Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading in Animated Films.
- Bolt has the titular character and Mittens. Between some of their conversations, the way they are written together versus with other characters, and their body language around one another, it draws a fine line between a close sibling-like relationship and Interspecies Romance.
- Periwinkle and Tinkerbell from Disney Fairies are drawn to each other and instantly connect after meeting. They're compared to a pair of Star-Crossed Lovers and their film revolves around them trying to be together despite the dangers and barriers... They're also long-lost twin sisters.
- Finding Nemo: Word of God is that Dory was supposed to be a child substitute for Marlin, but her emotional speech to Marlin, "When I look at you... I'm home" and her seeing Nemo off to school by Marlin's side in the ending scene almost as if she had become the new "mom" to Marlin's "dad" role made many fans think that she was meant to be Marlin's Implied Love Interest playing up the "quirky woman, serious man" trope. It's hard to find fanworks (especially Moe Personification art) that depicts them as platonic. Finding Dory makes it a bit clearer that they're platonic; however, some still mistake Dory being Marlin's "family" to meaning that she is his mate.
- In Frozen Anna is interested in both Hans and Kristoff, with varied conclusions, but both fall into Strangled by the Red String in different ways (although in Hans's case this was intentional) and Anna ultimately has way more romantic subtext with her sister Elsa than either of them. The coronation scene where Anna tries to compliment Elsa comes off more as flirty than sisterly, as does her reaction to Elsa's new appearance when they reunite. It doesn't hurt that the Act of True Love that saves the day is between the two of them. In context, it's sisterly love between Anna and Elsa, but since Disney has spent almost a century showing True Love as romance and only romance, since Elsa's narrative arc of finding her identity and learning to accept herself has such a heavy Rainbow Lens that 'Let It Go' became an instant LGBT anthem, and since her sister is both the only female character she spends much time interacting with and the person she has the closest and most important relationship with, it can come across as quite a mixed message for some. At the very least, the massive amount of fan-works featuring the pairing suggests that there was enough unintentional romantic chemistry there to spark a lot of imaginations.
- In Justice Society: World War II, cowriter Meghan Fitzmartin admitted that she had intended for the relationship between Black Canary and Hawkman to be Like Brother and Sister. However after she and the others involved in making the film watched it, they realised there was romantic undertones which viewers also noticed. While nothing truly romantic happens in the film, in the special features where they discuss it both Fitzmartin and the director agree that it adds more tragedy for when Hawkman dies and that Canary has stronger feelings for him than he does for her.
- The Golden Films movie Miracle in Toyland contains some heavy subtext between the protagonist and his cousin. Gabriella is treated more like you'd expect an Implied Love Interest childhood friend to be in cartoons. Jessie and Gabriella are both very touchy around each other as well.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls did establish a canon love interest for Twilight Sparkle in Flash Sentry. The sequel however has Flash Demoted to Extra and, apart from a couple of Ship Tease moments, Twilight shares far more scenes with Sunset Shimmer. The film climaxes with the two of them sharing a duet in the final music number—and they're shown writing to each other at the end. This is already after the colossal ton of subtext between them in the first film. If that wasn't enough, in the final post-Rainbow Rocks short 'Friendship Through the Ages', Twilight plays a piano with Sunset sitting on it. The latter then extends her hand to dance, but instead, Twilight gently strokes Sunset's arm. There's also classical music playing in the back, which gives this a romantic undertone. In a deleted scene of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, Sunset is pouring out her emotions to Twilight about keeping the magic under control when she hasn't done so with the other five and is in despair. What does Twilight do? She places her hands on Sunset's while smiling at her and telling her she is free to come to Equestria whenever she feels like it. And, in the actual movie, Sunset is constantly thinking about Twilight, as if one's partner wasn't responding to calls.
- The Human Twilight and Sunset aren't free from this either. Among other things, in the climax Daydream Shimmer manages to snap Midnight Sparkle out of her evil stage by talking her down and taking her hand.. A much sharper contrast to stop foes then what we've seen before. And in the Forgotten Friendship special, just as Sunset has her memories of all her friends erased she looks longingly at Twilight and says "don't forget me".
- My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) has the Mane Six making friends with various other creatures throughout the journey. But none are slashier than Pinkie Pie and Princess Skystar. They're clearly intended to be Birds of a Feather in a platonic way but their song together "One Small Thing" evolves into the two of them dancing together. Skystar also has a solo where she sings softly to Pinkie, while clutching her finds. Had one of the characters been male, it would easily be interpreted as a love song.
- Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure While they were siblings in the original book series, which started in 1918, the 1941 cartoon retconned them into lovers for the first time. Every subsequent adaptation tends to be ambiguous about it; the 1977 feature film has their duet, 'Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers', comes off as heavily romantic, with Andy stroking her hand, hugging her from behind, and a weird segment where he's hidden under her apron(!).
- A lot of Toy Story fans mistook Woody and Jessie for having Ship Tease in the second film. They're so similar, they have an ambiguous relationship, and they develop a close friendship over the course of the film. They also belong to the same toy line, implying they're Love Interests in the in-universe franchise. Ken and Barbie, when they first meet, are shown to be immediately drawn to each other in an almost "instinctual" way because of being Love Interests in their franchise, so some fans assumed Woody and Jessie would be the same, but Toy Story 3 utterly killed the concept by having Jessie return Buzz's affections.
- In Turning Red, Mei and Miriam are written as just very close female friends but Miriam is frequently interpreted by the fandom to be bisexual or a closeted lesbian, due to her interactions with Mei coming off as being romantic. Her butch-like appearance only adds to this. In fact, on Archive of Our Own they are the most common ship within Turning Red fanfics.
- Wish (2023) writes Dahlia and Asha as very close friends that share just about everything together, with Asha often relying on Dahlia for advice and encouragement. On her end, Dahlia hates to see Asha upset and is the first to risk everything to help Asha retrieve the wishes, helping her sneak into the castle and personally distracting King Magnifico herself. Merchandise like a nightgown with the two of them staring at each other and a doll pack of the two of them only fanned the romantic reading.
