Or do you just let her enjoy the movie for what it is and not nit pick every little thing in it and make everything into a lesson in morality? Personally, we just watched and enjoyed the movies when they were that age. We deconstruct them now, becuase at 14 that is fun 
but it truly never occurred to me to think that my DD would grow up to marry the fist handsome guy she saw at 16 if I let her watch Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and the Little Mermaid as a preschooler. I don't see how this issue is all that more "dangerous" (to those who do feel being queer is dangerous somehow--an attitude which I frankly cannot really understand to begin with) 
I would wager that the VAST majority of us poster, no matter what religion we are, no matter how we feel about homosexuality, etc can agree that we do not want our daughters getting married at 16. Even more so, we do not want them to marry someone they hardly know but fell in love with at first sight at 16. Yet that is pretty much what every Disney princess movie up to and including Ariel portrays.
Do you feel it necessary to "explain" this to your four year old?
So if I believe homosexual sex wrong, and is against my moral standards, and you think that is bigoted... by your own definition, you are bigoted against my religion.
You. Bigots.
On the topic of explaining seeing a gay character to a four year old (one where there is a couple portrayed somehow so it is obvious--like maybe one set of dancers in a ball scene is same sex, or maybe some day a princess and a princess but i think that is very far off):
I would wager that the VAST majority of us posters, no matter what religion we are, no matter how we feel about homosexuality, etc can agree that we do not want our daughters getting married at 16. Even more so, we do not want them to marry someone they hardly know but fell in love with at first sight at 16. Yet that is pretty much what every Disney princess movie up to and including Ariel portrays.
Do you feel it necessary to "explain" this to your four year old?
If you can let a child watch a 16 year old marry a virtual stranger without explaining, why can you not do the same if what they are seeing is a same sex couple dancing or holding hands or whatever?
Now! Talk about stereotypical!
Very well said! Why do people need to "explain"? If you see and a man and woman get married or holding hands, do you "explain" that to your kids?
I've always wondered about the "explain" thing myself-but then I don't have kids of my own, and my only real experience with them is with my goddaughter. With her, if she didn't ask questions, I didn't offer explanations. When she did ask, I tried to make the answers as simple and matter of fact as possible. We were in McDonald's one day when she was about 4 and a VERY pregnant lady waddled by and my Princess asked in her outside voice "How does the baby get out of there? I know there's a baby in there, how does it get out? Do they cut her open??" I went with the easy answer and said "Yes, they do cut her open, in fact, that's how you were born". She was satisfied with that answer and I was thankful that she was a C-Section baby.
Do kids really ask when they see 2 men or 2 women holding hands? I always wondered if they even notice in a place like Disney where there is so much else going on around that's more interesting.
And I agree-I would not have wanted my Princess to have married at 16 to a guy she knew for like, 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn't want her to ever expect a Prince to come in and rescue her from the difficulties in her life. I wanted her to figure out how to do that for herself and then meet a man who values her as the person she is-not for how he can feel like a big man by "saving" her. Luckily, like most kids, she enjoyed the Disney movies we watched non-stop for exactly what they were-fun stories with great music and animation. She didn't use them as blueprints for how to live her life.
(although he didn't call it that) We were out to lunch at the time with my best friend and her daughter...who was barely 4ish at the time. She understood the explanation as well. And the folks listening at the next table commended me for explaining in both an honest and straight forward way. 
I've always wondered about the "explain" thing myself-but then I don't have kids of my own, and my only real experience with them is with my goddaughter. With her, if she didn't ask questions, I didn't offer explanations. When she did ask, I tried to make the answers as simple and matter of fact as possible. We were in McDonald's one day when she was about 4 and a VERY pregnant lady waddled by and my Princess asked in her outside voice "How does the baby get out of there? I know there's a baby in there, how does it get out? Do they cut her open??" I went with the easy answer and said "Yes, they do cut her open, in fact, that's how you were born". She was satisfied with that answer and I was thankful that she was a C-Section baby.
Do kids really ask when they see 2 men or 2 women holding hands? I always wondered if they even notice in a place like Disney where there is so much else going on around that's more interesting.
And I agree-I would not have wanted my Princess to have married at 16 to a guy she knew for like, 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn't want her to ever expect a Prince to come in and rescue her from the difficulties in her life. I wanted her to figure out how to do that for herself and then meet a man who values her as the person she is-not for how he can feel like a big man by "saving" her. Luckily, like most kids, she enjoyed the Disney movies we watched non-stop for exactly what they were-fun stories with great music and animation. She didn't use them as blueprints for how to live her life.
). ).
I've always wondered about the "explain" thing myself-but then I don't have kids of my own, and my only real experience with them is with my goddaughter. With her, if she didn't ask questions, I didn't offer explanations. When she did ask, I tried to make the answers as simple and matter of fact as possible. We were in McDonald's one day when she was about 4 and a VERY pregnant lady waddled by and my Princess asked in her outside voice "How does the baby get out of there? I know there's a baby in there, how does it get out? Do they cut her open??" I went with the easy answer and said "Yes, they do cut her open, in fact, that's how you were born". She was satisfied with that answer and I was thankful that she was a C-Section baby.
Do kids really ask when they see 2 men or 2 women holding hands? I always wondered if they even notice in a place like Disney where there is so much else going on around that's more interesting. And I agree-I would not have wanted my Princess to have married at 16 to a guy she knew for like, 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn't want her to ever expect a Prince to come in and rescue her from the difficulties in her life. I wanted her to figure out how to do that for herself and then meet a man who values her as the person she is-not for how he can feel like a big man by "saving" her. Luckily, like most kids, she enjoyed the Disney movies we watched non-stop for exactly what they were-fun stories with great music and animation. She didn't use them as blueprints for how to live her life.
LOL. Mine never did and they were born and raised in the middle of Manhattan.
I'm a firm believer that kids take their cues from their parents. My kids growing up saw men holding hands with other men, men kissing other men (on the bus), women doing the same with women and the opposite gendars doing it all. they took their cues from me and whatever other adults was with them. Since we did not treat it as any big deal, they did not either.
When they finally asked what "gay" meant and we told them, they were actually a bit disappointed. LOL
She found the explanation of IVF a lot more befuddling than the explanation of same sex families. 
)
