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The term “woke Disney” will be familiar to many dedicated Disney fans who follow news from Disney Fanatic about the Walt Disney Company and the inclusivity-focused changes that are consistently being made within the Disney Parks. Some Disney fans wholeheartedly approve of Disney’s progressive changes, while some other Disney fans find them to be over-the-top.
Now, one Disney-affiliated author is seeing the tangible downsides of Disney’s concentrated efforts to be more inclusive and less offensive!
Author Don Rosa, who penned multiple Scrooge McDuck stories for Disney, has gotten the news (from the Walt Disney Company itself) that two of his stories “will no longer be published.”
Join us in wishing a very happy 71st birthday to the man himself – Don Rosa (the slightly less buff guy on the left)! #donrosa #happybirthday pic.twitter.com/ZCIa8iQwEH
— Don Rosa (@donrosa) June 29, 2022
Don Rosa shared the message that he received from Disney on social media, and the message said the following: “As part of its ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, The Walt Disney Company is in the process of reviewing their library of stories. As a result, some stories that do not align with their values will no longer be published”.
“This applies to two of your classic stories, ‘The Richest Duck in the World’ and ‘The Dream of a Lifetime’. These stories will not be part of any reprints or new collections,” Disney finished.
Credit: Relevant Magazine
Apparently, these two stories’ permanent bans from the Disney censors are due to “the final chapter”.
“I wonder what other Duck stories are now banned? Maybe only mine? Maybe not?” the author shared on social media. “But obviously all 12 chapters of my [Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck] are now banned because they can’t be published without the final chapter. I won’t even comment on what this will mean to the collector market.”
Rosa does indeed sound unhappy with the decision of the Disney censors — but the chapters in question involve a controversial portion of the stories that came from a previous Carl Barks tale called “Voodoo Hoodoo”. In that tale, Scrooge mistreated an African tribe and interacted with characters like Bombie the Zombie, as well as a witch doctor who was called Foola Zoola.
Ah, it's that time of year again! #donrosa #duck #ducks #christmas #santa #disney #comic #comics #scrooge #scroogemcduck #donaldduck #art https://t.co/AmEMKelCG9 pic.twitter.com/VJBVqvP5YM
— Don Rosa (@donrosa) December 6, 2021
It is not clear if this decision was made by the auditors, of sorts, who comprise Disney’s new Stories Matter team, which is a team focused on poring over Disney’s content (since Disney’s inception, which adds up to quite a few books, shows, songs, or films) and rooting out anything or any characters that could be construed as problematic.
Credit: Don Rosa / Disney
So far, the Stories Matter team has found fault with several Disney characters, such as Tinker Bell and Ursula.
Stringent censorship guidelines are no real surprise when it comes to Disney (after all, not even Disney darling Dwayne Johnson is immune to Disney’s scrutiny and scoldings in this department, and we’ve seen some real notes exemplifying these shockingly drastic censorship guidelines thanks to the Gravity Falls and Phineas & Ferb creators’ revealing posts on social media)
Do you appreciate Disney’s efforts to ‘clean up’ its past, or do you find these efforts to be unnecessary?
