Times change, so no wonder the language police are after fairytale films
FOR a veteran adversary of the language police, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. “Fans slam ‘woke’ decision as ridiculous!” boomed the Daily Mail.
“Woke sans frontieres,” tweeted one reader. “That’s it,” said another. “The country is now officially mad.”
The British Board of Film Classification’s decision to upgrade Mary Poppins from U to PG had left “furious Disney fans” (surely a contradiction in terms) “venting their frustration”, according to the newspaper’s website.
But this is one pile-on I won’t be joining, as it strikes me as a lot of fuss over nothing.
The change was made because of what the censors called “discriminatory language” by the 1964 film’s barmy Admiral Boom, who refers to soot-faced chimney sweeps as “Hottentots” – an old term used by white Europeans to refer to the Khoikhoi people of South Africa and now considered offensive.
I can’t see much similarity between an ancient nomadic people and a few blackface Hollywood characters “chim-chim-cheree-ing”, can you?
And it’s not as though the film has been doctored. Times change, and the censors’ decision reflects that. “A key concern for parents, in particular,” they say, “is the potential to expose children to discriminatory language or behaviour which they may find distressing or repeat without realising the potential offence”.
The new rating doesn’t stop parents letting children of any age go see it at the cinema. And it can still be shown in all its syrupy glory on television.
The Mail is never going to miss a chance to stoke a fire, though, and it followed the story with a list of 10 other popular kids’ films that might warrant the censors’ attention, among them Dumbo (flying elephant taunted by crows inspired by minstrel shows) and Peter Pan, in which the islanders of Neverland are described as “redskins” who speak “an unintelligible language”.
Then there’s Sleeping Beauty, wherein the titular character is woken with a kiss she hasn’t consented to. Critics say that’s nothing short of sexual assault.
One classic fairytale that has certainly been doctored for today’s audiences is Snow White, eight years in the making and due to open in cinemas soon.
The Brothers Grimm tale, featuring Happy, Grumpy and five vertically challenged chums, is no longer “a love story with a guy who literally stalks her”, to quote Snow White (Rachel Zegler).
“She’s not going to be dreaming about love,” the actor says. “She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.”
All very virtuous and uplifting, I’m sure, though whether leaked pictures of the cast (showing not dwarves but a racially and gender-diverse group of mostly able-bodied creatures of average height) are genuine or fake remains to be seen.
But back to Mary Poppins: I’m surprised the language police haven’t tried to save impressionable young minds by changing the name of Julie Andrews’s co-star.
It happened in an episode of the TV cartoon series Family Guy, as clean-up campaigners renamed his 60s series The **** Van **** Show.