No transgender characters or themes feature in the film. The story explores grief and connection through its central human and animal figures without addressing transsexual identity.

The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.

The film adaptation preserves the original genders of all key characters from Shelby Van Pelt's novel, including Tova Sullivan as female and Cameron Cassmore as male, resulting in no gender swaps.

The film's casting aligns with the novel's character backgrounds, including the Jamaican Terry played by Black actor Donald Sales and Asian-surnamed Janice Kim by Joan Chen, without any identified race swaps.