User:Jonathany1pp/Peter Pan (1953 film)

Wiki Week 3
I thought this article was interesting as it is a film that most people know and love, yet there is some controversy behind the use of Native Americans that people have to be aware of.

Controversey
Peter Pan has been criticized in recent decades[when?] for its broadly stereotypical treatment of Native Americans.

In the song "Following the Leader," the protagonists march through the wilderness stating their intent to track, hunt, and presumably kill "Injuns," although the Lost Boys later reveal this is a recurring play scenario between them and the tribe. At the conclusion of the song, the children are captured by tomahawk-bearing men disguised as trees.

In particular, the song "What Makes the Red Man Red?" has been removed from television airings of the film and widely described as "racist" since 2014. Its lyrics claim that Native American men are "red" due to "the very first Injun prince" blushing after kissing a "maid." It also contains usage of the word "squaw," gibberish utterances like "ugg-a-wugg," and a mocking explanation of the Lakota greeting háu. The visuals include tipis, drumming, tobbacco ceremonial pipes, and the Inuit eskimo kiss. Multiple characters use the word "squaw" throughout the film, in reference to two different Native women as well as protagonist Wendy.

The Native American tribe was not included in the 2002 sequel Return to Never Land, but they were included in a tie-in video game and are referenced by a brief shot of Peter Pan flying by a totem pole.

In 1995, Eric Goldberg, director of that year's Disney animated romance Pocahontas, expressed his belief that "all the Indians [in the 1953 film] were caricatures."

In 2007, supervising animator Marc Davis stated, "I'm not sure we would have done the Indians if we were making this movie now. And if we had, we wouldn't do them the way we did back then."

In 2021, the film was one of several that Disney limited to viewers 7 years and older on their streaming service Disney+. They cited the film's depictions of Native American characters that were "stereotypical" and not "authentic," and references to them as "redskins."