Early last year, well ahead of the much-anticipated launch of the Disney+ platform, it was widely reported that The Walt Disney Company would make changes to some of the films appearing on the service, particularly controversial scenes in some older Disney films. While it ultimately didn’t appear to be the case on the scale fans were concerned about, it turns out that at least one film has had bit of censoring. Disney+ has apparently removed the scene of Goofy smoking from the 1942 animated classic, Saludos Amigos.
Saludos Amigos is technically a 41-minute short which combines live-action documentary clip sequences as well as animation and features four separate segments, each of them featuring various Disney characters exploring South America. One of them, “El Gaucho Goof” sees Goofy as an American cowboy who ends up in the Argentinian pampas so that he can learn the ways of the native gaucho. The segment features a scene in which cowboy Goofy is seen smoking a cigarette. However, while the film does feature Disney+’s disclaimer about “outdated cultural depictions” and is noted to be presented as originally created, Goofy’s smoking scene has been edited, removing all traces of Goofy smoking.
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This is particular interesting for two reasons. While this is far from the first time that Disney has made alterations to some of its older film, it does call into question just how accurate some of the descriptions of films Disney+ actually are in terms of their presentation. The description for Saludos Amigos (at the time of this article) clearly reads “This program is presented as originally created.” Except, it’s not. Gizmodo even put together a short video showing the original version as compared to the Disney+ version and they are most certainly not the same.
The second point of interest is that editing Goofy’s smoking doesn’t actually eliminate all representations of tobacco use in Saludos Amigos. The final segment of the film, “Aquarela do Brasil” features a Brazilian parrot named Jose Carioca who is seen smoking a cigar, which is itself lit when Donald Duck spits fire after consuming a very spicy drink. With Jose being allowed to smoke and Goofy not, it calls into question what the specific standards are for the updates and edits to older content, at least when it comes to tobacco use.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Goofy smoking scene in particular has been edited out of Saludos Amigos. The DVD release of the film saw the scene changed, though it was subsequently restored for the Blu-ray release last year.
The edited version of Saludos Amigos is now streaming on Disney+.
What do you think about Disney+ editing Goofy’s smoking scene? Let us know in the comments below.
