sexism
Known fact: Walt Disney was a sexist and joked that he preferred Mickey Mouse to all the women in the world. After several flops at the Oscars, Disney stopped inviting his wife Lillian to the ceremony to avoid bringing bad luck. At home, he forbade his daughters from watching his cartoons because he was afraid their reactions would not meet his expectations.
Disney’s sexism in studio work manifested itself in an official ban on hiring female animators. She feared that a sudden pregnancy and layoffs of employees would negatively affect the production of the projects. The animator also believed that women did not have enough sense of humor and drawing skills to create emotional characters. A letter has been prepared for women who decide to nominate themselves:
“Women do not do any creative work related to preparing cartoons for the big screen because this work is done only by young men.”
In the pre-war years, Disney relied solely on women in the technical department to transfer drawings to film. With the outbreak of World War II, he experienced staff shortages and was forced to hire several women as artist assistants.
Racism
The children’s cartoon Song of the South (1946), based on the collection The Tales of Uncle Remus, is believed to have literally promoted slavery. The film shows how the characters work comfortably and cheerfully on the plantation all day long, revealing how great a happiness it is for them. One of the most scandalous years later was the scene where Uncle Remus sings funny songs in front of the workers on the plantation.
Despite accusations that it promoted slavery and racial stereotypes, Song of the South did well at the box office and won an Oscar for best song. Later, reprinting and selling copies of this cartoon was officially banned.
Nazism
In 1942, Walt Disney Studios released the animated short The Face of the Führer, which mocked Adolf Hitler. In the story, Donald Duck dreams that he is “working 48 hours a day for the Führer” and is forced to greet his portraits with Nazi gestures. There’s a swastika in the frame, and Spike Jones’ title track, “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” parodies the banned anthem of the Third Reich.
In 2010, the cartoon was included in the Russian Federal List of Extremist Materials under the title “Donald Duck and Fascism (Banned TV Series)”. In 2016, the Presidium of the Kamchatka Regional Court overturned the decision to recognize the cartoon as extremist material.
At the same time, Disney himself was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer and was considered an anti-Semite, even though The Führer’s Face was an obviously anti-Hitler work.
amusement park tragedies
In 1980, at Disney’s River Country water park in Florida, an 11-year-old boy contracted amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare disease that soon claimed the boy’s life. It turned out that the pool water was not chlorinated, it was just pumped out of the lake. This water park closed only in 2001.
In 2006, an alligator dragged a two-year-old boy into a lake at Walt Disney World. The boy’s body was found the next day at a depth of about two meters. In a media commentary, Sheriff Jerry Demings said the boy was attacked by an alligator while walking along the lakeshore with his family. Park management was accused of not adequately informing guests about the potential danger.
Exploitation of child labor
In 2001, Disney signed a contract with 14 factories in China to produce branded toys. It was revealed that they employed women and children under the age of 14 who received very low wages. In 2011, The Guardian newspaper reported that the company was conducting an internal investigation into this incident and promised that this incident would not occur in the future.
Sexual harassment by John Lasseter
John Lasseter, executive creative producer of the Walt Disney Company, resigned at the end of 2018. Co-founder of animation studio Pixar accused of harassment: Nine former employees told The Times that the company created a sexist atmosphere in which it was difficult for women to build their careers. According to their statements, the male team, led by Lasseter, constantly made rude comments about women and was also subjected to inappropriate touching and hugging. Lasseter was placed on leave for six months following the accusations, saying such a long break was due to his “misbehavior” and would give him the opportunity to learn to control himself better. Returning from hiatus, Lasseter announced his departure from Disney and Pixar.
“The past six months have made me reflect on my life, career, and personal priorities,” the Pixar creator said in a public statement. “As I continue to dedicate myself to the art of animation and be inspired by the talents of Pixar and Disney, I have decided that the end of this year is the right time to focus on other goals.” “I am proud of what two of the most important animation studios have achieved under my leadership, and I am very grateful to them for making my dreams come true with me.”
Lasseter’s last film at Pixar was Toy Story 4. He became head of Skydance Media’s animation department in January 2019.
Hidden sexualized messages
In the cartoon “Saviors” (1977) you can see a poster depicting a girl with exposed breasts in the background. Moreover, while watching the movie, for some reason no one noticed this – the Disney company itself drew public attention to this fact. As a result, the studio was accused of using sexualized images to make money.
And in one of the scenes of The Lion King, where Simba collapses on a cliff, clouds of dust, collected at the word “SEX”, according to the audience, fly into the sky. Although studio representatives later claimed that this was actually the abbreviation SFX, added as a tribute to the masters of special effects.
Post-war xenophobia
In 2013, blogger Marcus Hunter argued that the depiction of Siamese cats Si and Am in Lady and the Tramp demonstrated post-war xenophobia in the United States. Noting that cats symbolizing Asians are presented as two-faced, evil and identical, Erdoğan also described them as “colonial horror”.
For this reason, the 2019 remake of Lady and the Tramp did not include the song “The Siamese Cat Song” performed by Peggy Lee in the original version. And the cats in the new version were replaced by cats depicted without Asian stereotypes.
James Gunn’s dismissal
In 2018, the Disney studio fired James Gunn as executive of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise over screenshots of decade-old tweets containing jokes about pedophilia, AIDS, rape, racism, anti-Semitism and more. However, the director’s dismissal caused a harsh reaction both among fans of the first two parts of Guardians of the Galaxy and among his colleagues. For example, Vin Diesel, who voices one of the characters in the film, publicly demanded that Gunn be brought back to the director’s chair.
Immediately after the scandal, Warner Bros. He invited Gunn to be the director of the new “Suicide Squad”. And in 2019, he was invited to return to Disney to work on the third Guardians of the Galaxy.
stealing an idea
In the late 1980s, Nicholas Strack and Edward Russell proposed the idea of creating an ESPN Wide World of Sports complex (ESPN is Disney’s “daughter”) but did not gain approval. Five years later, the company nevertheless announced the start of construction of this facility – but without the participation of those who initiated it. Despite 88 documented similarities between the original project and the company’s version, Disney claimed it was his own idea. In 2000, Strack and Russell won a lawsuit against the company.