The Disney company knows that in order to judge you it must first judge itself, so it is doing the latter most harshly, placing actual content warnings on several of its classic animated films.
The cartoon movies, including Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, The Swiss Family Robinson and The Jungle Book, were made in an era when races could poke fun at one another without going into an agony of guilt and blame.
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,” a stern warning message says to modern-day viewers of the offensive old movies on the Disney+ streaming service, according to DailyMail.com.
“These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now,” the fabulously wealthy corporation’s warning continues. “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 warns darkly of the racism and stereotypes that permeate certain scenes from the movies, including a scene in Peter Pan when Peter and The Lost Boys dance in Native American garb, which the company now calls “mockery and appropriation of Native peoples’ culture and imagery.”
In 1970’s The Aristocats, Disney warns, one of the cats “sings in a poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks.”
Lady and the Tramp was deemed potentially offensive due to perceived stereotyping of Asians via Siamese cats and ethnically diverse names and accents in a dog pound.
In June, Disney announced it will completely overhaul the popular amusement park ride Splash Mountain after social media users condemned it as racist for its connections to the movie Song of the South.
