A new Canadian show on Disney+ and aimed for small children is taking on the issue of gay parenting. The only problem: it’s unintentionally offending all sides!
I’ve received word from a lot of parents about the rising popularity of Dino Ranch among the pre-school crowd. Dino Ranch is a pre-school show produced by the CBC in Canada and distributed by Disney (and therefore Disney+) in the United States. The show is acquired content, but the premier dates on both networks are so close together (literally days apart) that it’s possible Disney had some involvement in production.
The animated series stars are a multi-racial adopted family in some kind of pre-historic environment with some amount of modern technology present. The show has a lot of the same, admirable moral lessons that people would expect from pre-school content.
There is one episode in particular that has caused some parents to raise eyebrows. The episode “Adoptasaurus Rex” features a pair of male dinosaurs that are seen lurking around nests, attempting to take dinosaur eggs from other dinosaur families. Even if you support LGBT adoption, portraying two gay dads as lurking around trying to steal eggs from other dinosaurs might be considered “problematic.”
The trio of heroes investigate and determine that the dinosaurs are two dads and they make it their mission to help the two gay dinosaur dads obtain an egg.
Quotes from the episode include “These dino daddies want eggs of their own. They want a family,” and “Aww, they’d be great dads.” The three child-aged heroes then spend the episode talking about how great it would be to get them an egg as they fulfill their mission to get them one. The episode resolves when the ranchers find them a completely abandoned egg.
For parents that would like to review the content, Adoptasaurs Rex is part of Season 1 Episode 24 of Dino Ranch on Disney+ and is available in the Kids Only section.
The show isn’t new in terms of its debut — but it is relatively new for Disney+. The controversy, and culture war battle surrounding the show, is unfortunately just something that is coming along for the ride as it joins other children’s content on Disney+ that might seem controversial to some families. Some have found a recent Muppet Babies episode in which Gonzo cross-dresses to be problematic… others have taken issue with some of the messaging out of a show called The Proud Family. Still, some families not only rejoice at culture war issues being played out on Disney+ from one side, they celebrate it.
https://twitter.com/MagDaVeloRaptr/status/1530742421738471425
Whatever you might think about the portrayal of two dinosaur dads trying to steal children, as well as what it unintentionally portrays about gay men to small children, it’s probably best to keep a watchful eye over your kids’ content. That has always been the job of parents and it seems it will only be more and more important as time goes on… no matter what side of the aisle you fall into.
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