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Ten Things Disney Want You to Forget

A Countdown of the Most Controversial Moments from Disney's Past

By Connor Luke SimpsonPublished 5 years ago 11 min read
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In case you missed it, Disney has recently been celebrating 90 years of magic; it's the company that has become so ingrained with the idea of childhood nostalgia that the mere mention of possibly re-releasing some of their greatest classic hits becomes terrifying—after all, what if they ruined our childhoods? The house of mouse has created an empire that now stands atop of Hollywood and the world—it's a company that prides itself on delivering family-friendly entertainment, this is an image that won't be compromised. But what about behind the scenes, the mouse hasn’t always been so "squeaky" clean over the years and this list will count down ten moments from Disney's past that they don’t want you to remember.

Dishonourable Mentions

  • Supposed Subliminal Messaging
  • Roasting Ducks in Disney Parks
  • Shark Fin Soup
  • The Firing of James Gunn

10. 'Shrek'

This one might be a little difficult to forget after all Shrek stands as a character that could take on any All Star of the Disney line-up. But the story that surrounds Shrek and the finished product is something Disney would probably rather we didn’t highlight.

It was in 2001 when former Walt Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg would make his big splash with the juggernaut animated blockbuster, Shrek. It’s the film that would take everything you had learnt from Disney’s fairytales and trampled all over it like a giant gingerbread man. The film in many ways serves as the ultimate parody on everything Disney had built its brand around. One has to only look at Lord Farquaad or if you can’t pronounce "r’s," "Lord F*ckwit"—perhaps you could side with Katzenberg and label him the then-current Disney CEO Michael Eisner. You take your pick.

Parodies are often done in homage to the original, with good humour and jest, the business and political happenings behind the scenes before and during the production of Shrek, definitely suggest that this was not the case.

9. Video Games

The most successful animation studio of all time, the Marvel cinematic universe, Pixar, Star Wars, FOX, theme parks, theatre performances, best-selling soundtracks, sports channels, a news network, cruise lines, comic books, and an upcoming streaming service. Is there anything that this brand can’t do? The answer is yes—video games.

It is important to state that Disney has been able to produce more than a few gems throughout the years, think Aladdin (1993), Hercules (1997), The Lion King (1994) and even Toy Story 3: The Video Game (2010). But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Disney Interactive Studios was ultimately a failure losing $200 million per year from 2008–2012 and ultimately closing its doors after the discontinuation of Disney Infinity in 2016.

It’s almost incredible Disney was not able to dominate the video game market by capitalising on their intellectual properties. Can you imagine playing an open world Aladdin, Tarzan, Peter Pan or Hercules, a Telltale type of Zootopia game, a Pixar Kart racer, a house of mouse sports game or an RPG Pirates of the Caribbean?!

Alas, it was not to be, Disney exited from the first party home console game business in order to focus on third-party development and we all know how well that is going (Google Battlefront II). Disney is so successful in every other medium, so their failure to conquer the video game market is something they would rather you didn’t talk about.

8. The Darkest Age

If you’re familiar with Disney, it’s very likely you’ve heard of the Disney Renaissance. But of course, to have a Renaissance you have to have a dark age. The Disney Dark Age (also known as Disney's Bronze Age) refers to an era in the Disney Animated Canon where there were not as many critically or financially successful animated films, unlike most of the films that Walt Disney himself produced and directed while he was still alive. This time period saw the release of films like Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977) and Fox and the Hound (1981). For Disney fanatics, this is viewed as the darkest point in Disney's animated history. I’m here to tell you it's not. Disney’s Post-Renaissance Dark Age was FAR WORSE.

Beginning roughly in 2000 this saw the studio wrestle with 3D animation while being body slammed by stiff competition from DreamWorks and Blue Sky. Disney fans will use the release catalogue alone during the Dark Age and Renaissance to prove the quality of the companies products, with that in mind we only have to list a few of the prominent films during the second dark age to prove how painful this period was: Dinosaur (2000), Home on the Range (2004), Chicken Little (2005), Meet the Robinsons (2007). A list filled with the direct to DVD sequels, at best.

There was one major success during this period, therefore, once we have recognised the accomplishments of Lilo and Stitch (2002), nothing else released during this time period is heavily promoted today or still has a prominent merchandise presence. It is extremely unlikely that Disney will target any films from this period for live action retellings (once again excluding Lilo and Stitch) because they'd much rather you forgot about it completely.

7. 'The Lion King' Plagiarism

The Lion King might just be Disney's crowning achievement as an animation studio. Its soundtrack is adored by many, merchandise floods Disney shops and it has turned into (arguably) the most successful musical ever. Releasing around 25 years ago the film holds up in every single way and anticipation for the live-action retelling is just further support of the love people have for this film. So Disney probably wouldn’t want you to know that one of their most popular films ever has been accused of plagiarism.

The accusations are linked to comparisons to 1960s-anime series named Kimba the White Lion (1965-1967). The voice of Simba himself originally thought that he was working on the American adaptation of Kimba, and it's not hard to see why. From the epic vision of a lion standing atop Pride Rock to the unforgettable appearance of Mufasa in the clouds, The Lion King does appear to mirror "Kimba" at certain points. Many also reference similarities in the characters as proof of a connection, in addition to the main characters having extremely similar names—Kimba and Simba, respectively (Kimba is known as Leo in "Jungle Emperor"). There is also a sage baboon, bumbling hyenas, a young lioness love-interest, a Zazu-like bird and an evil lion with an eye infirmity named Claw.

For those interested in finding out more about the plagiarism scandal, YouTube user Alli Kat has created two particularly interesting videos documenting the similarities between the two lion based stories; The "Original Story"—The Kimba / Simba Controversy and Kimba & The Lion King—How Similar Are They? These accusations could all be the product of mere coincidence, of course, or perhaps just a bunch of jealous, delusional folks hoping to cash in on Disney’s massive success but as they say there’s no smoke without fire.

6. Direct-to-Video Sequels

When it comes to animated films, Disney has long been seen as a cut above the rest. A run spanning from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to last year's Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) has earned the Mouse House countless awards and raked in billions of dollars in box office revenue. There are a few animated projects however that Disney seems to be a little less proud of.

During the 1990s, Disney was on top of the world, receiving both critical and financial acclaim for each of their releases. This is when the company began to milk the cash cow and produce a number of low-effort and highly questionable VHS sequels. It’s not that all of these sequels are horrible, it’s just that they don’t compare to the standard of the originals and they were obviously produced in order to capitalise on something established and better.

John Lasseter would eventually become head of Disney animation and would put an end to all of those very strange sequels, and we haven’t heard from them ever since.

5. Animal Kingdom

It is the third-most-visited theme park in North America, and the sixth-most-visited theme park in the world. But even during the early planning stages of the park, the idea drew controversy from animal rights groups and PETA. The groups fought against the idea of creating a theme park in which animals were held in captivity for the pleasure of others, in addition, PETA made multiple attempts to have travel agents boycott the park.

Before the park could even open another controversy highlighted itself where thirty-animals died at the theme park from September through April because of accidents, poisonings, fighting and other causes. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture cleared Disney of wrongdoing, the inspectors cited a possible error in professional judgment' for causing the deaths of two Oriental small-clawed otters. Ultimately inspectors concluded the error did not violate federal animal-welfare laws.

Animal Kingdom also has the unique award of ranking number ten on a 2014 list of the worst zoos for elephants in the world. This is one elephant in the room Disney wants to keep you from addressing.

4. War Propaganda

Contrary to popular internet belief, NO, Disney did not produce pro-nazi war propaganda, but they were responsible for creating propaganda for the U.S. and Canadian government. It was said that the companies' widespread familiarity would benefit the U.S. government greatly in producing support for the war.

It is not surprising to see social commentary slipping through into some Disney productions, Zootopia (2016) being an excellent example of this. But the company that prides itself on family-friendly values probably doesn’t want you to remember that they were involved in wartime propaganda, and more than anything they don’t want you to remember Donald Duck in a Nazi costume.

3. Stereotyping

It might be known as a family-friendly source of entertainment but through its history, Disney has been able to churn out a considerable number of questionable stereotypes; The Native Americans (or "Red Men") from Peter Pan, The Siamese Cats from Lady and the Tramp, Jim Crow from Dumbo, the Black Centaur from Fantasia and the frequent 'damsel in distress' stereotyping of femininity in the Disney princess line up. It can be argued that these characters and themes were just products of their times, but it's hard to ignore some of these glaring misjudgements when rewatching.

Nowadays, Disney has to be applauded for his dedication to diversifying its animated and live-action properties in a way that celebrates various cultures and avoids harmful stereotypes. Animated projects such as Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016) have given new generations powerful progressive films to fall in love with. By Disney moving in a new direction, we can only assume they would want us to forget some of their glaring mistakes in the past.

2. 'Song of the South'

Song of the South (1946) almost became a dishonourable mention, not because it’s not important! Quite the opposite, what is left to say about Song of the South?

The movie, based on the short stories by Joel Chandler Harris, focuses on the south after the abolition of slavery. The problem? Perhaps creating a film with a huge number of offensive racial stereotypes and glorifying the life of African Americans on plantations. It’s a film that will likely never see a home re-release and there are very few Disney productions that receive this kind of treatment from the mouse house. Disney definitely doesn’t want you to remember that they created the film that has been labelled one of Hollywood's most offensive racist texts, ever.

1. John Lasseter Sexual Misconduct

John Lasseter might just be one of the most successful producers in Hollywood History, with a filmography that has grossed $19 Billion worldwide. If you don’t know who he is, he is the man that oversaw all of Pixar's films since its creation—he directed Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bugs Life and Cars. He ended up becoming the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation, and helped Walt Disney animation overcome its second dark age—many even labelled him the modern day Walt Disney.

This was all before November 2017, when Lasseter announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging allegations of workplace sexual misconduct. Stating;

"it's been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable.”

The leave of absence ended up becoming permanent. In June of 2018, Disney announced Lasseter would be leaving the company by the end of the year. The man who defined Pixar, and redefined Disney Animation is blacklisted from the company and he’s someone Disney doesn’t want you to remember when thinking about their animated legacy.

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About the Creator

Connor Luke Simpson

amateur filmmaker - will post my ramblings about film and television here from time to time. find me at @RealConnorLuke on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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