The House of Mouse doesn’t want you looking at derrières, apparently, which is extremely out of touch with the times.
Because everyone’s spending more time inside, Disney’s diligently added more and more classic films like Splash to the Disney+ catalogue. But what has become apparent is that before putting the movie online, Disney for some reason felt the need to heavily edit scenes in which there is partial (though hilariously chaste) nudity.
We’ve reached out to Disney to see when and why the edits were made and will update should we hear back.
A specific scene was caught by Allison Pregler on twitter (h/t Screencrush) which involves one of Allen Bauer’s (Tom Hanks) first interactions with the movie’s mermaid (Daryl Hannah). The two of them kiss before she prances back into the ocean, as mermaids with legs are wont to do. In the original cut of the movie, you can clearly see Hannah’s butt because, well, she’s a mermaid and has no concept of the need to wear human clothing, but in Disney+’s edited version, her butt’s been edited out…
Rather than simply cutting around the shot, Disney instead tried to elongate Hannah’s hair so as to cover her exposed butt. But for whatever reason, the post-production house didn’t try to make the hair look real, appropriate, or as if it was actually a part of the movie. What’s currently streaming makes it look as if hair’s just straight up growing out of the mermaid’s rear, which is made that much more ridiculous by the fact that—according to Gizmodo’s Alex Cranz, a noted terror—you can still see Hannah’s nipples in a number of shots. Right here seems just the place to mention that the Hulk’s entire, well-sculpted green arse (including the cleft) is still available to view in Thor: Ragnarok on Disney+.
What Disney seems to be trying to do is keep the Disney+ brand “family-friendly,” an imperative that’s already led to the streaming platform full-on putting the new Lizzie McGuire on hold and shifting the Love, Simon sequel Love, Victor to Hulu. Sex has always been something that Disney has struggled with because of how it generally makes content that’s aimed at children.
Clearly, Disney’s going out of its way so as to not offend people who might think that butts are objectively sexual. To be fair, within the context of Splash, you’re meant to understand that Hanks’ character is horny, but the reality of the situation is that people…have asses. it’s just a part of being human and it’s fair to say that Disney’s overcorrecting something that isn’t actually a problem.