Summary
Disneyis known for its beloved animated classics, plenty of which feature moments that have not aged well.It is not surprising that parts of Disney’s corpus are outdated or problematicwhen the studio has been producing movies since the 1930s. Even some titles which are considered amongDisney’s best animated moviesdemonstrate some bad moments like this, proof that most people are willing to accept such flaws when the movie is decades old.
Thethings in old Disney movies that wouldn’t work todayare illustrations of the biases that were much more prevalent in filmmaking 20, 50, or almost 100 years ago or are just story oversights that today’s sensibilities wouldn’t permit. A fewclassic Disney movies that haven’t aged wellare doubtlessly still someone’s favorite, as even the movies up to the Disney Renaissance aren’t perfect.Modern viewers may watch these movies with an understanding of the time in which they were produced,but should still recognize the harmful implications of certain scenes.
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10The Entirety Of Song Of The South
Song Of The South (1946)
Song of the Southis infamously the most problematic Disney movie ever, which Disney has"tried and failed to remove […] from history"(viasyfy.com). No single scene or moment is the problem; it is the whole product, which is why Disney has worked to erase it.The NAACP protested againstSong of the Southat the time it was releaseddue to its romanticization of slavery and plantation life and the positive depiction of a master-slave relationship. A lot of racial stereotypes also appear in the movie.
It is nearly impossible to find a copy ofSong of the South, and it is not available on Disney+.The longest-standing reminder that the movie ever existed was the water ride Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park,featuring the animal characters fromSong of the South. However,Splash Mountain is now closed at Disneylandand undergoing renovations to be a homage to the movieThe Princess and the Frog, due toSong of the South’s history finally catching up.
Song of the South
Cast
Uncle Remus, known for being a great storyteller, tells a young boy, upset by the separation of his parents and the difficulties of his work in the fields, the story of three animals.
9Dumbo Meeting Jim Crow
Dumbo (1941)
For the creators of a movie that came out a few years beforeSong of the South, the idea of naming a cartoon crow Jim Crow probably seemed clever. However,this offensive pun has arguably become the most remembered part ofDumbo,along with other stereotyped characters. While the leader of the band of crows is named for the Jim Crow segregation laws of the 19th and 20th centuries, the whole group demonstrates Black stereotypes.
Another scene inDumboshows many faceless workers setting up the circus tent in the rain, singing lyrics such as:“We work all day, we work all night / We never learned to read or write […] We slave until we’re almost dead […].“The leader crow was renamed Dandy Crow sometime in the 1950s, although he is almost universally still remembered as Jim Crow. Meanwhile,Tim Burton cut both of these scenes from his live-action remake ofDumbo.
Dumbo
One in a series of live-action remakes for classic animated Disney films, Tim Burton’s Dumbo premiered in 2019 with a cast that included Danny DeVito, Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, and Eva Green. Farrell and DeVito star as the proprietors of a failing circus, who get an unexpected windfall in the form of Dumbo, a baby elephant with unusually large ears who has the ability to fly. When Keaton’s corrupt businessman V. A. Vandevere attempts to use Dumbo and his mother for his own personal gain, the elephants' allies must concoct a plan to get them to safety.
8Pinocchio Smoking & Drinking
Pinocchio (1940)
A lot of Disney’s originalPinocchiois about Pinocchio being awful, indulging in sporadic whims rather than heeding his father, in service of his arc where he learns to be good and eventually saves Gepetto and becomes human. His misdemeanors lead him to end up on Pleasure Island with a bunch of other boys, where they can do whatever they please. In one scene,Pinocchio and his friend Lampwick are playing pool while enjoying beer and cigars.
The point is to show Pinocchio engaging in irresponsible behavior,for which he is punished shortly thereafter when the boys on the island start turning into donkeys. It is depicted through activities that are seen as indulgent and careless. However, this is much more harmful for underage characters. The one argument in the scene’s defense is that it does not argue that these behaviors are good (vialooper.com), but it is still unsettling to show a scene of the children getting drunk.
Disney’s Pinocchio
Gepetto, an old Italian carpenter, wanted to be a father so badly that his puppet of a boy came to life. However, the wooden boy doesn’t know right from wrong and his nose grows when he lies.
7Aurora “Falling In Love” With Phillip
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Very conveniently for the absent parents who arranged their marriage, Phillip happens to stumble upon the long-exiled princess betrothed to him at birth while she is unaware of her identity and living with her fairy godmothers in the forest. Seeing that she is in the middle of singing a dreamy tune about meeting her true love in a dream, Phillip sneaks up behind her and joins in. To her credit,Aurora is initially startled and defensive,not one to immediately trust a stranger in the wilderness.
Aurora doesn’t even get Phillip’s name and is devastated when she learns she is allegedly supposed to marry another man.
Phillip then makes a few reassuring comments and the two finish singing “Once Upon a Dream” together. Aurora doesn’t even get Phillip’s nameand is devastated when she learns she is allegedly supposed to marry another man. However,the whole scenario heavily romanticizes Aurora falling in love with a stranger who she met in the middle of nowhereand who could have any kind of disturbing past. The sequence is still romantic by Disney’s standards, mainly because “Once Upon a Dream” is a great song.
Sleeping Beauty
In Disney’s take on the classic fairy tale, Princess Aurora has been cursed by the evil Maleficent to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep on her sixteenth birthday. Despite the efforts of the three fairies who raised her, the curse is soon upon Aurora, but hope lies with the handsome Prince Phillip.
6Lost Boys Celebrate With Tiger Lily’s Tribe
Peter Pan (1953)
Peter Panadapted J. M. Barrie’s work, which already poses the problem of appropriating Indigenous culture by lifting it out of reality and characterizing it as a part of the fantasy setting of Neverland. The movie showcases a stereotyped and dehumanizing depiction of these people in the scene where the Lost Boys celebrate Tiger Lily’s safe return with them.Tiger Lily is the only one who looks like a real human;the rest have exaggerated features, while they all sing the awful song “What Made the Red Man Red.”
The"Indians"inPeter Panexhibit costuming and practices that are the most stereotyped, commercialized version of Indigenous culture possible,while the Lost Boys mimic them by wearing feathered headdresses and shouting a lot of nonsense. How to adapt Tiger Lily and her people has proven to be a problem for each remake ofPeter Pan, giving rise to other controversies. Meanwhile, Disney’s originalPeter Panhas only become more criticized with time.
Peter Pan
This classic animated Disney film adapts J.M. Barrie’s beloved novel for the screen. Peter Pan meets the Darling children and whisks them away with Tinkerbell to an adventure in Neverland, where they clash with the pirates led by Captain Hook.
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5Siamese Cat Song
Lady And The Tramp (1955)
In a movie that focuses on anthropomorphic, primarily domesticated pets, the entire gimmick of the Siamese cats and their musical number is supposed to emphasize their breed. This leans into a lot of East Asian stereotypes, which are additionally characterized as villainous in the context of Si and Am destroying the house and letting Lady take the blame.Si and Am’s design is almost identical to that of Shun Gon inThe Aristocats,with slanted eyes, buck teeth, and over-the-top accents.
Both movies utilize superficial symbols of East Asian culture in the scenes involving these cats: Si and Am’s song includes a gong sound while Shun Gon uses chopsticks while playing the piano. Both are instances of flattening this culture with the characters amounting to caricatures.Si and Am were replaced by different cats with a different song in the live-actionLady and the Tramp,which works just fine if the movie wants to have a sequence revolving around mischievous cats.
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated romantic musical film produced by Walt Disney. The story follows a refined cocker spaniel named Lady and her adventures with a street-smart mutt known as Tramp. As they navigate differing worlds and social classes, their bond grows. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, the film stands as a classic in Disney’s animated repertoire.
4Prince Kisses Snow White (& Aurora)
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Snow White meets her prince once before she is exiled into the forest. The next time he encounters her, she is in her cursed sleep after eating the poisoned apple. Because she is unconscious, she does not consent to him kissing her. However, she is perfectly pleased when she wakes up and her"true love"has returned to her.There isn’t even any reason for the prince to believe that kissing Snow White will wake her up,other than his own intuition about how Disney movies work.
This same problem happens inSleeping Beauty, with the variations that the two had an actual conversation the last time they met, and the curse is specifically said to be broken with a kiss (still not consensual). It is even more uncomfortable in the context of the source material, as some versions of “Sleeping Beauty” depict the prince getting her pregnant while she is in an enchanted sleep.Most tales like this are adapted by Disney in service of an idealized love-at-first-sight storylinethat glosses over obvious problems.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a classic 1938 animated film based on the Brothers Grimm tale. The story follows Snow White, who hides in a forest with seven dwarfs to escape her jealous stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is determined to be the fairest in the land, threatened by Snow White’s beauty.
3Ariel Signs Ursula’s Contract
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Once again, Disney presents what many consider to be a great scene because the music is amazing, even if some of the plot details are shaky. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” is doubtlessly one of themost iconic Disney villain songs, made more interesting by Ursula’s lyrics leaning into themes of women being silenced. However, in retrospect,Ariel makes a hasty decision to sign Ursula’s contract,when her earlier dialogue suggests she knows Ursula by reputation and that she is not to be trusted.
Ariel’s initial reaction to Ursula’s minions inviting her to meet the Sea Witch implies thatshe knows that while she may be mad at her father, bargaining with Ursula is dangerous.She also remarks that being human means she would never see her family again. Yet Ariel still signs the contract after a moment of consideration, giving everything up for a man she has yet to have a real conversation with. Her judgment in this scene is even poorer considering that she had the beginning of a plan to see Eric again anyway.
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid is an animated fantasy film that follows the tale of Ariel, a mermaid princess who dreams of life on land. She falls in love with Prince Eric and makes a daring pact with the sea witch Ursula to become human, risking everything for love.
2War Brewing Between English Settlers & The Powhatan Tribe
Pocahontas (1995)
The song “Savages” inPocahontascasts the term onto both sidesof the brewing conflict; the English settlers and the Indigenous Americans. The sequence is already uncomfortable because of how many times"savages"is said, given that it is exactly how colonists would have characterized the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. However, the wayPocahontaspresents this moment more emphasizes the theme of unchecked hatred stemming from both groups not understanding each other, in the context of Pocahontas and John Smith resolving it with their romance.
This musical number doesn’t really work because it shows both sides ready to resort to violence.
In general,Pocahontasglosses over the irrevocable damage done to the Indigenous population, including the Powhatan people, by European colonialism. This musical number doesn’t really work because it shows both sides ready to resort to violence.Other moments inPocahontaskind of establish that the English are the real villains,but they are still portrayed too sympathetically to properly acknowledge real historical tragedies.
Pocahontas
In 1607, Pocahontas, a free-spirited young woman of the Powhatan Native American Tribe, meets arriving English settlers, including John Smith. As her feelings for John deepen, Pocahontas finds herself caught in the struggle between her family, and the settlers who seek violence with her people.
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1"Arabian Nights” Opening
Aladdin (1992)
The melody and production design of “Arabian Nights,” the song that opensAladdin, is powerful and foreboding. However, these elements as well as the lyrics are all in service of casting the Middle East as a dangerous and exotic location for the story to take place.Some of the lyrics that called Arabia"barbaric"were replaced in the live-action remake ofAladdin,in which the song is performed by Will Smith.Aladdinwas met with criticism at the time of its release, with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee specifically criticizing this song (viaThe New York Times).
Aladdinis one of the movies that now includes a content advisory message on Disney+,stating that the content is still available to"spark conversation.“Despite being considered cinematic staples, many of Disney’s movies demonstrate outdated depictions of main characters and events, if they were even received well at the time. Today, Disney strives to create new hopeful fairy tale adventures that avoid these problems.
Aladdin
Aladdin, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, is an animated film featuring a street urchin who discovers a magical lamp. The story follows Aladdin’s adventures, including his encounters with Princess Jasmine and the villainous Jafar, who seeks to wield the lamp’s extraordinary powers to seize control.
