I’m not convinced that Disney’s announcement that it’s banning depictions of smoking from future Walt Disney Pictures family films is such a good thing. Yes, kids shouldn’t be encouraged to smoke. And Yes, Disney’s move may have helped keep both Congress and the MPAA ratings board (whom anti-smoking advocates are lobbying to include smoking alongside sex and profanity as elements that make a movie unsuitable for kids) from stepping in to regulate movie content. (At least, for a while.) But I fear that this concession to pressure will embolden activists with all kinds of axes to grind to lean on Hollywood to ban all kinds of supposedly unacceptable content. And not just from future films; will Disney now go back and airbrush out Cruella DeVil’s cigarette holder (pictured) from all prints of 101 Dalmatians? Will they purge the peace pipe from Peter Pan (while keeping all the rest of the patronizing and embarrassing Indian stereotyping)? Will they erase from the face of the earth this classic, tobacco-fueled Goofy short? (Hat tip to Advertising Age.) Tell me, PopWatchers, am I being alarmist, or is freedom of expression in Hollywood going up in… you know?
How Goofy is Disney's smoking ban?
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Comments (1-30) of 38
Honestly, do people REALLY think that youngsters learn smoking from watching films? I watched plenty of films as a kid, I had many family members on both sides of my family that smoked, but I never, ever had the urge to smoke. Young people are going to smoke whether they see it on film or not. Banning smoking is not the way to get kids not to smoke. The only way to keep kids from smoking is to ban cigarettes for EVERYONE, adults as well as kids. Only then will kids not smoke.
If Disney want to ban something, they should ban making crappy films like Underdog: The Movie and unnessary sequels to classics like Cinderella II.
I think it’s pretty lame. Sorry, I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan since before I could talk, and that man is the poster-child for chain-smoking, but I’ve never smoked in my life. (GASP! does this mean that Disney will go back and take the smoking out of the Great Mouse Detective, too! NOOO) I just don’t buy this. It just seems silly and another place to place blame and point fingers. Not that I think we should advocate smoking and go out of our way to have characters who do. But I do think the old films should be left alone.
Attacking cartoons and children’s programming for depicting smoking is ill-advised to say the least. Like people on here have said, it’s overly simplistic to assume kids will start smoking just because they see a cartoon character do it.
Then again, I’m pretty much against censorship in anyway. And the idea that they would go back and censor out something like Cruella’s cigarette holder is ridiculous, but not too far-fetched.
These works are a sign of their times. So I suppose it’s fitting. In something like 101 Dalmatians, it was perfectly ok for a prominent villain to be smoking it up (and it was a big part of her character). Meanwhile, these days with everyone being overly sensitive and PC, it makes sense that we would produce such ridiculously over-sanitized cartoons.
Partly, I think it’s just a publicity thing – when’s the last time you saw a character in a (modern) children’s movie smoking, Disney or otherwise? However, I also think it sets a precedent and could lead to censorship of past movies and that would be a horrible thing.
I’m on the fence, because I work at a summer camp, and kids are actually influenced by what they see. many pretend crayons are cigarettes if they want to. But, movies aren’t the only thing. I think this is when parents need to step in and take responsibility to make sure their kids make the right decision. I chose never to do that crap by watching every family member I have make the wrong decision.
Also, i think Cruella Devil is a bad example for pro-smoking, as she was so easy to hate and made it look bad. Smoking actually looks kinda good in adult movies, like when smoke is being exhaled sensually from Scarlett Jo’s luscious (sp?) lips in ‘Match Point.’
Yes, I agree that smoking in children’s movies might influence a kid to take a puff, but seriously these people should go and watch Thank You for Smoking. It just shows how ridiculous and carried away people get. Sure stop putting smoking in new and upcoming kids flix, but don’t go back and ruin the originals. Can you imagine Basil without a pipe, Cruella without a ridiculously long cigarette holder,the Little Mermaid without the pipe or snarfblatter gag? Next thing you know they’ll be editing out all the alcohol, which would be disastrous in Be Our Guest.
Thank the wacko extremists from the left for this one. Olivia, funny you should mention Thank You For Smoking. There wasn’t a single lit cig in the entire movie.
In “T.Y.F.S.” wasn’t Maria Bello smoking in the restauant?
I don’t think so.
for what the source is worth, Wikipedia confirms my statement. There was no smoking in the movie.
Um, can’t ppl change Wikipedia? I swear I’m not looking for a fight. I just want to be sure to make sure I’m not going nuts by remembering things differently.
haha sry 4 my dbl ’sure’ there
Like I said, for what the source is worth….
It also says the same thing on IMDB.com
ok, I guess I know what I’ll be renting again this weekend, thanks
“is freedom of expression in Hollywood going up in… you know?”
HELLYES.
orwell would be spinning in his grave if they have the b***s to edit all cigs out of classic Disney pics. Gotta love censorship! It reminds me of R-rated movies, when they’re on regular TV and edited, but it’s so obvious what they’re really saying. (I.E. ‘Shut the f*** up!’ magically morphs to ‘Shut your face up!’).
This is ridiculous. When I was a little girl, I actually used to eat candy cigarettes and pretend I was smoking them. But when I grew up, I never had a single urge to try a puff of a real cigarette. My father smoked, I saw smoking in movies including Disney movies, and have never had a cigarette.
Shee-it, if Lisa Schwarzbaum had her way, torture porn would have already been banned…
My point’s that there is always someone who’ll take issue with a particular element of pop culture and will claim it’s somehow corrupting children. Not THEIR children mind you (because we all believe our kids to be saints and child protoges, even when the facts speak otherwise), but “the” children.
I say F that noise jack. The more parents seem to rely on everyone else to raise their kids, the less prepared kids seem when they grow up and hit the real world. Teaching responsibility and discussing the risks associated with bad activity is the responsibility of individual parents NOT the creators of popular culture.
I would not at all be surprised if Disney went back and edited some of their movies and shorts. There are some Warner Brothers Cartoons that have been edited to remove content: there is one cartoon about a flea who is trying to set up camp on a dog (he keeps sing “Food around the corner for me”) and at the end of the short the flea is walking away with the dog on a platter and the cat says “Well, now I’ve seen everything”. In the new version, the cartoon jumps to black. In the old version, the cat then took out a gun and shot himself in the head. I can’t think of any more examples off the top of my head, but they are out there, and I’m sure the Disney films are next.
it frankly doesn’t matter to me. I hate smoking, i find it a vile habit, and if you smoke chances are we’re not going to be friends, hang out, date or even spend much time in the same room together (i hate smoker smell.)I censor smokers out of my life, but could care less what Hollywood does about it.
You know that when they re-released ET, they decided that it was too violent to have the police (or FBI or whoever they were) holding guns, so they edited the film so that they were holding walkee talkees instead. It looks completely stupid. I can definitely see them editing cigarettes out of old Disney movies.
This whole post is kind of dumb in my opinion. Disney is not going to feature smoking, which is an addictive behavior (a habit is something you can stop willingly, nicotine is addictive) that most people including smokers think young people shouldn’t do because of its proven negative health effects, in its films marketed to young people and children. They never said they would alter past work, instead they would put anti-smoking ads in front of all new DVDs of old movies, which is fine, and we have a problem with this! Young people don’t have a frame of reference for the world like adults, of course seeing a character they like smoke in a movie could make a child want to smoke too. It may not happen for every child but it happens. This is excellent news because smoking is not good, plain and simple and is in movies way too much. I don’t even know that many people who smoke regularly, but watching movies, you would think everyone did.
This is one of the most asinine things I have ever heard. Ep hit it right on the head.
I was a smoker for 10 years, and trust me, I didn’t start because I saw Cruella DeVille lighting up.
I take the most issue with having to sit through an anti-smoking ad before a DVD. Does Disney or any other corporation think that because smoking is in a movie that the public feels the company endorses it? This is a huge case of CYA, and we have only ourselves to blame as the general public wants to skirt responsibility and blame any negative behavior on external influences instead of free will. This policy is incredibly idiotic.
Actually, Disney has already drastically edited one of it’s classic cartoons. In the American edition of Pecos Bill, Bill’s ever present cigarette has been digitally removed and a line about smoking has been removed (rather jarringly from a song). If you want the cartoon as it originally appeared in theaters, you have to buy a foreign edition.
Clem – I was thinking the same thing. Pretend with candy cigs growing up didn’t lead to the real thing. Agree with some others that the ultimate burden, as usual, is with parents. If kids don’t see smoking in Disney films, there are still many influences out there in other forms. What a joke.
I don’t think the cigarette should be removed from Cruella DeVil’s hand.
When children see smoking on television it does not mean they are going to be smokers in the future. My father smoked when I was growing up and I have NEVER had the urge to light up a cigarette and start smoking for the rest of my life.
People think cigarettes are the cause of lung cancer, yes, but not totally. How about the cars that we drive, the Space Shuttle, planes, trains, buses and the list goes on. They give out the same carcinogens as smoking does but in a much larger amount.
I don’t want to start a fight here but It was just something for everyone to think about.
And finally, cigarettes don’t kill as much as alcohol either. More people die each year from getting killed in a car accident by a drunk driver than a person smoking around them causing cancer. I don’t like smoking either, but I also don’t like alcohol.
I don’t want to come on as being rude but It was just something I wanted to say.
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