“Peter Pan”, “Dumbo” and “The Aristocats”: Disney censors its milestones

The first to be purged was a couple of cats. There Disney, in 2019 struggling with the live-action of Lady and the Tramp, then decided to erase the Siamese evil from history and from the film. “Racial discrimination against Asians,” explained the giant, who months later felt the urge to heal other (and alleged) errors of the past.

Disney, repeatedly accused of having idealized a part of reality in order to play on commonplaces associated with others, wanted to block the vision of some of its most iconic films. Peter Pan, Dumbo, The Aristocats. The titles, deleted from the Disney + section dedicated to children, have been reworked in such a way that, while available in the adult section, they can alert viewers to the dangers inherent in the plot. “This program includes negative representations and / or denigrates people and cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and still are. Rather than removing this content, we want to recognize its harmful impact, learn from it and stimulate debate to create a more inclusive future together “, now reads the warning that precedes the opening credits of the films, reassessed in the light of today’s morality. . A false morality, in the name of which Hollywood has given itself to historical revisionism.

The Aristocats, according to Disney, they would have seriously offended Asians by offering an unsightly caricature of Shun Gon, the Siamese with drooping teeth, almond eyes and chopsticks. Peter Pan he would betray the Native Americans, calling Tiger Lily and his tribe “red indians”. Dumbo he would laugh at the African-American slaves, and the crows, in their chirping, would have made a noise. “And when we get paid, we throw away all our money,” sang the winged friends of the elephant, demonized by the politically correct to the point of having been taken as a harmful example for the little ones.

Disney, with its head smeared with ashes, then apologized for its milestones, explaining how they conveyed “harmful stereotypes.” The same, found in Robinson on the Island of the Corsairs, a 1960 film which had the same unfortunate fate as the cartoons mentioned above. The film, deemed unsuitable for the present time, has been removed from the section dedicated to younger viewers, without anyone, however, wondering what effect could arise from the blind and frenzied denial of the past. Mistakes, if you want to define them that way, made in previous years should have a critical, educational function. Being on display, so that, looking at them, you can recognize them as such, learn and move forward, better. Erasing them, pretending that they never existed, that there was no before and after, a culture strictly connected to the historical and social substratum of which it was the daughter, is the most dangerous thing there can be. Because the man of tomorrow is the result of what happened yesterday, and history, in order to play its role and be a teacher, desperately needs its own temporal dimensions.

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