What are the only three things filmmakers aren’t allowed to do in a Disney movie?
Disney has let a lot of terrible things fly in their movies throughout the decades, most notoriously the horrific number of times they’ve allowed blatantly racist language and imagery to exist within their supposedly fairytale-like universe. Song of the South is easily the worst, but you can’t forget the stereotyped Asian cat in The Aristocats or the difference between the depiction of black and white centaurettes in Fantasia.
In the decades since Disney’s supposed golden years, much of this problematic behaviour has been stamped out, with changing attitudes no longer allowing for cartoons designed for children to contain such offensive matters. You’ll typically find a warning ahead of certain Disney movies on streaming services now, warning you of content that is no longer deemed as socially acceptable – something that has, of course, opened up plenty of fiery debate.
But it’s not exactly far-fetched to warn parents of potentially racist or sexist themes in these old classics, because there are some things that children just don’t need to see. Kids are so heavily influenced by the things they watch, and they certainly don’t need to learn any attitudes of racial superiority and unfair stereotypes from a cartoon.
Yet, Disney’s crackdown on what can and can’t be shown in their movies seems to need updating, because as David Lowery learned when he signed on to direct Pete’s Dragon, there are three things that Disney have an outright ban on within their movies which is outlined in their contract, and let’s just say, mention of offensive stereotyping is nowhere to be seen.
The three Disney rules filmmakers must follow
Rather, it seems like directors have pretty free rein, as long as they don’t include three specific things, which Lowery revealed in an interview with Ain’t It Cool News. “When you sign a contract with Disney, the things it says your film cannot have are beheadings, impalement or smoking. Those are literally the three things you are not allowed to put into a Disney film.”
It makes sense, of course – you don’t want to see anyone getting beheaded, even a cartoon, in a kid’s film, nor do you want to see any impalements. But smoking is something that has appeared in many classic Disney movies, and it’s highly unlikely that a child is going to go and source a pack of Amber Leaf after watching a kids’ cartoon. I guess you can never be too careful.
Lowery thinks it’s a shame because he has wonderful memories of watching a certain Disney movie, which featured smoking. “And you can’t have smoking anymore! The scene in that movie that had the biggest impact to me was Pinocchio smoking a cigar and turning red,” he said.
And who can forget the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland? That’s arguably one of the most psychedelic children’s movies ever made.
So, it seems like you can still get away with a decent amount of inappropriate things in Disney movies – just don’t expect any beheadings, impalements, and especially not a cheeky cigarette. Clearly, there’s nothing worse.
