Netflix’s 'Wendell & Wild' and 'Dead End: Paranormal Park' are prime examples of creators using animation to reclaim horror for queer and trans people
tells the tale of the two titular demons—voiced by Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele, respectively—as they scheme to escape the underworld., takes place in a haunted amusement park, where teenagers and a talking pug work together to fight demons. Both the movie and the TV show exist on a different branch of the horror family tree than slasher flicks and supernatural thrillers—a more comedic one, aimed at younger viewers.
Nowadays, though, the assistant editor sees film, and especially animation, making massive strides toward more positive portrayals, stripped of shame. Ligatich herself turned to animated shows and graphic novels like“Animation—and by extension content and storytelling in general—are really great mediums to visually convey very hard-to-verbalize things,” Ligatich says.
“I really enjoyed doing it because I knew that if it was my voice, the focus wasn’t going to be, ‘Oh, what did Barney sound like?’” says Barack, who also appeared inBarney, the everyman of the show,a weirdo—but so is every other character. Paranormal Park is haunted—full of demons, zombies, ghosts, and teenage crushes—but it’s also a safe haven for Barney. His mom and dad ostensibly “accept” his transition, but they let his grandma misgender him at family dinner.