up on Disney — and who clung to Princess Jasmine growing up because she looked the most like me — I immediately noticed and loved the representation.
Aside from Blaze's sweet-natured personality (she cares for Bonnie and wants to make sure that she's feeling okay when she has trouble making friends), and her love for adventure, her curls completely caught my attention in the most familiar way. Those curls are the closest to mine I've even seen in animation!
Blaze has textured, defined coils. And that's because Pixar used a brand new technology to define her textured hair. Blaze's hair has so much dimension that her curls literally bounce along with her energetic movements onscreen.
"We have a character named Blaze with beautiful, long, tight, curly hair, which is something we have not been able to do before," a Pixar VXP supervisor Thomas Jordan told ABC. "And with very recent technological breakthroughs, we finally solved that."
And it's not just the great attention to detail that was given to Blaze's character that was truly special. Throughout the film, Black children featured in Toy Story 5 can be seen wearing satin bonnets as their parents read them bedtime stories. I personally think there's nothing sweeter than a child nestled up in a bonnet for bedtime.
We even see Blaze waking up with her bonnet half off her head, which is so common, and a fun little nod to people who wear bonnets overnight to protect their curly hair. Keeping it on for the entire night is half the battle!
However, there are people who are furious about Pixar's new hair technology and, oddly, Blaze in general. On Instagram in particular, people are commenting that the new technology is just a "DEI" move. (How an acronym that literally means diversity, equality, and inclusion became a bad thing I will never understand, but here we are).
In a particularly vicious comment, a user predicted that Blaze would steal Bonnie's toys:
The comments are shocking and jarring, especially for anyone who's seen the film, or even slightly cares about children:
I'm still literally disappointed (but not surprised) that anyone would have something negative to say about an animated child character in a Disney movie. It might be time to touch some grass.
Thankfully, for every hateful comment, there are tons more positive ones that are defending both Blaze and Pixar's innovation:
And most importantly, the representation resonated where it matters most:
There's so much to love about Blaze, and her hair is just one small part of what makes her a great figure for kids. Hopefully children will walk away with a better understanding of all she stands for, which is the most important thing.
Comments