Disney cancels UK Snow White premiere due to backlash fear.

TheGoldenEel posted...

Basically every Disney animated film ever is an adaptation of a pre-existing story btw

So what's Wreck-It Ralph based on? Moana? Zootopia? The Emperor's New Groove?

Disney has increasingly moved away from adapting pre-existing stories in the modern era (largely, I suspect, because original stories are far easier to control the trademarks and copyrights to).

NoxObscuras posted...

But the problem are the characters and words that are used. Tons of stereotypes in the way the black people talk and act. They're walking vaudeville caricatures. "I sho would loves me a piece of conbread befo' we go." Especially the way Uncle Remus kowtows to the white adults. He's the "jolly n-word" caricature that doesn't challenge any racial prejudice. He's intelligent and wise when talking to little Johnny, but immediately becomes subservient and dumb when talking to white adults.

I'm not saying the movie isn't without its, ahem, "problematic" elements, but I still don't see it as being worse than other stuff that Disney has kept in circulation. The idea that this film has been buried in Disney's vault, never to see the light of day, when Peter Pan has been re-released umpteen-zillion times with far more egregious racist tropes (actual line from the movie, as John Darling is leading a literal "Injun hunting" party : "Now, remember - the Indian is cunning, but not intelligent. Therefore, we simply surround them and take them by surprise.") just doesn't make sense to me. I'm not saying the movie should be released on whatever vehicle Disney uses to market shows to toddlers, but one of those warnings they use on some of their older works explaining about how the show has "racially insensitive" elements that are no longer acceptable today would, to me, be a good enough disclaimer to support its release.

darkknight109 posted...

Moana?

Come on, that is clearly based on Polynesian mythology...

Also:

NoxObscuras posted...

And then there's the derogatory terms that are in there. In the story, the fox traps the rabbit with a "tar baby" doll, which was innocuous enough back when the movie was first made. But it became a racial slur by the time we hit the Jim Crow era and was still a problematic term into the 2000's.

"Tar baby" was never a racial slur, isn't used that way in the Br'er Rabbit stories (nor the various folklore stories it derives from), and never really saw widespread adoption as a slur afterwards. In fact, generally speaking there have been far more notable instances of outrage generated by people assuming it's a racial slur (mostly by those unfamiliar with the story it came from) than people actually using it as a racial slur (with probably the most well-known of the former being Mitt Romney getting castigated for using it in 2006).

In the story itself, the tar baby is a doll made out of pine tar (which, notably, is golden-to-brown in colour, not black like some people assume) made by Br'er Fox to trick Br'er Rabbit. Br'er Rabbit greets the doll but, when he receives no response, assumes the "child" he is talking to is being rude and tries to smack it upside the head, only to become stuck to it. The more he struggles, the more entwined he gets until he is completely immobilized. Nothing about that story - which, again, derives from African folklore - has any racial overtones whatsoever.

darkknight109 posted...

The Emperor's New Groove?

Emperor's new clothes lol. Question is what Inside Out is based on

weak