The long awaited arrival of Disney+ has finally arrived. Users of the new streaming service were scrambling throughout the platform to find all of the goodies that came out from the Disney vault. Along the way, viewers discovered warnings on some of their movies.
The most notable movies in question are Dumbo, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and Fantasia, among others. Before either of these flicks begin, the following message pops up: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”
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The reason behind the warning has to do with the time period these movies came out and the cultural differences. Before the service launched, there were rumors that Disney would cut out the scenes in question but ultimately they opted to issue a warning.
They didn’t remove the crows from Dumbo, instead offering something similar to what Warner Bros did. pic.twitter.com/JrfEzlRtK2
— Walt History (@HistoryWalt) November 12, 2019
One user tweeted, “Super amazing that Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, and all other movies with outdated cultural depictions are kept intact and have a disclaimer about them, that is how it should be handled, with a warning similar to Warner Bros.”
The original Dumbo features multiple scenes that have underlying racist tones, including the birds that depict the Jim Crow laws. Even one of the birds is named Jim Crow. Lady and the Tramp also features a song that has been deemed stereotypical when the Siamese Cats perform their number.
@disney well done for keeping original scenes in movies such as Dumbo. The warning is good enough and allows the viewing of the full uncensored version. #DisneyPlus
— Alan Taylor (@alantaylor1) November 12, 2019
Both of those scenes were removed from their live adaptations.
“Saw that Dumbo is uncensored on Disney Plus albeit with a warning,” another user said. “Good on them for not rewriting history.”
Many users had to wait a little bit before discovering this, though. Upon the service launching, there were numerous issues reported as the platform dealt with more users than expected signing onto the network.
“The consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our high expectations,” the statement reads. “We are so pleased you’re excited to watch all your favorites and are working quickly to resolve any current issues. We appreciate your patience.”
While there were some issues, that did not impact the feedback Disney was receiving from its subscribers. It also didn’t stop their stock from rising, either.
