Disney+ added a disclaimer before racist depictions in its content

On November 12, Disney debuted its very own streaming service to compete with the likes of Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Apple. Disney+ has made virtually all Disney content — from classic cartoons, to mid-1990s sitcoms, to The Avengers and even Star Wars — immediately accessible to viewers. Disney+ has already amassed over 10 million subscribers, and it’s easy to see why: Everybody loves Disney. The only problem is that Disney didn’t use to love everybody — but now, they’re addressing that with a new disclaimer on the streaming service.

In the opening credits of some of its movies — like Peter Pan, Dumbo, and other films that feature racist and xenophobic depictions — Disney+ has added a disclaimer that reads: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” 

To Disney’s credit, the addition of this disclaimer at least acknowledges the effect these images may have on viewers and demonstrates the company’s acknowledgment of their past wrongdoings. Watching racist depictions like that of Native American characters in Peter Pan or the monkeys in The Jungle Book is probably fairly jarring for 2019 audiences, and as such is worthy of warning. But as uncomfortable as some of these images and characters may be, it’s important that they remain in the films. It would be easy enough for Disney to scrub its archives of all outdated stereotypes, but that would be a disingenuous attempt to erase the company’s history — in addition to the histories of racism and prejudice that were essentially exploited by Disney to turn a profit.

This new disclaimer, therefore, is a good idea in theory but, in practice, comes off as slightly dismissive. Calling some of the depictions on their movies “outdated” insinuates that the only thing that makes these representation unacceptable is the mere passage of time. In fact, blatant racial caricatures have never been acceptable on any ethical level, no matter when they occurred. The indirectness of this disclaimer allows Disney to sidestep ownership for its racist past. 

In comparison, take how Warner Brothers acknowledges racism their classic cartoons. A disclaimer that plays on DVDs, on Blu-rays, and before some television broadcasts of “Looney Tunes” cartoons, the cornerstone of the production company’s catalogue, reads:

“The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While these cartoons do not represent today's society, they are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.” 

Besides being far more verbose than the disclaimer offered by Disney, this explanation takes direct ownership of the company’s content and the problematic imagery therein without glossing over the fact that some depictions have always been problematic. 

One important thing remains unclear, however, and that’s how Disney+ decided which content warranted the disclaimer. There are plenty of Disney films that don’t necessarily fall into the category of “outdated” as specified by the disclaimer, but are certainly still problematic. Almost every Disney princess movie — from 1959’s Sleeping Beauty to 1989’s The Little Mermaid — is laced with misogyny. Both Aladdin (1994) and Mulan (1998) are full of xenophobic and culturally insensitive depictions of both the Middle East and China. Pocahontas, for all its historical inaccuracies and problematic portrayals of colonizer-indigenous romances, contains no disclaimer, while Lady and the Tramp does.  

While it doesn’t really take direct responsibility for its problematic history, this acknowledgment is ultimately a good first step toward progress. Were Disney+ to improve on its current pre-content warning, it could take the time to analyze the themes in its movies and create a more nuanced disclaimer that recognizes the faults in its film, including those that are both appallingly racist and those that are more subtle.