A man is accusing Disney of plagiarism over its movie Wreck-It Ralph, and it’s just the latest of the company’s animated issues.
We’re not just talking about the Mouse’s troublesome predilection for damsels in distress — some of the problems below are even more politically-charged. (Suffice it to say, Disney hasn’t always been the happiest place on earth for minorities.)
These eight Disney movie controversies had critics ready to storm the Cinderella Castle:
Wreck-It Ralph
In the most recent example of Disney controversy, write Dyke Robinson claims 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph contains ideas from his book series Digiland, which he says he pitched to the company as a prospective TV show. He’s seeking $10 million in damages, as TMZ reports.
Pocahontas
While Pocahontas may have been Disney’s first historical animated film, the word “historical” is a bit of a stretch. In the real-life story, Pocahontas was still a child when John Smith arrived, and there was no romance between them. Disney also chose not to include Pocahontas’s real life abduction at the hands of the English in 1613.
And just recently, Netflix’s description of the movie angered critics, originally reading, “An American Indian woman is supposed to marry the village’s best warrior, but she yearns for something more — and soon meets Capt. John Smith.” Other Disney movies with male protagonists have Netflix descriptions focusing on the characters’ actual drama, while Pocahontas’s story is reduced to a love triangle.
Aladdin
Most of us can recite “Arabian Nights,” the Peddler’s opening number from 1992’s Aladdin, though the lyrics you sing depend on which version of the song you heard.
Two snippets from the original tune — “Where they cut off your ear/ If they don’t like your face,” and “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” — came under fire for propagating dangerous Arab stereotypes. The first line was later changed to, “Where it's flat and immense/and the heat is intense,” though the “barbaric” line exists to this day.
The Little Mermaid
The original VHS artwork for this 1989 classic had some parents turning as red as Sebastian over apparent penises drawn into the castle’s spires. According to (now-debunked) urban legend, the phallic shapes were the work of a Disney artist vindictive over his imminent firing.
Not even Disney’s famous flying elephant and his 1948 film debut can escape controversy — not when he’s backed by a group of jive-talking crows whose leader was originally named Jim. (For those of you who didn’t pay attention in history class, Jim Crow laws mandated racial segregation in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement.)
Lady and the Tramp
This canine romance made its big-screen debut in 1955, not long after the end of the Korean War — and resulting anti-Asian sentiments may have inspired the movie’s Siamese cat antagonists and their sinister behavior.
Peter Pan
Some children never grow up, but racial images certainly should. This 1953 classic has not aged well, as its Native American characters are laden with stereotypes, especially as they’re viewed as “redskin” savages. There’s even a song called “What Made the Red Man Red?”
The Song of the South
Disney will never release this 1946 film on home video — even though it brought us Brer Rabbit and “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” — because it’s been so eviscerated over its controversial depiction of slavery, with the NAACP deeming it a “dangerously glorified picture of slavery” featuring “an idyllic master-slave relationship.” Riding Splash Mountain is as close as you’ll likely come to seeing this movie.
Source: Wetpaint
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