Disney Plus Places Content Warning on Aladdin Claiming It's Not Edited, But It Is
UPDATE: Disney has updated their content warning on Disney+ to an unskippable, 10-second message in front of controversial movies or shorts.
"This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures," the statement reads. "These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. 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 is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe. To learn more about how stories have impacted society visit: www.Disney.com/StoriesMatter."
Although Disney posted this message in front of the original Aladdin, the version on Disney+ has still removed the "cut off your ear" line from the opening song and Aladdin's mumbling on the balcony. Aladdin never had a content warning until now, but the edited version has always been on Disney+.
Disney's policy here is also sketchy considering the sheer amount of content still edited on Disney+. Santa's Workshop, Three Little Pigs, Clock Cleaners, Fantasia, The Rescuers, Toy Story 2, and a lot more programs are still edited for controversial content.
On a different note, Disney has actually restored Saludos Amigos on Disney+. The original movie contains a scene of Goofy smoking a cigarette that was previously edited on Disney+. The full cigarette scene is now there at the 24:00 mark for anybody who is curious. Disney also removed the "This program is presented as originally created" description from Saludos Amigos, which is funny because now the movie is actually presented as originally created.
The original story from November 2019 detailing the original Disney+ content warning is below.
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ORIGINAL STORY: Disney Plus is officially out in the wild now, and while it features a ton of new movies and shows like The Mandalorian, a Lady and the Tramp remake, and Jeff Goldblum, users are noticing that some older content is coming with an “outdated cultural depictions” warning.
First noticed by Twitter user @324_B21, and reported by Mashable, films like the original 1941 Dumbo, The Aristocats, Jungle Book, the 1955 animated Lady and the Tramp all feature the same “outdated culturual depictions” warning.
The warning understandably stems from some of the racial stereotypes Disney has employed in certain characters and scenes in its earlier films. Dumbo has been criticized in the past for depicting a group of wise-cracking crows using African-American stereotypes of the time. With a white actor voicing the crow, some, like the Washington Post, have called it the vocal equivalent of blackface. The original Lady and the Tramp film infamously depicts a pair of Siamese cats taunting Lady via a song, using exaggerated Asian accents and deliberately butchered English. The cats also feature large buck teeth, a common Asian stereotype from that era. Notably, the 2019 live-action remake turned the cats into a pair named Devon and Rex, voiced by two black musicians. IGN’s Jim Vejvoda noted that while the remake was enjoyable enough, its more colorblind use of the same time period left some problematic elements on the table, which you can read about in our review. The Aristocats featured a similarly negative Asian stereotype with a scene featuring a Siamese cat. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/12/disney-suffers-day-1-technical-problems"]
Similarly, The Jungle Book has been criticized for employing some African/African-American racial stereotypes to depict a group of monkeys, even going so far as to have another character call them “mangy” and “flea-picking,” among other problematic elements.
Some other Disney films, like Fantasia, Aladdin, and Peter Pan, have been criticized as well, but notably, Disney’s Song of the South remains absent from the service. Of all Disney films, Song of the South has been perhaps criticized the most thanks to its depiction of African slaves.
Warner Bros. featured a similar warning regarding some of its older cartoons, such as Tom & Jerry, which appeared on Amazon, according to CinemaBlend. Here’s a version of that warning, which is notably more in-depth than the one-sentence warning that Disney has implemented.
If you’re looking for more things to binge, check out all the movies and shows on or coming soon to Disney Plus. You can also check out our reviews of High School Musical: The Series, Marvel’s Hero Project, or the Imagineering Story. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.No plug forthcoming. Let’s be clear, Disney did harm. A lot. The only question is how to best address this. If the consensus from those directly harmed is that we need stronger wording you will receive no argument from me. Many have referenced the WB. Here is that wording. pic.twitter.com/X9aGjXv97o
— Evan (@324_B21) November 12, 2019
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