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According to the New York Times, Disney is using “entertainment as advocacy”, which is a focus that has caused Disney to create a team of experts who are looking back through Disney archives to locate any offensive Disney characters — and some fan favorites have caught their eye!
Dumbo
Credit: Disney
Two Peter Pan characters were also flagged during the Stories Matter team’s review of the Disney archives (as well as the native people who were given negative depictions in Neverland): Tinker Bell was “marked for caution” because she is “body-conscious” and “jealous of Peter Pan’s attention”, according to anonymous Disney executives, and the Disney villain Captain Hook could apparently “expose Disney to accusations of discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities because he is a villain”.
The 1960 film Swiss Family Robinson has also been flagged by the Stories Matter team due to the pirates’ negative depictions in the movie; it’s used as an example on the Stories Matter website!
Captain Hook from ‘Peter Pan’
The Walt Disney Company has recently come under fire for its “wokeness”, particularly after its reaction to a recent Florida bill, but dissenters and dissatisfied Guests do not seem to be swaying the Walt Disney Company from its shift towards progressive “political correctness”.
Time will tell if these efforts to filter Disney’s past for a modern audience manage to please Disney fans or if instead (as the New York Times put it) “in trying to offend no one, Disney [will have] seemingly lost everyone”!
