Disney films including Dumbo and Peter Pan could have their age rating raised from U to PG - after censors reclassified Mary Poppins

The age rating for Mary Poppins has been upped from U to PG by the BBFCREAD MORE: Mary Poppins has its age rating lifted from U to PG because of 'discriminatory language' - but have you ever spotted it?  

Snow White, Peter Pan, Dumbo and The Little Mermaid… all films that children across the UK have loved watching, often without their parents’ company.

But the beloved animations could soon have their age rating lifted from U to PG – after the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) hiked the grading of Mary Poppins.

Despite the film enchanting generations of youngsters, the 1964 tale of Julie Andrews’ magical nanny is now considered not to be suitable for children to watch alone because it contains ‘discriminatory language’.

The reclassification from U to PG by the BBFC is due to the use of the word Hottentots. The dated term was historically used by Europeans to refer to the Khoekhoe, a group of nomadic herders in South Africa, but is now regarded as racially offensive.

Admiral Boom, played by Reginald Owen, who believes he is a naval commander in charge of a ship, uses the word twice in the film. 

Dumbo often comes under fire for a musical number sung by a group of crows, whose leader was named Jim Crow – a reference to the segregation laws in late 19th and early 20th Century America

So, which popular films from your childhood will be reclassified by the BBFC next? Here, FEMAIL takes a look at ten animations that could be changed from U to PG and why…

Dumbo 

Dumbo, which was released in 1941, followed the story of a baby elephant who had abnormally big ears – which gave him the ability to fly but resulted in him being taunted by his peers.

It often comes under fire for a musical number sung by a group of crows, whose leader was named Jim Crow – a reference to the segregation laws in late 19th and early 20th Century America.

Jim Crow was voiced by white actor Cliff Edwards, but he appeared to purposely try to speak in an African-American-sounding voice.

Disney later admitted that the animals were inspired by minstrel shows, which was a popular form of theatre in the 19th and 20th centuries and showed re-enactments of racial stereotypes.

‘The crows and musical number pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved Africans on Southern plantations,’ Disney wrote in an explanation posted to its website.

‘The leader of the group in Dumbo is Jim Crow, which shares the name of laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.

‘In The Song of the Roustabouts, faceless Black workers toil away to offensive lyrics like “When we get our pay, we throw our money all away.”,’ the page reads.

Jim Crow was the name of the lead crow in the film, referring to the name of laws that ‘enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States’

The advisory came ahead of the show being pulled from children’s profiles on Disney+. The film still remains on adult profiles but features a warning about the movie.

‘This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,’ the advisory reads.

‘The crows in dumbo didn’t need to be racist but for some reason they decided the movie needed some racism,’ one person previously said on Twitter, now known as X, about the movie.

‘Have you seen the crows in the Dumbo movie? Racist AF,’ another wrote.’Am I the only one that thought the crows in Dumbo were racist?’ a different tweet read.

Peter Pan

Disney’s 1953 classic, Peter Pan, is about a boy who lives in the magical far-off island of Neverland, where and he and his friends – called the Lost Boys – never grew up. But most are left shocked after realising the indigenous people of the island are referred to as the offensive term, ‘redskins’, in the animation

The Native people are also seen speaking in an ‘unintelligible language’ throughout the film

Disney’s 1953 classic, Peter Pan, is about a boy who lives in the magical far-off island of Neverland, where and he and his friends – called the Lost Boys – never grew up.

But most are left shocked after realising the indigenous people of the island are referred to as the offensive term, ‘redskins’, in the animation.

The Native people are also seen speaking in an ‘unintelligible language’ throughout the film.

Disney have since explained that scenes in which Peter and The Lost Boys dance in native American headdresses are a ‘form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples’ culture and imagery.’

‘The film portrays Native people in a stereotypical manner that reflects neither the diversity of Native peoples nor their authentic cultural traditions,’ it wrote in an advisory on its website.

‘I’m watching the original Disney animated Peter Pan… I’m actually cringing at how inappropriate, sexist and racist it is,’ one person wrote on X previously.

Another person said: ‘I’m usually all about keeping originals the way they are, but I would really appreciate an edition of Peter Pan [without] the word “redskin”.’

Song Of The South

Controversial 1946 film Song of the South is only a U rating on the BBFC website

‘Song of the South’ stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus (pictured) and won an Oscar for best original song in 1948

Controversial 1946 film Song of the South is only a U rating on the BBFC website.

However it doesn’t appear on Disney’ streaming service and has never been given a DVD or video release in the United States due to its offensive handling of race.

Set on a plantation during America’s Reconstruction Era, Song of the South is based on Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories, and takes place following the civil war.

It stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus and won an Oscar for best original song in 1948.

Writing for the The Afro-American following its release, reviewer Richard B. Dier labelled it ‘as vicious a piece of propaganda for white supremacy as Hollywood ever produced.’

In 2023, Disney removed the phrase ‘zip-a-dee-doo-dah’ from the music of its in-park parades over links to the film.

Multiple park attractions and events referencing it have been closed or altered by Disney in recent years as seen with the remodelling of fan favourite Splash Mountain, which shut down in January that year because it featured characters and music from the movie.

In 2020, the company announced that the ride would be getting a refresh based on The Princess and The Frog, which features the company’s first Black princess, Tiana, at both Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida.

The Little Mermaid

1989’s The Little Mermaid followed a young mermaid who wanted more than anything to go on shore. She traded her voice with an evil sea witch in exchange for a pair of legs, and once on land, she fell in love with a Prince named Eric

But viewers have slammed Ariel’s side-kick Sebastian for years – a crab with a Jamaican sounding accent

1989’s The Little Mermaid followed a young mermaid who wanted more than anything to go on shore.

She traded her voice with an evil sea witch in exchange for a pair of legs, and once on land, she fell in love with a Prince named Eric.

But viewers have slammed Ariel’s side-kick Sebastian for years – a crab with a Jamaican sounding accent.

Some claimed that the character is a bad depiction of people from Jamaica, since he sang about wanting to stay underwater so he didn’t have to work in the tune Under the Sea.

One person pointed out on social media: ‘The little mermaid is racist. Sebastian is the king’s servant and just so happens to be the only Black character. I never noticed it before.’

Sebastian was originally voiced by Samuel E. Wright – who was born in South Carolina – in the 1989 animated classic.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

The 1937 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs film by Disney is a classic watch for many youngsters. But the kiss scene (pictured) in the film has drawn concern in previous years over the message it sends to youngsters

The 1937 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs film by Disney is a classic watch for many youngsters.

But the kiss scene in the film has drawn concern in previous years over the message it sends to youngsters.

Snow White was the first full-length animated Disney feature, and remains one of the 10 highest domestically grossing American films of all time, adjusted for inflation.

In the film, the evil Queen, jealous of Snow White’s beauty, creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into the ‘Sleeping Death’.

The spell can be broken by ‘love’s first kiss,’ but the Queen presumes Snow White will be pronounced dead and buried before any such kiss can be administered.

But the distraught seven dwarfs are so upset on finding Snow White in the trance that they cannot bring themselves to bury her, and instead place her in a glass coffin in a clearing in the woods.

Eventually, the film’s Prince learns of Snow White’s fate and visits her. He kisses her, awaking her from her trance, and they depart to live happily ever after in his castle.

But in 2018, Kazue Muta, a professor at Osaka University in Japan, argued the act of kissing a sleeping woman can be likened to sexual assault on an unconscious person.

The feminist academic went as far as to say that the stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ‘promote sexual violence’.

‘When you think rationally about ‘Snow White’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ that tell of a ‘princess being woken up by the kiss of a prince,’ they are describing sexual assault on an unconscious person,’ she tweeted.

Elsewhere, the inclusion of dwarfs in the film has been criticised after the live-action remake considered featuring such characters.

Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage went on a fierce tirade against Disney over the upcoming film in January 2022.

‘Literally no offence to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White – but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ Peter, who has a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, which affects bone growth, said.

‘Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing man?’

Following the criticism, the company announced that the film would not feature dwarfs anymore.

In a statement, Disney said it had been ‘consulting with members of the dwarfism community’ throughout the early stages of production, and had ultimately decided to take ‘a different approach’ to the seven dwarfs that appeared in the original movie ‘to avoid reinforcing stereotypes.’

It added that Snow White’s seven companions would instead be depicted as ‘magical creatures,’ but didn’t give any more details about what that meant.

Disney’s decision to take out the dwarfs had a mixed reaction online – and some stars with dwarfism pointed out that the change robbed the community of work.

In July 2023, the first look of the new take on the dwarfs was revealed when images from the set of the movie were obtained by DailyMail.com.

They showed seven men who appeared to be a mix of genders, ethnicity, and heights walking through a field in England together, accompanied by someone who appeared to be lead actress Rachel Zegler’s stunt double.

Rumours emerged on X afterwards that the dwarfs had been replaced by ‘seven bandits’ who ‘steal from the Queen to feed the poor.’

Sleeping Beauty 

Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty tells the tale of a Princess who is cursed by a jealous witch and falls into a deep sleep when pricking her finger on a spindle. She can only be saved from her slumber by true love’s kiss (pictured)

Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty tells the tale of a Princess who is cursed by a jealous witch and falls into a deep sleep when pricking her finger on a spindle. She can only be saved from her slumber by true love’s kiss.

But the tale has sparked controversy in recent years, with some viewers taking issue with the princess not consenting to the kissed before it happened.

In November 2017, Sarah Hall, from Northumberland Park, North Shields, claimed the fairytale promotes an ‘inappropriate sexual’ message to young children.

Posting a picture from her son’s Sleeping Beauty book online, she wrote: ‘Tell you what, while we are still seeing narratives like this in school, we are never going to change ingrained attitudes to sexual behaviour #MeToo #consent #mysonisix’

The mother of two told MailOnline at the time: ‘I think it’s a specific issue in the Sleeping Beauty story about sexual behaviour and consent.

‘It’s about saying is this still relevant, is it appropriate? In today’s society, it isn’t appropriate – my son is only six, he absorbs everything he sees, and it isn’t as if I can turn it into a constructive conversation.’

But despite her strong opinions on the fairytales, she doesn’t think they should be removed from bookshelves completely.

‘I don’t think taking Sleeping Beauty books out of circulation completely would be right. I actually think it would be a great resource for older children, you could have a conversation around it, you could talk about consent, and how the Princess might feel.

‘But I’m really concerned about it for younger children, would really welcome a conversation about whether this is suitable material,’ she concluded.

However, many disagreed at the time. One woman said: ‘This is getting b***** ridiculous. I never once watched Sleeping Beauty and thought “goodness this is giving the wrong message about consent.”‘

Sleeping Beauty harks back to literary tale Sun, Moon and Talia, written by Italian author Giambattista Basile in 1634.

The dark story tells the tale of a girl who falls into an unbreakable sleep after being pricked by a splinter.

She is then impregnated by a king in her sleep, and later gives birth whilst still unconscious, before being awoken by one of her twins who sucks the splinter out of her finger.

The Italian tale was later retold by French author Charles Perrault in 1697 as Sleeping Beauty, and by German academics the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as Little Briar Rose.

The Aristocats

In The Aristocats, a cat depicted in the film shows a ‘racist caricature of East Asian people with exaggerated stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth,’ explained Disney

The Aristocats (1970) follows a stuck-up cat and her kittens, who are forced to say goodbye to their rich city life in Paris in exchange for an adventure in the countryside – after they are dropped far from home in a ploy to steal their fortunes.

While finding their way back, the cats come across another feline named Shun Gon (voiced by Paul Winchell) – who is seen with ‘exaggerated East Asian stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth,’ Disney stated in a warning on its website.

‘He sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks.

‘This portrayal reinforces the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype, while the film also features lyrics that mock the Chinese language and culture such as “Shanghai, Hong Kong, Egg Foo Young. Fortune cookie always wrong.”‘

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 

For some adults whose judgement is not clouded by nostalgia for the ’90s animated film, Beauty & the Beast (pictured) isn’t so much a romantic love story as it is a tale about Stockholm Syndrome, wrapped up in a Disney bow

After being locked up and forbidden to leave the castle by the Beast, Belle (pictured right) eventually finds herself falling in love with her captor, empathising with him and seemingly forgiving him for taking her prisoner

For some adults whose judgement is not clouded by nostalgia for the ’90s animated film, Beauty & the Beast isn’t so much a romantic love story as it is a tale about Stockholm Syndrome, wrapped up in a Disney bow.

After being locked up and forbidden to leave the castle by the Beast, Belle eventually finds herself falling in love with her captor, empathising with him and seemingly forgiving him for taking her prisoner.

Stockholm Syndrome describes the phenomenon of people forming alliances with their captors. It was named in 1973, when four hostages taken in a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden defended their captors, refusing to testify against them in court after being released.

Yet Emma Watson, who played Belle in Disney’s live-action take on the story, doesn’t see it that way, and told Entertainment Weekly in 2017 that it’s still a great love story between equals.

When asked about her feelings on the subject, and whether she though the description could be used for Belle and the Beast’s relationship, Emma said, ‘It’s something I really grappled with at the beginning; the kind of Stockholm Syndrome question about this story.

She came to decide that it wasn’t the case here, adding: ‘Belle actively argues and disagrees with [the Beast] constantly.

‘She has none of the characteristics of someone with Stockholm Syndrome because she keeps her independence, she keeps that freedom of thought.’

She points to scenes in which Belle refuses to fall in line with the Beast’s demands, like when she won’t come down for dinner.

What’s more, Emma called the characters’ love story ‘more meaningful’ than many others in films, since it certainly wasn’t love at first sight.

Linda Woolverton, who wrote the original animated film’s screenplay, said in a 2016 interview with IGN: ‘There’s been a lot of talk about Stockholm syndrome, that [Belle] fell in love with her captor.

‘But I disagree! She was captured, but she transformed him. She didn’t become, you know, an object. She didn’t turn into a beast!

‘She transformed him. So it was certainly the transformative power of love and what it can do,’ she explained.

Lady and the Tramp

In Lady and the Tramp, there’s a scene with two Siamese cats, named Si and Am – who were depicted with many anti-Asian stereotypes

Lady and the Tramp, first released in 1955, is a love story about a pampered Cocker Spaniel named Lady who fell for a a stray dog named Tramp. Together, they embark on a series of adventures.

Along the way, the animals meet two Siamese cats, named Si and Am, who trashed Lady’s home and framed her for the entire thing.

The cats, both played by Peggy Lee, sing a song called The Siamese Cat Song, and are depicted with many anti-Asian stereotypes. The characters were removed when the film was remade into a live-action flick in 2019.

‘The part with the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp makes me so uncomfortable,’ one viewer previously said on X.

Aladdin 

Some people were also unhappy that Jafar (left) – who is the villain – was portrayed with dark skin, while Aladdin (right) – who is the hero – had much lighter skin and no accent

The musical animation Aladdin, which aired in 1992, tells the story of a local street urchin who was determined to marry a Princess.

Unfortunately, she was only allowed to wed a prince – but Aladdin made his dream come true after he found a magic lamp with a genie inside and was granted three wishes.

It took place in an Arabian desert kingdom called Agrabah.

Some viewers were also unhappy that Jafar (who is the villain in the film) was portrayed with dark skin and a strong accent in the original cartoon, while Aladdin (who is the hero) had much lighter skin and no accent.

‘Aladdin is one of the most racist Disney movies of all time, how did Disney get away with it?’ wrote one person online. 

Critics have often expressed concerns over the story’s use of Orientalist stereotypes, while casting decisions also came under scrutiny, with Aladdin, Princess Jasmine and the genie played by white actors in the animation.