A scene in Saludos Amigos featuring Goofy smoking has been edited out of the version streaming on Disney+. Saludos Amigos, or “Greetings, Friends”, was Disney’s sixth animated film overall and premiered in the United States in 1943. The film takes place in four different segments: “Lake Titicaca”, “Pedro”, “El Gaucho Goofy” and “Aquarela do Brasil”. “Lake Titicaca” and “Aquarela do Brasil” follow iconic Disney character Donald Duck as he mingles with the locals in each respective setting. Pedro is an anthropomorphic airplane who faces several catastrophic obstacles while retrieving a letter from Mendoza to bring back to Chile. Lastly, in “El Gaucho Goofy”, Goofy travels to Argentina in order to train to be a gaucho.
Disney+ is a streaming service launched by Disney on November 12th, 2019. Die-hard fans can watch Disney classics, Disney Channel throwbacks, Marvel movies and the Star Wars films. Since its launch, Disney+ has also released original content like The Mandolorian, The World According to Jeff Goldblum and the live-action Lady and the Tramp. New Disney+ originals like WandaVision, the Lizzie McGuire sequel series, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 are further set to premiere in 2020. When it first launched, the streaming platform announced that it will keep all of the original content in the Disney classics and that “outdated cultural depictions” would not be removed.
However, Gizmodo reported that a scene that featured Goofy smoking was removed from Saludos Amigos. When Goofy’s character in “El Gaucho Goofy” is first introduced, he sits on a horse and waves saying “Howdy, strangers”. Then, in the original version, Goofy takes a drag from a cigarette and rings of smoke appear in the sky. However, in the Disney+ version, there is no cigarette and Goofy just rests his arm on his knee after he waves. The issue lies in the fact that Disney+ did not label the film as uncut. There is even a warning displayed in the beginning, stating that the G-rated movie contains “tobacco depictions.”
In the “Aquarela do Brasil” segment of the Disney+ version of Saludos Amigos, Jose Carioca smokes a cigar. Not only has the cigar been kept in the Disney+ version, Donald Duck ignites the flames that light the cigar and the smoke rings from the cigar are equally visible. Why is smoking in one scene acceptable and not the other? Are cigars considered more appropriate than cigarettes? Smoking parrots more acceptable than smoking dogs? Additionally, the DVD release of Saludos Amigos edited out the smoking scene, but the version in the 2008 documentary Walt & El Grupo restored it.
So far, Disney+ has handled its controversial content by acknowledging their films have “outdated” material, as a way of warning viewers and allowing those who want to appreciate these movies in their original forms to do so. Disney Classics should remain as they are, rather than trying to rewrite or sanitize the studio’s history. Disney+ told Gizmodo that it intends to put Goofy’s cigarette back in its version of Saludos Amigos rather than noting that it has been cut. Viewers will have to keep an eye out for the cigarette’s return.
Source: Gizmodo
