As predicted, there will be an obvious gap in Disney+'s version of the studio's "entire" library

By Sam Barsanti | April 22, 2019 | 9:51pm

Aux Features Film

As predicted, there will be an obvious gap in Disney+'s version of the studio's "entire" library

Photo: John D. Kisch

In March, extremely well-compensated Disney CEO Bob Iger claimed that the Disney+ streaming service would eventually feature “the entire Disney motion picture library,” a claim that seemed extremely hard to buy given the fact that the Disney motion picture library happens to include Song Of The South. The movie, despite inspiring the creation of the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland and Disney World, has never been released on home video in the U.S. because it’s simply too racist to exist, and Iger’s bold claim about Disney+ implied that that the company was either going to make a dramatic change to a longstanding policy or that Iger was simply wrong about exactly what Disney+ would offer. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that it’s the latter, with Disney parks website Boardwalk Times confirming that Song Of The South will not be included on Disney+—so it definitely won’t be the “entire” contents of the famous Disney vault.

Boardwalk Times also says that Song Of The South won’t be the only ugly part of the studio’s legacy that will be cut for Disney+. A scene from Dumbo in which the eponymous elephant meets a group of crows will also be cut, thanks to the name and mannerisms of their leader Jim Crow—a very subtle reference to the country’s racist segregation-era Jim Crow laws. That sequence was already left out of Tim Burton’s recent Dumbo remake, and scrubbing it from Disney+ will allow the company to continue pretending that it has never done anything ugly or controversial. Honestly, we’ll all be grateful for that stellar-ish reputation when Disney seizes control of the United States in a bloody coup. Not everybody wants to worship a company-god that admits to making a few racist cartoons.