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Many people have come to know Disney as the leaders of their childhood with memorable animation movies and adventurous stories. However, the company definitely has a stain in their past of racist content. They’re hoping to amend this by removing or editing certain movies for their upcoming streaming service Disney+.
According to CNBC, hundreds of television shows and movies from Disney’s canon will appear on the platform with some content being decades old. Anything with racist messaging, however, will be absent from the platform, one being the 1946 movie Song of the South. The half-animation, half live-action flick tells the story of Uncle Remus, a storyteller who shares the tale of a trickster rabbit, a villainous fox and a dim-witted bear to a young boy. Critics have described the movie’s portrayal of Black people as racist and offensive, perpetuating stereotypes and using “black vernacular.”
Song of the South was also slammed for seemingly glorifying the plantation system of the post-Civil War South. Because of this, Disney has refrained from releasing the flick on any home video format in the U.S.
Disney+ has also edited other movies with controversial scenes. For example, the Jim Crow character from the original Dumbo will be edited out of the movie version that appears on the streaming platform. The live-action Lady and the Tramp headed to Disney+ will also reinvent the “Siamese Cat Song” with the assistance of Janelle Monáe.
Along with removing racist content, Disney will also be editing a notorious blooper scene from Toy Story 2 in which the prospector character Stinky Pete is interrupted while offering two Barbie dolls a role in the next Toy Story movie. The scene was slammed as having sexual harassment messaging.
Disney+ is expected to launch on Tuesday, November 12.
