Disney+ Restricts Young Children From Watching 'Dumbo', 'Peter Pan' Due To 'Negative Depictions'

BURBANK (CBSLA) - Kids' profiles on the Disney+ streaming platform are now restricted from watching several classic Disney children's movies due to what the platform calls "negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures".

Classics such as "Dumbo," "Peter Pan," "The Aristocats", and "Swiss Family Robinson" will no longer be searchable under kids' profiles, according to a statement from the Disney+ website.

Last year, some older Disney films that were created for younger audiences included a disclaimer that reads in part: ""Titles with a content advisory notice related to negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures have been excluded".

The platform has now removed access to the films by children under 7.

Adults with Disney+ accounts can still access the films with the content warnings.

Examples of the advisories include:

• "Dumbo" (1941): "The crows and musical number pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. The leader of the group in Dumbo is Jim Crow, which shares the name of laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States."
• "Peter Pan" (1953): "The film portrays Native people in a stereotypical manner that reflects neither the diversity of Native peoples nor their authentic cultural traditions. It shows them speaking in an unintelligible language and repeatedly refers to them as 'redskins,' an offensive term. Peter and the Lost Boys engage in dancing, wearing headdresses and other exaggerated tropes."
• "Aristocats" (1970) - "The cat is depicted as a racist caricature of East Asian peoples with exaggerated stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth. He sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks. This portrayal reinforces the 'perpetual foreigner' stereotype, while the film also features lyrics that mock the Chinese language and culture such as 'Shanghai, Hong Kong, Egg Foo Young. Fortune cookie always wrong.'"