Disney+ is flagging movies and TV shows that include racist content, warning audiences they "may contain outdated cultural depictions". This isn't the first time the issue of racist and other insensitive material has come up with respect to the streaming service's library. Earlier this year, it was reported that Disney+ won't be housing the Mouse House's Oscar-winning 1946 feature Song of the South, which is infamous for its chipper depictions of plantation life in the U.S. South shortly after the Civil War.
The Disney+ subscription service went live on Tuesday, November 12, and will house most of Disney's streaming content moving forward (save for their R-rated films and MA series, which will stream on Hulu instead). In addition to new and exclusive content, the streamer will also make the vast majority of the studio's back catalogue available for viewing. Of course, as those familiar with Disney's history are well aware, that will include several movies and TV shows featuring racist, sexist, and/or other forms of stereotyping.
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Taking to Twitter, TheWeek cultural critic Jeva Lange noted that Disney+ has flagged a number of films that contain racist depictions in particular. In these cases, the movie's description comes along with a disclaimer reading "This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions". Among the titles flagged so far are the live-action comedy The Ugly Dachshund, Fantasia, and the original animated versions of Lady and the Tramp and Dumbo. You can check out her tweet, below.
While some people are applauding Disney for this move, others feel the studio is skirting the real issue by referring to racist content as "outdated". By comparison, Warner Bros. has long been praised for including a disclaimer on the home release of their old cartoon shorts that says they "may depict some of the ethnic and racist prejudices" common at the time of their production, before adding "These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today". Where the latter creates a space for exploring and interrogating WB's history, critics argue, the former allows Disney to avoid having to directly confront the unflattering side of their legacy by blaming it on "outdated" cultural standards, instead.
In the past, Disney has come under fire for trying to rewrite its own history by either removing offensive material from its re-releases (like when they pulled a sexual misconduct joke from Toy Story 2's 4K Blu-ray) or pretending it doesn't exist at all, as the studio has essentially done with Song of the South. So, in that sense, acknowledging the racist content in their Disney+ movies is a step up from simply trying to sweep it under the rug. At the same time, the warning isn't being used uniformly across the board so far, and is mostly being applied to older Disney films that are already infamous for their racist depictions (like the animated Peter Pan), as opposed to the more recent releases that many cultural critics feel it should also apply to (such as the animated Aladdin, which has long been criticized for containing Orientalist stereotypes).
We will bring you additional details on this subject as Disney+ continues its roll-out over the months ahead.
Source: Jeva Lange/Twitter