Rather than remove or edit these films, Disney added the disclaimer in an effort to educate people about the harmful impact of negative portrayals.
In 2019, Disney added content warnings to some of its movies on Disney+. The warning would appear as a small message on the screen.
Now this message has been updated and also remains on screen for ten seconds before the movie starts.
The message says:
This message appears on many older Disney movies like Aristocats, Dumbo, Peter Pan and Swiss Family Robinson.
This is because these films contain offensive stereotypes. For example, Peter Pan portrays Aboriginal people in a way that does not reflect their authentic traditions and appropriates and mocks their cultural imagery.
Another example is The Aristocats, where a cat is a racist caricature of East Asian people. The character is voiced by a white actor who sings in badly accented English and makes fun of the Chinese language in the lyrics.
There has been a shift in the entertainment industry to recognize past work and the biases contained therein.
When it comes to redistributing these works, the approach has been different. For example, Warner Bros. displays a warning in front of many of his cartoons to warn against racial stereotyping.
In June 2020, HBO Max removed the 1939 American film Gone with the Wind, before adding it back to the service with a new warning about how it "denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of inequality races".
Along with this new modified content warning, Disney has launched its Stories Matter website. The site acknowledges the company's past, but looks forward to its continued commitment to diversity and inclusion.
To help Disney achieve this goal, it sought the advice of an advisory board made up of organizations that drive narrative change in media.
You should take the time to understand why these content warnings have been added and why the depictions in these films are harmful.
Disney isn't the only company trying to improve and educate. Earlier this year, Netflix launched a collection to help you understand the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
