Stop the censorship of old cartoons!

Feel free to disclaim responsibility, but let me read the stories.

Debate

This is a debate post. The entry was written by an external contributor, and quality assured by BT’s debate department. Opinions and analyzes are the writer’s own.

The times are changing. What was once OK to express in culture, such as cartoons, does not always reflect today’s values. Older films and TV series are often equipped with warnings of this type:

“This publication contains negative representations or bad treatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than removing this content, we want to acknowledge the harmful impact, learn from it and stimulate conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”

I have read that some of the older TV series that are included on Disney Plus, has this type of warning.

Filmen «Song of the South» (“Song of the South”) has long been a problem for how the Disney group will be perceived. It is very unavailable and I myself have not seen it.

Unfortunately, it is in a context where slavery can be perceived positively. As I understand it, it also contains cartoons with characters known from the magazine Donald Duck: Bamse Brakar and Mikkel Rev. In other words, pure animal stories/fables.

These figures have has long been a difficult issue for Disneyas a result of the film’s problematic theme.

Since 1998, Egmont has published the book series “Donald Duck – Komplte Årganger”, which will be reprints of the Donald magazines as they were originally published. I myself have subscribed to the series from the start, and have a good customer relationship with Egmont, but am a little behind in reading it.

On kvakk.no I became aware that the two most recent books are missing several stories. “Little Hiawatha” is missing in at least one book. The Indians in the series would not be portrayed like that today.

Content with Bamse Brakar, Lille Hiawatha and Mikkel Rev have been removed from the books. The same applies to stories about Little Wolf and Longøre.

This has caused great irritation among subscribers, and some have already canceled their subscription to the book series.

That old cartoons can have problematic sides, is not unique to the Disney universe. Some of the oldest stories about Tintin can considered racist Today. You can also find racist undertones in old “Knoll og Tott” Christmas booklets.

The story of the “Eggemysteriet” caused a lot of debate in Norway in its time because of Nynorsk, but this is not the reason for the debate today. Early in the story, Donald and the boys encounter Indians who try to swindle them. Not a very positive portrayal of the indigenous population, in other words. It remains to be seen if this story will be blacklisted.

I think it’s fine that the old stories are given a warning, but when the stories are tried to be erased and forgotten, I think we’re on a wild path. You shouldn’t ban everything you don’t like.