On April 2, 2023, the production company Disney is expected to release the new version of the film "Peter Pan and Wendy", where Wendy, until now Peter Pan's companion, appears on equal terms in the title.
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The final stage of the promotional campaign began with a trailer for the film. The opening of the short film, also set in Edwardian England, features Wendy arriving in Neverland. Tinkerbell, played by African-American actress Yari Shahidi, also appears. Furthermore, it seems that Wendy is the central character of the story, which is reinforced by her mention in the title. The rest of the story does not seem to have changed much from the 1953 animated film.
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On social media, some users expressed their disappointment with the new version.
In this way, many users, as shown by the frequency cloud, satirically expressed what they liked about the trailer precisely what did not appear in it, under the figure of "I just loved the part...".
One Reddit user says, “Fuck this trailer, fuck this movie, fuck the writers, and fuck Disney,” before going on to clarify that he’s upset that Wendy’s role in the film has been altered. He begins by saying, “‒…‒there shouldn’t be any missing girls. That’s not me being sexist, Peter Pan himself says it in the books “Oh no, the girls, since they’re too smart to fall out of their prams,” he then continues, “Secondly, why are they trying to make Wendy into one of those “modern boss girls”? She’s the mother of the group who takes care of the kids and inevitably convinces them to go back home and grow up.”
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Finally, he concluded, “I’ve been a Peter Pan fan for as long as I can remember. I was obsessed with it as a kid and to me it’s a classic that’s sacred. This trailer feels like the writers just ripped the heart out of my inner child, spit it out, and then stomped on it.”
A YouTube user claims that Tinkerbell has always been white since the 1950s version. As proof, he claims that she has always been white in all the toys and cartoons where she has appeared.
Some users go further. For example, on Twitter, one user accuses Hollywood of having an agenda to portray white people as evil. On the other hand, we also find expressions from users on social media expressing their enthusiasm for the film's release.
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Why the controversy? Isn't it just a version of a fiction? To make sense of it, it's worth remembering the historical context in which the first version of Peter Pan was produced - 1953. This was an America before civil rights.
In the children's film, the indigenous North American peoples are unabashedly depicted as "red skin," a situation that is emphasized during a dance in the children's film where they are depicted as a savage people, while in media terms the consolidation of the North American media system continued.
This was the first year that the Oscars were televised. The television series The Lonely Ranger was shown. A brave masked vigilante accompanied by Tonto, the latter represented a member of the Native American peoples, although he did so by portraying him as "backward" or savage.
In social terms, while Peter Pan was being successfully released as Disney's 14th feature film, strict segregation laws still existed in North America. While women were trapped in "traditional roles", African Americans had few job opportunities and suffered severe discrimination. The situation was even more serious in the southern states.
Disney would return to the Edwardian England of Peter Pan ten years later when he filmed Mary Poppins (1965). Unlike Peter Pan, which was only considered a children's film, Mary Poppins (1965), whose central protagonist is a woman, was Disney's first feature film to receive widespread critical acclaim, receiving several Oscar nominations and winning in five categories.
In social terms, a decade later, the fight for civil rights had also made significant progress. A year earlier, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed and in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed. Both legal documents benefited both women and the African-American population, as they promoted equality within American society regardless of gender, race or religion.
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However, the fight for inequality is not over. The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative She pointed out that the representation of non-white characters or women in leading roles is rare in both television series and films. A situation that is aggravated if we consider that these North American productions - the dominant entertainment industry on a global level - are seen outside of the northern countries, where these stereotypes contribute to perpetuating a colonialism that is still in force.
In recent years, there have been various initiatives to reduce negative representations of non-white people, women, or people outside of traditional practices in American film and television programs.
In this context, Peter and Wendy ‒2023‒ are part of a series of reinterpretations of classic Disney stories. Where the company ‒encouraged by the increase in both the purchasing power and the percentage of the non-white population in the United States, as well as the possibility of generating profits worldwide‒ seeks to achieve products that reflect these multicultural societies.
The Reddit user angrily exposes the risk that Disney's new version represents for his children, although in reality he shows his dissatisfaction with the change of roles that society has experienced over the last decades.
Another user demands that an African-American actress not remain in fixed roles reproducing the separation of races by their social roles, an anger that allows us to observe her rage at the loss of privileges. Is her claim not based on the changes in the role of the female character? Is it not anger at the fall of barriers to social roles by ethnicity or gender? Positions that seek to eternalize Wendy as an eternal companion and never the protagonist of the story. While only white women can represent Tinker Bell ‒tinkerbell‒.
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Perhaps we can find the answer in Disney films themselves. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), another Disney animated film, Queen Grimhilde, angry at the response of her magic mirror, orders Snow White to be sacrificed. However, her command is disobeyed. Then, the Queen herself, filled with rage, disguises herself as an old woman and tricks Snow White by offering her a poisoned apple. At the end of the film, the protagonist revives. Grimhilde's efforts, anger and rage were in vain. History was already underway and there was no way she would be able to recover her lost beauty.
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This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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