Disney+, which last year added a content advisory for racism on several older films streaming on the platform, has added a stronger warning to films including Dumbo and The Jungle Book, following some viewers’ criticism last year that the platform’s initial messaging was not strong enough.
KEY FACTS
Disney+ has rolled out a new message on a handful of classic cartoons, which reads: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. . . . These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.”
Films with the new disclaimer include The Aristocats and The Lady and the Tramp, which both depict negative stereotypes of Asian people, and Peter Pan, which contains racial slurs against Native American and First Nation people.
The initial disclaimer out last year read: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”
KEY BACKGROUND
As a growing number of entertainment streaming services breathe new life into old classics, the need to contextualize negative stereotypes and racist depictions that were widely accepted decades ago has become apparent. Disney+ isn’t the first streaming service to roll out this measure in the midst of a wider reckoning in the entertainment world following widespread antiracism protests this year. In June, a then-new HBO Max temporarily pulled down 1939’s Gone With The Wind, saying it could not leave the film, often criticized for its glorification of slavery, on the platform without “explanation or denouncement” of those negative depictions. The movie returned two weeks later with a warning about the “horrors of slavery.”
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TANGENT
Some viewers pushed Disney to make its disclaimer more explicit like rival studio Warner Bros.’ “wrong then and wrong today” label when it launched the warnings in November.
BIG NUMBER
60.5 million. That’s how many subscribers Disney+ counts globally, CEO Bob Chapek said in August.
-By Isabel Togoh, Forbes Staff
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