Fact Check: Is Disney's Strap movie real? Viral poster on TikTok debunked

A TikTok video with the poster of a new film titled Strap is circulating online, prompting fans to believe that Disney and Pixar are teaming up for a new project. Featuring logos of the two studios, the poster depicts an African-American man with large dreadlocks and tattooed limbs, carrying a red backpack.

The video was uploaded to the social media platform on May 3, 2024, by a user named @davidruffinjr, who tagged Disney in the caption and wrote:

"... for real?"

The poster is, in fact, not for real. Neither Disney nor Pixar have announced any film called Strap in their plans and have not shared any poster regarding the same. The poster being circulated on TikTok is fake.

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Disney and Pixar are not releasing a movie titled Strap

A screenshot of the TikTok post (via Tiktok/@davidruffinjr)

Contrary to what the TikTok user is perpetuating, there is neither a movie nor a poster for Strap. The image being circulated seems to be AI-generated, as the tiny logo of Pixar at the very top of the poster seems to be distorted. Moreover, there is a bus and a taxi on the poster, with misshapen signs as well that are not legible. If the poster were real, the words would have been clear and easy to read.

Accompanied by the song A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey, the TikTok user also put up a text over the poster in parenthesis:

"Oh My Lord, Nooo."

The use of an African-American character with the title Strap, coupled with the text and caption, seems to hint at feigning outrage over a potentially racist caricature.

An AI-generated poster (Image via X/@PingasGaming)

In AAVE (African-American Vernacular English), "strap" refers to a gun or firearm, with the term being popularized in hip-hop culture by rappers such as 50 Cent. Phrases such as "get the strap" and "pull a strap" can be used to refer to the act of obtaining a gun and arming oneself, or to shoot at someone.

With the prevalence of crime and violence among Black Americans, a belief often perpetuated by racist ideology, the Strap poster with an African-American character may have been created to troll people or falsely create a sense of outrage among naive people.

This poster follows a trend of AI-generated posters of fake Disney/Pixar films that often reference pop culture or internet memes. Many examples of such fake posters include Two Girls One Cup, One Jar, and Imagine If Men, which are all inspired by Internet phenomena or real-life references.

Created using AI to copy the animation styles of Disney and Pixar, these posters were seemingly made out of fun to fool people. However, many naive people have taken offense to such posters, which has led to the disrepute of the animation studios. While Disney and Pixar have not publicly spoken about the numerous fake posters plaguing the internet in their names, Microsoft did take action to combat the issue.

Most of the fake posters were created using Microsoft Bing's AI image generator. Thus, in November 2023, Microsoft added an extra feature to its software. Any user creating images with the word "Disney" would be faced with a prompt saying:

"The search terms used to guide the AI — was against its policies.”

An AI-generated poster (Image via X/@TheFloofLady)

With the prevalence of such duplicitous posters, it is highly imperative to be cautious of any content being circulated online, as it may not be real.