Disney Plus quietly pulled “Dumbo,” “Peter Pan,” “The Aristocats” and “Swiss Family Robinson” from kids’ profile accounts and added warning labels for adults.
The move by the streaming site for the Disney classic films was first noted by the Daily Mail on Tuesday. The Daily Caller has since confirmed the four films can not be accessed with children’s profiles, and when one watches the movie on an adult account, a warning message appears before it starts. (RELATED: Disney Releases New Clip Of ‘WandaVision’ With A Reference To ‘The Avengers’)
Disney + goes full-woke by stopping kids watch classics including Dumbo, Peter Pan and Aristocrats https://t.co/yfV57audVh
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 9, 2021
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,” the message read, shared on the Disney’s Stories Matter website. “These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.” (RELATED: Ted Cruz: ‘Of Course Disney Cancelled’ Gina Carano)
“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,” the statement added. “Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe. The website goes into greater detail on why warning labels were placed on each film.
In “The Aristocats,” one of the cats “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”
The message went on to explain the “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.'”
In the case of Dumbo, the company said the “crows and musical number pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved Africans on Southern plantations.”
“The leader of the group in Dumbo is Jim Crow, which shares the name of laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States,” the statement added.
The entire statement can be read here.