We received an e-mail yesterday from a source who requested anonymity informing us of yet another round of Disney+ censorship. This time, it’s very untimely. Disney co. is deeply embroiled in controversy regarding their position on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and their long history of silencing or removing LGBT characters and storylines from projects. To begin on the path towards making it right, they have pledged to greatly increase the LGBT representation in their movies and series. That all feels quite hollow when we now learn they have stripped the Argentine telenovela, Once (O11CE or Disney 11), of its gay characters and storyline.
The Latin American Disney XD show’s original plot in question began in Season 3. From episodes 36-47, a gay character pursues his crush on a basketball player. The English audio track has been altered to seem like he is seeking advice from this boy on how to attract girls and great effort has been made to have them appear “straight.”
The incorrect English audio track has been present ever since Disney+ added the series to Latin America last year. Disney Channel mega-fan Caitlin McKillop shared a video showcasing the difference and it’s… wow.
Our source added, “it’s disappointing (but not surprising) that they didn’t care to change it back.” Not surprising at all.
The Spanish and Portuguese audio remain original and uncensored. Said our source, “I think this must have been for when they aired it in the Middle East/Central Europe because the dub that aired in the UK didn’t change a thing.” In other words, there are uncensored English audio tracks out there, just waiting to be uploaded.
While this storyline may constitute a small part of the 220 episode series, it is imperative that stories like this are told on screen. We also are firmly against censorship in all forms and implore Disney to replace the censored audio tracks with the original English dub. This was probably a mistake, and we expect Disney to fix it once they’ve been made properly aware. We don’t think they would have bothered 3 months ago, but now? It’s a certainty.
Make some noise, folks. Let’s make this right.
How To Help
Go to help.disneyplus.com and click “give Feedback,” “Live Chat,” or “Call Us.” Kindly inform them of the situation (share a link to this article if you like) and ask them to escalate it upwards.
While unrelated, we’d really appreciate if you’d take a moment to advocate for the restoration of Splash and Adventures in Babysitting. For more on these gross examples of censorship, click here.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
