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Disney movies can be considered classics, but that doesn’t mean they’ve all aged well. Skillfully handling race issues, in particular, has never been one of Disney’s strengths, a fact the company is slowly but surely assuming. This week, the company has started releasing titles that include racist tropes from “Kids” profiles on Disney +.
Although Disney has not made any public announcements about the change, various outlets have noted that Disney + Kids profiles no longer show titles that previously included content warnings for racism. That’s quite a long list and it includes many movies that you will remember from your childhood: The jungle book, Aristocats, The Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, Peter PanY Swiss Robinson family, and probably others as well.
Disney added must-see warnings about racism before some of its movies last year. “This program includes negative representations and / or mistreatment of people or cultures,” read the warnings. “These stereotypes were wrong then and they are wrong now.” The message also includes a link to Disney’s Stories Matter microsite.
Those warnings are still presented in front of movies with racist stereotypes when they are accessed by adults, but children will no longer have the option.
More kid-friendly than ever Disney’s decision to remove these movies from Kids’ profiles is definitely the right move. While the company’s content warnings aren’t exactly hard to understand, they’re not kid-friendly either. A young child who wants to see Dumbo flap his floppy ears is not going to read that message and come out clearly about the situation.
This means that creating a profile for children gives a parent or guardian more control than ever over the type of content a child can consume on Disney +. Until now, the functionality of Kids profiles has basically only been able to depend on ratings – a Kids profile can only watch movies rated G or TV-7FV. Now, creating a Kids profile is one way to make sure you’re also removing racist stereotypes from your child’s viewing experience, and then when you want to show these movies to your kids, you can be prepared to discuss problematic content with they. .
Facing the inevitable is… working? – After many, many years of sweeping his checkered past under the rug, Disney finally decided to confront him. Last year, he launched the aforementioned Stories Matter site, dedicated to adding much-needed context to movies with content that could be harmful or simply out of step with contemporary mores.
For example, the site writes about Peter PanIt is an incredibly problematic description of indigenous peoples. “The film portrays natives in a stereotypical way that reflects neither the diversity of the native peoples nor their authentic cultural traditions,” the segment reads.
In particular, not all movies with a content warning have received an entry on the Stories Matter website. But then, addressing injustice is an ongoing project.
