Australia seems to be divided into two categories – those who believe in strict political correctness and those who think the ‘PC police’ have gone too far. The latter category is sure to be outraged by the news that Disney+ has removed Dumbo, Peter Pan and The Aristocats from their kids collections due to what Disney describes as negative depictions of other cultures.
During a sweep of their offerings, Disney+ made the move to limit some of their older movies, like the above mentioned, as they include outdated representations of minority cultures. These movies will not be able to be viewed on Disney+ kids profiles.
Previous to this move, late last year Disney+ added un-skippable disclaimers to older titles that they deemed culturally insensitive.
The disclaimer reads: ”This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.”
If you’re stumped on what exactly is problematic and culturally inappropriate about each of the above titles, we’ve broken it down below for you below.
Peter Pan
If you know anything about Peter Pan, you’ll surely know he experiences his adventures in Never Never Land, a mythical island where he interacts with fairies, pirates, mermaids and Native Americans (otherwise known as the outdated and offensive term of Indians in the movie).
In the movie, the cartoon westerners wear Indian head dresses which Disney calls “a form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples’ culture and imagery.”
Before removing the title, the streaming services featured a message at the beginning of the movie detailing that it portrays native people ”in a stereotypical manner that reflects neither the diversity of Native peoples nor their authentic cultural traditions,” and highlighted the film’s repeated use of the term “redskins.”
Dumbo
While at first glance – or on hazy reflection – you may think Dumbo is simply a feel good flick about a flying elephant, there is racism buried throughout the sixty minute movie.
Focus on the lyrics of the famous song, ‘Song of the Roustabouts’ which features in the movie and you’ll find an extremely disturbing message. The song depicts black faceless characters working furiously to offensive lyrics such as “We work all day, we work all night, We never learned to read or write” and “When other folks have gone to bed, We slave until we’re almost dead”.
One of the characters even shares his name with Jim Crow, a name of laws in America that enforced racial segregation in the US.
Aristocats
While Aristocats isn’t quite as shockingly outrageous as the aforementioned, it does project racist connotations. Remember the cat “Shun Gon”? If not, there’s a picture above to jog your memory.
The cat is an extreme stereotype of East Asian people and Disney notes that the character “sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks.”
Disney’s Stories Matter team broached the subject of why the character of Shun Gon is racist.
“The cat is depicted as a racist caricature of East Asian peoples with exaggerated stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth. He sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks. This portrayal reinforces the ‘perpetual foreigner’ stereotype, while the film also features lyrics that mock the Chinese language and culture such as ‘Shanghai, Hong Kong, Egg Foo Young. Fortune cookie always wrong.'”
