why is swiss family robinson offensive
In its explanation for the advisory warnings, Disney+ writes,These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. "They were able to construct a fascinating tale and build up its potential. Having thought about this a bit more, I have a recommendation. The destiny of another Bernese man, Alfred von Rodt, also crossed paths with that of the fictional adventurer. Never once thought anything of it, regarding race or racism. Probably because of the cultural dominance and popularity of Lost,adults watching Swiss Family Robinsonmay be predisposed to not accepting a tropical island at face value. While the adventure was an international hit from the very beginning particularly among English-speaking audiences it has fallen into obscurity at home since the start of the 20th century, especially among French-speaking Swiss readers. 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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. A more realistic, accurate, and modern-day word for the Robinson saga is "traumatic." But if you adjust for inflation, grossed over $500 million domestically, which means it outgrossed films like. looks great. "They were able to construct a fascinating tale and build up its potential. The films now unavailable on childrens profiles are The Aristocats, Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Swiss Family Robinson. In truth, what Disney+ really needs is context. The aristocrat became governor of the archipelago, which he rented for 1,500 dollars a year. "When The Swiss Family Robinson had the potential to gain a wider readership, that is after the Second World War and also in the 1960s, the Swiss were more interested in promoting their sense of belonging to the homeland," says Daniel Maggetti. If anything was challenging about Swiss Family Robinson, it would have to be on the technical side. On the island, the family must also constantly adapt to survive, which is a source of new adventures. The movie opens with the Robinson family which includes two teenagers and a little kid trapped in a tiny room on a ship as it fills with water. RheyrUighta4722. 23:42. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together., Continued: Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.. The world does not need the magical nonsense of Disney. But the biggest draw this adaptation has is, like the film itself, simple: it's a movie about people on a tropical island that was shot on a tropical island. It happened and at the time it wasnt a big deal. Presence Switzerland, The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs presents. I would really love to hear why you think that. Disney is making it worse by trying to hide. Why is Andi the only unattractive one with stereotypical Asian short hair? Quite a bit of euphemism-heavy birds and bees talk permeates Swiss Family Robinson. Since you canceled your subscription, its not even an issue that affects you directly, so are you just taking it upon yourself to complain on behalf of other parents, as if they need you to speak for them? They build a shelter, then set about exploring their new home. We have been dumbed down and this only fosters our not knowing how to think but rather being told what to think. I think Disney has gone crazy! "We do not see the same success in Switzerland, Germany or France, where the work, although present, re-worked and adapted over time, has a much smaller readership than in American culture". Let me know if Disney Plus will add warning labels to further Disney animated films because they arent kid friendly. Answer: The family could not get into the boat because the crew had already crowded all the boats. I will proudly put these movies on for my grandchildren to watch and if they want to draw their own conclusions.good for them. Everybody has their favourite, but plenty will argue that one of their more overlooked gems is Swiss Family Robinson. The films werent removed, just blocked from the childs profile. It's got a decent enough cast among the family. These are mostly white liberals taking offense for other people since white liberals love sticking their nose into other peoples business. Is that the purpose of a Disney movie? The cat is depicted as a racist caricature of East Asian peoples with exaggerated stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth. Best not to simply pose as the new belief and instead recognize that humans are diverse but also very much alike. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. It then takes him a moment to figure out exactly what she's saying, but Mother laments how if they were to never get rescued and if they stayed on this island paradise forever, their boys would "never get married" or find themselves wives by which she means "succumb to their natural physical needs as men." Those same pirates threaten the Robinsons' safety on multiple occasions. Older viewers (and more astute, geographically educated children who listen well) can figure out exactly where the Robinsons in Swiss Family Robinson get shipwrecked and take up residence. Adapted from the 1812 novel of the same name, has the perfect kind of high-concept hook that's inspired everything from multiple direct adaptations to the 1960s TV series, : a family is stranded at sea after an attack by pirates, and must fend for itself on a deserted-island paradise. Are these Disney films Ive mentioned going to be removed from kids profiles and will they have warning labels about these films like Pocahontas which admits that it was wrong what was shown in these films. They could say nothing at all, or refuse to make these films viewable. This is a story about a lily-white family arriving on a tropical island and colonizing it for themselves. . In a strictly modest Disney movie from 1960, showing off a belly button would be downright profane, so most instances of shirtlessness involve the Robinson guys hilariously pulling up their long pants almost up to their chests so as to not flash anything untoward. Disney should provide their rationale for this decision. . The ship survives the night, and the family finds themselves within sight of a tropical desert island. For later adaptations, see, Frontispiece by John Gilbert from the 1851 American edition, The Swiss Family Robinson (disambiguation), The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island, "A Note on Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson, Montolieu's Le Robinson suisse, and Kingston's 1879 text", "New Switzerland, Jules Verne's Imaginary Shipwreck Sanctuary", "TJ Hoisington Pens the First Swiss Family Robinson Sequel in Over 100 Years", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Swiss_Family_Robinson&oldid=1138717803, Swiss novels adapted into television shows, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 05:58. 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. There cant be many people, especially from my generation, who arent familiar with the 1960 Disney classic, Swiss Family Robinson. on: function(evt, cb) { Ive been saying this about Song of the South forever heck even Whoopie G has stated publicly she wishes they would release it to start a convo. Sit back enjoy the movie and get a life your own. Unbelievable. The story is about a Swiss family that is marooned on an island and must make the best of their new lives. Furthermore, Candances round eyes are round as a ball, which should offend all white people because no white people have eyes as round as a quarter, its ridiculous. It's an attractive premise which appeals to readers. So are they going to remodel the Peter Pan ride into something else? But being a quintessential Disney adventure means you have to take the good with the bad. Today, the island bears the name 'Robinson Crusoe' and about forty descendants of the von Rodt family still live there, observes Stphane Gol, Swiss director and author of, Swiss technology tackles the climate crisis, The Rorschach test, invented by a Swiss psychiatrist, turns 100, The Swiss Family Robinson, Crusoe's Swiss cousins. Also in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Rocketeer features Nazis who put millions of people in concertation camps in real life. So sad were going down this road to appease the woke cancel culture rather than appreciating (and learning from) historical art for what it is based upon when it was produced. This resembles other educational books for young ones published about the same time. The movie Robinsons, however, aren't real people, and they just roll with the scary and don't seem much worse for the wear. During a trip in 1877, he landed on the Chilean island that inspired the story of Robinson Crusoe. But it's impossible to ignore, and correct to acknowledge. During a trip in 1877, he landed on the Chilean island that inspired the story of Robinson Crusoe. Switzerland's tradition of migration was not an aspect that the country was keen to promote at the time. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. I vent occasionally myself and often feel better afterward, but I dont waste my time on non-issues like this. Liberals will be the death of everything. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Peter and the Lost Boys engage in dancing, wearing headdresses and other exaggerated tropes, a form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples culture and imagery. Viewed through a sensitive, 21st-century lens, Swiss Family Robinson consists of one harrowing, dangerous, life-threatening, and thus potentially psychologically damaging event after another. Despite the geographical peculiarities and inconsistencies in their depiction, the animals in Swiss Family Robinsonare one of the film's biggest attraction points, both in the present day and most certainly when it first hit theaters in 1960, when less media and less zoos and aquariums meant fewer chances to get a glimpse of a tiger, zebra, shark, or sea turtle up close. Disney is no stranger to the concept of pirate characters in its films and its theme parks, but the pirates depicted in Swiss Family Robinson might as well be faceless stereotypes. (However, the Robinson boys do notice that this new friend isn't the most macho of men, and they compare him to a school chum from back home they bullied for being a "sissy.") Perhaps it was your inability to read my post. Those dogs get into a scrap with a tiger, and the Robinsons later try to save a zebra that gets trapped in what seems to be quicksand. The Swiss Family Robinson. Or the time he shoplifted lightbulbs and got away with it? Grow up!!!! No, Swiss Family Robinson has not been removed from Disney+. "The Wysses cooked up all the ingredients for a successful story," notes Daniel Maggetti. I am so over hearing and seeing all this stupid bullshit people need to take their head out of the asses and stop crying like a bunch of whiny babies. Oh wait never mind. It's easy to imagine why a studio might want to remake. You cant learn from something that doesnt exist. Fortune cookie always wrong., 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. Father speaks with the natural, clipped British accent of the man who portrays him, John Mills, while Mother speaks in a mid-Atlantic dialect that highly theatrical, vaguely British, mid-20th manner of speech used primarily by actors like Katharine Hepburn. WebWhy did the Swiss Family Robinson not get into the boat? They obviously have such a deep knowledge of plant life that they know what to eat and what to avoid, their raft-making skills are on point, the older boys can spear fish, and the family somehow manages to build the fanciest and most complicated treehouse in world history. One of the more mature struggles in the film is between the parents: William (Mills) is quick to adopt a can-do attitude about living on the unknown island, whereas his wife Elizabeth (McGuire) initially wants the family to figure out a way to head to New Guinea, their original destination. 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. WebS01E47 - The Swiss Family Robinson. But that's not the case with Swiss Family Robinson, which will amuse and mildly startle adult viewers. Another offensive show is Bunkd, in which an Asian girl studies super hard, and when her friend told her to take it easy a bit, she said if she let up, she would disappoint her mother, who would then die, and does her friend want her mother to die??? I believe they were mostly voiced by Black actors too. Those movies are still on Disney Plus in their original uncensored form. Nothing has been censored, nothing has been cancelled. Through a few statements pieced together, it's established that the Robinsons were a wealthy family from Bern, Switzerland. The crows are an example of irony. Answer: The They're bloodthirsty and cruel, and they are also pointedly played by actors of color (or by actors who are made to. WebThe Swiss Family Robinson Questions and Answers - Discover the eNotes.com community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || { Disney made a lot of live-action movies in the 1960s and 1970s, but few are as fondly remembered as Swiss Family Robinson. We understand and can read the problem is my kids shouldnt need my permission to watch Peter Pan or the aristocrats or Dumbo..my God everything offends somebody..all thats happening is more of a divide is drawn because we go to much to the other extreme because someones feelings are hurtridiculous. Thought police have indeed existed in human history. Thankfully, you still can. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. Listen, I am as liberal as the come. Super WHY! At times it is difficult to explained nuance views to adults. Her granddad had her wrap her head in a scarf to make the pirates think she's a man, which viewers presume is so they wouldn't kidnap her and do horrible things to her. Though other adaptations may complicate the matter somewhat Lost in Space obviously sets its action far away from a tropical island, and also features the nefarious Dr. Smith the Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson is exceedingly uncomplicated. In the novel a minister, his wife, and their four sons are shipwrecked and become castaways on an island in the East Indies. 23:40. No, Dumbo is about a character that is different than the other elephants. Mother Robinson (Dorothy McGuire) gets awfully nervous when her strong swimming husband and sons are swinging on a vine over a swimming hole, but neither she nor anyone else seems afraid of that unclean water. The films have been moved to a 6+ rating and are not the only movies unavailable to children as PG-rated Disney films are also unavailable. The Wysses, "both father and son, were intellectuals, the former a pastor and the latter a professor of philosophy. Those unique cultural indicators made the final cut of Swiss Family Robinson, and the boys' names stayed as Swiss-German as they were in the original 1840 novel Ernst, Fritz, and Francis. The family In truth, what Disney+ really needs is context. The Swiss Family Robinson has another dominant theme linked to Swiss history that of exile. And then Fritz gives a baffling, hormonal, and almost predatory reply with, "By the time we get to New Guinea, we won't care what age they are!". Other parents will do their own thing. The book is the most successful of a large number of "Robinsonade" novels that were written in response to the success of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). Audiences are curious about the Swiss Family Robinson pirate scene in the wake of recent discussion. Super Why. The principal characters of the book (including Isabelle de Montolieu's adaptations and continuation) are: In the novel, the family is not called "Robinson" as their surname is not mentioned. Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.. They're relentlessly cheerful, even. Yeeaubrey 1770. The Jungle Book from 1967 makes the list due to its King Louie character (voiced by Louis Prima), a jazz-singing, be-bopping ape long considered an offensive caricature that utilizes racist stereotypes of African Americans. However, it is no longer available in the childrens category. The story takes place in the Swiss mountains and the young girl who is forced into exile eventually returns. {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. is by no means the only troublesome film the Walt Disney Company ever released. The German title translates as The Swiss Robinson which identifies the novel as part of the Robinsonade genre, rather than a story about a family named Robinson. Wake the fudge up, Disney. Written by Swiss writer, Johann David Wyss, edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, and illustrated by another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good farming, and the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. Favourite, but i dont waste my time on non-issues like this Switzerland tradition!, then set about exploring their new home Foreign Affairs presents i would really love to hear you. Fascinating tale and build up its potential camps in real life dollars a year crew! Or the time it wasnt a big deal into the boat white love. A bit of euphemism-heavy birds and bees talk permeates Swiss Family Robinson pirate scene in the childrens category the in... Is Swiss Family Robinson not get into the boat because the crew had already all! 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