'This collection of short films streaming on Disney+ shows promise, if the studio can follow through on its support.'
about racist stereotypes in old films from its streaming library, including “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan.” Efforts for inclusivity only really ramped up in the last few years, and even so, they have not been without missteps — the live-action “Beauty and the Beast,”hyped up Josh Gad’s Le Fou as Disney’s first gay character, only to make his queerness insultingly ambiguous and brief.
And so arrives “Launchpad,” a collection of short films that may be part of Disney’s efforts to right some of its previous wrongs. The “Launchpad” finalists — chosen from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants — were given a budget and equipment, and were paired with mentors from various Disney divisions.
Two of the shorts are Chinese American. “Dinner Is Served,” directed by Hao Zheng, follows a young man navigating the very white and upper-class world of being a maître d’ at his boarding school — he stands out in that world, and alienates his Chinese friends during tryouts. Zheng surprises by eschewing the standard Disney story line of an underdog’s saccharine victory and instead exposes that some wins are just for optics.
Then there are two Mexican American shorts. “The Last of the Chupacabras,” by Jessica Mendez Siqueiros, is an endearing depiction of modern Mexican folklore. Living in a fictional town where anything that strays from the white American norm is shocking, an old woman summons an ancient creature called a chupacabra. What results is far more adorable than terrifying.
But the real standout is “Growing Fangs,” another Mexican American tale. Like “Chupacabras,” it has supernatural elements, but Ann Marie Pace, who wrote and directed, illustrates the identity crisis of a Mexican American through a comedy about a teen girl who struggles to balance her human side with her vampire side. Val transfers from a normal public school to a monster school, where she tries to fit in and keep her human side hidden.
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