Political Disney At It's Best

[jray21]

Message originally posted by jray21 on 10-17-2007

So there is an article on a "Fair and balanced" website that talks about how the radio spot for the upcoming "Ten Commandments" movie was told to remove the phrase, "Chosen By God" in it's advertising on Radio Disney. Interesting. Personally I think people would be more offended by the movie, if they even get offended, than the use of the word God, but that is how we live now. I am looking forward to the movie but don't like how Disney is allowing an advertisement of a movie, but telling them to remove the main part of it from the ad. There is an a link to the actual email in the story and it includes the Disney gentleman's email address. He got a letter from me! To me it's like advertising Harry Potter without the mention of wizards and witches because some people don't agree with that. I think the movie itself would be the problem, not the advertising.

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Message updated posted by Figment! on 10-19-2007

The following is the original script as presented by Promenade Pictures to Radio Disney:

Narrator: One of the greatest stories of all time is now an animated movie event for the entire family ... "The Ten Commandments."

God: Moses, give them my message and they will follow you out of Egypt.

Narrator: An ordinary man, an extraordinary calling.

Moses: Let my people go!

Narrator: With Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould. ... chosen by God.

Moses: On to the promised land!

Narrator: 'The Ten Commandments,' Rated G. Now in theaters. Check your local listings.

Radio Disney has released the following statement regarding the request and their policies:

Radio Disney made the request because its policies require mention of the studio in its commercials and it decided to replace the "chosen by God" phrase with "from Promenade Pictures" because the original script made it sound as though the actors were chosen by God, not Moses, as was the intended meaning.

Mention of God isn't prohibited in the company's standards and procedures.

[mttafire]

Political Correctness Even though its not as bad now as in the past...Is just ridiculous. The whole WORLD would be better without it.

[GrumpyFan]

Odd. As far as I know, Disney did not develop or produce The Ten Commandments, it's being done by Promenade Pictures. Nor do I think they are distributing it. So, I'm kind of confused as to why they would be making any comments on it.

I'm curious where this article is. I would like to read it and see what they're saying about this (Non) "Disney" movie. Can someone PM me the link to the story?

[jray21]

Sorry some corrections are needed.

1. Promenade Pictures is in no way related to Disney.

2. Disney has no part with the film itself.

The problem is with Promenade pictures wanting to advertise on Radio Disney. That being said the argument still is the same. Disney will allow Promenade Pictures to advertise the movie on their site, but are requiring them to remove the "God". I understand Disney can allow whatever advertising they want, it is their company, but allowing the advertising of a movie entirely about God, but not allowing the word "God", is too PC for me.

[Tom Servo]

I don't even understand the move as being one for "political correctness," as it begs the question: whose sensibilities are they protecting by not using the word "God" in the advertisement? All things considered, I severely doubt the Radio Disney demographic is primarily comprised of atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, etc. Even so, as a member of that likely elusive consumer set, I don't fly off the handle when people invoke God's name for whatever reason, and neither do most others. This smacks of hypersensitivity for hypersensitivity's sake.

P.S., Disney corporate spies: I'm available as a political consultant. Cheap, too. You can pay me in Vacation Club points.

[Scar]

I have not heard the commercial, but I just read the text. In reading, it looks like the narrator is saying that the voice actors (Ben Kingsley and Elliot Gould among them) are “chosen by God” to read their parts.

[goofyskier]

"I have not heard the commercial, but I just read the text. In reading, it looks like the narrator is saying that the voice actors (Ben Kingsley and Elliot Gould among them) are “chosen by God” to read their parts. "

Scar

I thought the same thing when I read the text from the article.

Also, not the Disney would care either way but, the production company that made this movie is probably happy that Disney decided to "censor" the original commercial as it appears to me that it has generated a lot more attention for this movie than it would have gotten had they decided not to "censor". Either way, this does not seem like a movie I would go see. I'll take the original Ten Commandments with Charlston Heston any day.

[rookie]

Also, not the Disney would care either way but, the production company that made this movie is probably happy that Disney decided to "censor" the original commercial as it appears to me that it has generated a lot more attention for this movie than it would have gotten had they decided not to "censor". Either way, this does not seem like a movie I would go see. I'll take the original Ten Commandments with Charlston Heston any day.

I thought the original Ten Commandments where with Moses and Heston was just a cheap remake.

[goofyskier]

"I thought the original Ten Commandments where with Moses and Heston was just a cheap remake."

rookie

I'm sure the original version that took place a few millenniums ago was much better than the Heston version but, I can't find it anywhere on DVD (Divine Video Disc).

[Figment!]

I have not heard the commercial, but I just read the text. In reading, it looks like the narrator is saying that the voice actors (Ben Kingsley and Elliot Gould among them) are “chosen by God” to read their parts.

Yep, that is the issue.

I've added both the original radio script and Radio Disney's related statement to the original post.

The issue is that the term "chosen by God" appeared to reference the voice actors in the movie and not the term "God" itself.

[Supercali]

The world would be a terrible place without political correctness. Some people don't understand that this is meant to promote fairness for minorities and different religious views. It's the ethical thing to do to respect the beliefs of others. Since Disney is a secular company, they try not to offend anyone. They might do this if they promote one religious belief over another. Besides, they're not That politically correct. They still have Night of Joy and celebrate most religious holidays.

[drummerboy]

It appears to me that there is no issue of so-called 'Political Correctness' involved here. Somebody simply made a script revision to avoid a syntax error.

[magicofdisney]

The world would be a terrible place without political correctness. Some people don't understand that this is meant to promote fairness for minorities and different religious views. It's the ethical thing to do to respect the beliefs of others. Since Disney is a secular company, they try not to offend anyone. They might do this if they promote one religious belief over another. Besides, they're not That politically correct. They still have Night of Joy and celebrate most religious holidays.

Are you saying that "political correctness" is the ethical thing to do, or that Disney removing the term "God" from the commercial is the ethical thing to do? Either I'm reading this wrong, or I'm not following your logic. Either way, I've never correlated political correctness with ethics. And just like the OP stated, this movie is about God's people so if you're going to allow this commercial, that information is implied. Wouldn't that, on its own merits, be offensive. I understand why Radio Disney claims to have changed the promo, but the removal should never be associated with ethics.

[Supercali]

It is ethical to respect the beliefs or lack of beliefs of others. If this is a program about the ten commandments, most people know that this is about God. But, there are some people who do not believe in God and don't want their children exposed to religion. In this case, Disney may have chosen not to offend these people. Just because a group of people are a minority, that doesn't give others the right to offend them. That's why I believe that it is ethical to be sensitive to all audiences when advertising programs.

[mttafire]

The world would be a terrible place without political correctness. Some people don't understand that this is meant to promote fairness for minorities and different religious views. It's the ethical thing to do to respect the beliefs of others. Since Disney is a secular company, they try not to offend anyone. They might do this if they promote one religious belief over another. Besides, they're not That politically correct. They still have Night of Joy and celebrate most religious holidays.

I had alot to say...but out of respect to the Mods I'll just say...
The above box is full of 100% pure drivel.
P.S. I Guess Disney according to the above's line of thinking should take down the American Flag on Main St.. After all..It might offend someone. Where does it end?

[Supercali]

Have a Disney Day!!!

[BrownEyedGrrl]

I'm a Christian, and I do believe that God and Christian beliefs, more often than not, get censored for the sake of not stepping on non-believer's toes- even though the same courtesy is not so often extended back to us. And so, if this is a case of simply not wanting God mentioned on air, I would not be shocked. BUT- I have to agree that the phrase "chosen by God" was totally misplaced in that script. It does sound like they were saying that the voice talent was chosen by God- a phrasing which actually made me guffaw out loud.
So, if the bad phrasing was truly Disney's reason for changing the script, I can't blame them.

And while we're kinda-sorta on the subject, , "Political Correctness" is complete bollox. It's 100% impossible to cut out, tone down, change, or leave out everything that might offend someone, without offending someone else in the process. Of course we should all be kind to each other, and respect the fact that everyone has the right to decide what they want to believe- but censoring things has never helped foster that attitude.

[Ian]

Moderator Alert!

This thread is a story about Disney altering one of their radio commercials. It is NOT a thread for debating the merits of political correctness, one way or the other.

In fact, after clarifying what actually occurred, it doesn't even seem to be a case of PC. So let's drop that talk and stick to the original topic or the thread will be closed.

If you want to debate PC, there are plenty of political discussion forums on the 'Net'. This, however, is a Disney board.

[gueli]

Thank you Ian.

Should disney have edited this commercial ?
in my opinion yes.
the commercial has a bad script error- as the actors were chosen by the producers & the talent cooridinator.

and PS, wasn't moses freeing the jewish people from the pharoh of egypt? As the savior had not been born yet, there were no christians yet... (hence this happend BC)

[Tekneek]

At the end of the day, there are much bigger issues with the Disney company than this, IMO. I'm not sure where this would fall on my 'things to be fixed' list, but I do doubt the chances I would get around to it anytime soon.