Why do people care so much about media being banned? Well, the answer is quite obvious I think, it's because art is a universal form of communication, so when a book, movie, video game or anything is banned it is essentially saying that the ideas and thoughts of the work are not welcome in the area. Sometimes though, bans can be put in place for okay reasons, like say an episode of a cartoon being banned from televised airings because it has a scene that contains rapidly flashing lights that could cause seizures in epileptic viewers, or maybe a certain streaming service will ban a creator from their platform because they're spouting hateful nonsense and spreading harmful misinformation, or maybe a media company puts out a list of things that maybe shouldn't be played or aired for a couple days during a national tragedy. Whether or not these things really count as "bans" is, a different conversation entirely, but the point I do want to make is that sometimes things aren't banned or "Soft banned" just because the government wants total control over what their people think, some things do get pulled for less frustrating reasons. Some things also get pulled for completely stupid reasons.
So I thought, why not have some fun and talk about a bunch of animated movies that have some ban history to them. Why? Partially for educational purposes, I mean this is still film history after all, but also because I want to have a laugh at the stupid things and dumb reasons that most banned lists give us. This isn't going to be a top ten list, I'm mostly going to go through these movies in alphabetical order and whenever I can I will be providing links to articles about these film bans, I do have to be some kind of journalist here after all. So, with all of that said, welcome to the Bizarre Case of Banned Animated Movies!
(Author's note - *Denotes any movie where hard confirmation of the film actually being banned in any way is dubious at best)
Really? Abominable was banned? Yes, yes it was, in three countries no less, but... when I tell you the countries that banned it, you might notice something interesting about them. See, Abominable was banned in Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, and if you even vaguely know your geography, you can tell that all three of those countries have have shorelines in the South China Sea, an area which has several islands that are currently in dispute. See, China has a policy called the "Nine-Dash Line" policy which basically lays claim to those islands, and possibly the sea itself as well? What does this have to do with Abominable? Well, there is a brief scene where a map is displayed, that shows this Nine-Dash Line. Because this is disputed territory and this can be seen as supporting China's claim over the area, the three countries have called for the scene to be edited out, or censored, however because it was refused to cut the scene, the movie was pulled from theatres.
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster*
Really, direct to video movies are being banned now? Well, not exactly, this is one of the movies that has a ban in the United States, and American bans tends to be either very regional or strictly over one form of viewing, for example, this movie. It was apparently banned from airing on Universal Kids, a Children's Television Channel that launched in 2005, and they gave no reason as to why they wouldn't air it. Some speculate it's because there is a character who might be a minor that has a crush on a character that is supposed to be middle aged, and the channel might have considered that inappropriate. Funny enough though, Freeform, an American basic cable channel, actually aired the movie in 2019 with a TV-PG rating, so make of all of that what you will.
Well, here's our first adult animated movie, a Ralph Bakshi film too. Ralph Bakshi has a history of controversial animations, with things like Fritz the Cat and even Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. An archived article on The New York Times from 1975 (linked above) details one of the biggest controversies this film received, allegations of racism! The Congress for Racial Equality or CORE dubbed the movie as racist and campaigned to stop the movie's release, which led to the production company Paramount choosing to no longer distribute the movie. It should be stated that the article does mention that some black people were not on CORE's side about the movie, and many will comment on Bakshi's satire in the film. Coonskin is a movie that many better animation reviewers, analysts and historians could talk about for ages, so I'm gonna cut it off here. What I will say is, if you find a copy on Home Video in the wild, even under the alternate titles "Bustin' Out" or "Street Fight", maybe it's worth holding on to.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Hashira Training
Of all the places to ban an Anime film, one of the last places I would expect would be The Bahamas, yes, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Hashira Training, was banned in, of all places, The Bahamas. Why? Nobody is really sure, some have said that it's because the movie isn't in English, which is a dumb reason considering that the movie can be dubbed. So yeah, the Bahamas Plays and Film Control Board just banned this movie for... as far as anyone can really tell no actual reason. See, this is the stupid stuff that people like to see in ban lists.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Swordsmith Village
Well, here we have it, our first movie ban in the Middle East. I will not even begin to talk about the culture of the Middle East because I am very much ill-equipped to do so, but suffice to say we have a bunch of movie bans in the Middle East. To the Swordsmith Village was the second Demon Slayer movie, and it was banned in a couple Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates banned this movie because of a scene where the character Mitsuri Kanroji is taking a bath. Of course, the Middle East in general has a problem with nudity and sexuality, so even a scene that is apparently not explicit can be seen as controversial. The sad thing is, this isn't even the weirdest ban for Demon Slayer.
Fairytale
What the heck is this movie? Well, Fairytale is a 2022 experimental adult movie by Alexander Sokurov, it was submitted to the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and was scheduled to be screened at the Moscow Karo.Art festival but was denied a screening license. So, the movie was denied screening in Russia, and why? Again, no real reason is given, but if I had to make a guess, the movie is about Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill in the afterlife, so... make of that what you will.
I should specify here that I'm not linking to any sources in this case, predominately because the sources are Russian, and I don't want to send people to any pro-Russia propaganda sites. The necessity of proper and sourced journalism is only upstaged by the necessity of due diligence.
Fantasia*
Yes, Fantasia was also banned at one point, in Ireland of all places. Why? Well, there are speculations, Wikipedia mentions that Fantasia had to be cut to remove the introduction of the Rite of Spring section, and it sources the book "Irish Film Censorship: A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography" by Kevin Rockett. Others speculate it was because of segments like The Sorcerer's Apprentice or The Night on Bald Mountain being too much for the predominately Catholic Irish, some even speculate it's because of the infamous black centaur which I'd say is a bit of a stretch, I mean if Golliwog is still a thing in Britain, y'know?
Just when I thought I've finished talking about Lightyear, but yeah, this movie was banned too, in fourteen different countries no less. Predominately banned in Middle Eastern countries, as well as a few east Asian countries, for a brief lesbian kiss displayed in the movie that Disney refused to cut. Lightyear is banned in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Turkey for this, even though apparently Kazakhstan has no laws criminalizing homosexuality in film. Due to the ban in Kazakhstan, it was also banned in Kyrgyzstan because their movies are distributed by Kazakhstan. I know this isn't exactly a popular Pixar movie, but I don't think even its biggest critics would say it warrants a ban.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride*
The Mad Doctor
This is one of our first Short Films to be on the list. I should have kept it to feature length movies, but there is some interesting history with some of these short films, most notably one of, if not the most infamous Mickey Mouse short. If you know your history, you would know that The Mad Doctor was banned entirely in the United Kingdom, many theatres in the United States also refused to show it. However, I think the hilarious part about this film ban is that, apparently, Nazi Germany also banned it. Wikipedia sources the book "Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-garde" by Esther Leslie, looks like there is a bit of reading in my future.
Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes
Oh boy, strap in folks, this one is a lot to explain. With a franchise as massive and ever-present as the Looney Tunes, it makes sense that there would be some cartoons in this series that have been banned, most notably the "Censored Eleven". A series of shorts from 1931 to 1944 that were pulled due to racist depictions of African and Black American people. Three of the eleven shorts are in the public domain as of now, and no official release has been made, though one has been planned since 2010. Other banned shorts include "Inki and the Minah Bird", the 1969 short "Injun Trouble", and all Speedy Gonzales shorts, though those were only temporarily banned due to backlash from fans, which included Latin American citizens.
No, I'm not talking about the teens banned from theatre screenings, I'm talking about the movie itself. We have another Middle Eastern ban here, this time solely in Lebanon, and frankly I don't see why. The article I linked to makes claims it's due to homosexuality and a character who is portrayed as an evil nun, but no official statement has been given. I find it odd that this was the movie that Lebanon alone banned, like really? An Illumination movie was banned? Illumination movies are barely worth watching, let alone banning.
Yep, Onward was banned too, and take a wild guess where and why. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all banned the movie due to a minor lesbian character in the film. I want to give props to Disney for not cutting the character for these markets, but like... I remember the whole mess this movie spawned because the character was touted as "Disney's first openly gay character", and let's just say nobody bought it, I feel like banning this movie for this is just giving Disney what they wanted, an easy defense for anyone criticizing the character. "Who cares this character only appeared on screen for a minute and never appeared or was mentioned again? She is the reason this movie is banned in four countries, so we're clearly doing something right!"
I would be remiss if I did not share this article I found on Out about the timeline of Disney's 17 "First Gay Characters", which has some legitimate criticism of the character in question.
Probably the least shocking entry on this list... or the second least shocking, Persepolis was banned in, wait for it, Lebanon, at least initially. The movie, an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographic comic, was banned during a political crisis apparently, and the movie is about Marjane's life during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Lebanese authorities banned it out of fear of how it would effect the political situation there, however, due to some outcry the ban was reversed not too long after. Some claim that the ban was made more to please Iran than protecting Lebanon. If you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend reading the original book, I think it is one of the defining comic and graphic novels of its time.
Popeye the Sailor
Yep, a number of Popeye shorts were also banned, and for largely the same reasons as the Looney Tunes bans. The thing is that Popeye was largely used in Propaganda cartoons so, a lot of the racial stereotypes are a result of the War, this is not to excuse the shorts, this is to provide historical context. Other reasons the shorts were pulled include a couple with Native American stereotypes, and a short where Popeye actually murdered someone. A total of nine Popeye shorts are not available on HBO Max, but you may be able to find them online.
The Prince of Egypt
Yep, The Prince of Egypt is banned, in three countries too. To begin with, the movie is, ironically enough, banned in Egypt. The movie is, allegedly, viewed as revisionist history that distorts Egyptian history and shows bias against Arabic people, with one Egyptian director calling it "Poisoned Honey". The movie was also banned in Malaysia, with the Film Censorship Board chairman stating that they "Found it insensitive for religious and moral reasons". Malaysia has a majority Muslim population. The biggest surprise for me was that the movie is also banned in the Maldives. Islamic custom has a rule about portrayals of prophets, so the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs took offense at the film's depiction of Moses. I gotta say, I never would have expected The Prince of Egypt to be banned more than once, and in only one Middle Eastern country too, that might be the most surprising thing to me.
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy*
Here's another short film, and another one I can't find any confirmation on. No, we're not talking about the 1977 Musical Adventure, this is a 1941 short film by Fleischer Studios. Usually, what I do when I can't find a source over Google, I'll turn to Wikipedia and see what they source and look that up. In this case, they source the book "Raggedy Ann and Johnny Gruelle: A Bibliography of Published Works" by Patricia Hall, but I did some basic keyword searching and nothing came up, so take this one as another dubious claim, but if this story is true, it's actually one of the funnier stories here, so I'm gonna share it, under the caveat that this story may not actually be completely factual.
Apparently, this short film was suspended in its initial release because this short kind of has a different interpretation of Raggedy Ann and Andy's relationship. There is no polite way to put this, the short kind of depicts the two as being lovers instead of siblings, so one could easily see the short as incestuous. Again, I can't find any confirmation of this, but the story is kind of funny, so I'm sharing it anyway.
Red Hot Riding Hood*
Another short film ban, this time with an asterisk attached. Red Hot Riding Hood, the famous Tex Avery cartoon, was banned from televised broadcasting due to the Television Code, which was a set of ethical standards for television from 1952 until 1983. Again, I don't have any confirmation on this one, sources on Wikipedia are not links, and Google is just turning up a bunch of stuff about the original Little Red Riding Hood story, but I'm inclined to believe this one because, it just makes a lot of sense.
Sausage Party*
Another one to chalk up to the "Can't find confirmation but it's believable enough" category of "Dubious claims", but apparently the raunchy, controversial adult comedy Sausage Party is banned in Kuwait for indecency. Again, no confirmation here, but I can believe it.
I should also talk about the boycott some people had over the film for the terrible working conditions for the animators, but that isn't really a "ban" per se, maybe I'll do another blog where I talk about movies that have been boycotted.
Yes, Shrek 2 was banned, and this time I have found receipts. Of all the countries to ban Shrek 2 of all movies, Israel was the ones to do it, temporarily. See, in the Hebrew dub of the movie, they make a joke at the expense of Israeli singer David Daor, and Israeli court said that the joke had to be removed. What was the joke? The joke was that David Daor is a high pitched singer, so use your imagination. Honestly, I'm just kind of amused that Israel banned Shrek 2, then I remember what Israel is doing and I'm less amused.
Hey, one of the least surprising entries on this list! So, why was The Simpsons Movie banned? Was it because of the plot about a government conspiracy? The irreverent satire? Bart's nude skateboarding misadventure? Shockingly no, it was banned allegedly for the colour palette. The Simpsons Movie was banned in Myanmar/Burma, because the country had a rebel group whose flag was prominently red and yellow, and the defining colour of The Simpsons is yellow, and there is a fair amount of red in the movie. This is another case of "There's a lot of political climate reasons involved that I am nowhere near well-equipped enough to go into detail on" and also another case of "The reason is really ridiculous and silly", really they could have just listed any other reason and I'm sure everyone would have bought it, why did they have to single out the colour palette?
The Skeleton Dance*
Okay, this one is gonna be super quick and easy to talk about. In a March, 1931 New York Times Article, they reported that the 1929 Silly Symphony cartoon was banned in Denmark for being "Too Macabre". Unfortunately, the archived article link doesn't seem to work for me. Plus, it's a New York Times article, not a Danish news article.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Ladies, gentlemen and everyone outside the gender binary, the least shocking film ban on this list. Shockingly, the movie wasn't banned (Entirely) for the 399 uses of profanity, on screen visual of a giant talking clitoris, or the irreverent satire (Not being facetious with my wording there), it was banned in Iraq and Kuwait for its depiction of Saddam Hussein. In fact, the TV series itself is banned in Kuwait, which apparently led to the creation of their own show titled Block 13, I imagine it would be like any other extremist knock-off of any other show.
Apparently, as he was being held by US Marines, Saddam Hussein was actually forced to watch this movie. I don't know how legitimate that claim is, but if I were wanting to torture someone, making them watch a movie that makes a mocking depiction of them is probably something I would do,
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Yep, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was banned too. Another film band that pretty much sweeps the Middle East. You've probably heard this story when it was new, but countries like the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait and the like all pulled this movie from their theatres, most likely due to a "Protect Trans Kids" flag and some of the trans symbolism in the movie. Look, I don't even know where to go from here, so... Trans Lives Matter, Queer Lives Matter, Queerphobes Die Mad.
That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime: The Movie - Scarlet Bond*
Another potentially dubious claim, but there is some anecdotal evidence to back this one up. Apparently, Scarlet Bond is banned in, once again, Kuwait, primarily for the protagonist, Rimuru Tempest, being genderless. Wikipedia doesn't give us any sources, and I couldn't find anything to hard confirm this, however, Kuwait did ban the movie "Talk to Me" allegedly because of actor Zoe Terakes, a Non-Binary Transmasculine person. On top of that, Russia apparently banned a bunch if Isekai Anime, which does include That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, so with all that information, I can believe that Kuwait banned a movie for having a genderless protagonist, but there's no official evidence to back up this claim, at least none that I have found, so it's still in the dubious zone.
Tom & Jerry
This is our last entry for short films on this list, but there have been quite a few cases where Tom and Jerry shorts have been pulled, and for different reasons.
The short "Heavenly Puss" is banned in the Middle East and Brazil. Brazil also banned the short "The Two Mousketeers", as did Morocco, which also banned the short "Tot Watchers". The shorts "Calypso Cat" and "Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary" are both banned in the Middle East. The shorts "Mouse Cleaning" and "Casanova Cat" were edited for American broadcasts. The short "The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R." is pulled from American broadcast due to concerns over flickering lights causing epileptic seizures. I would be remiss if I did not mention the infamous short "Blue Cat Clues" which has been pulled from American airings due to its content, and the first Tom and Jerry short "Puss Gets the Boots" faced heavy censorship for future airings.
There are more bans, pulled airings and censorship to Tom & Jerry shorts, including a case of legal disputes for an entire showrunner's run of shorts, but I'm gonna leave it here.
Okay, this one isn't a ban, but the story is kind of hilarious. Toy Story 2 had a scene cut from the film, which scene? One of the end credits bloopers. The blooper scene where Pete is talking about getting a role for two Barbie dolls was cut from the movie entirely after the #MeToo movement. Queerphobia, political unrest and sexual misconduct, this blog has been a barrel of laughs hasn't it? I find it kind of funny that they went out of their way to cut an end credits blooper scene, but considering that John Lasseter had some allegations thrown his way, I can't really say I blame them.
Turning Red*
Great, like we need another controversy for Turning Red. At the very least, this is another dubious claim, probably due to misinterpreting sources. The Wikipedia article on Films Banned in China claims that China refused to give this movie a classification due to the indecent content, and it links two sources. A Radii article that talks about the representation of Chinese people in the movie, and a Bustle article that says nothing about any bans or China at all.
There is another claim it's banned in Kuwait, but I couldn't find anything to hard confirm that, frankly I don't think this movie needs anymore controversies surrounding it.
Well this one is gonna be a fun one, Waltz with Bashir, the 2008 Israeli animated docudrama was banned in a few Arab countries, most notably Lebanon. To start with, Lebanon was boycotting Israeli products at the time (I can't imagine why), and secondly, the movie is about a man recounting his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
That all being said, there are some people in Lebanon who praise the film, with activist Lokman Slim saying that he felt jealous about it.
Well, coincidentally, we've saved the funniest ban for last. You have definitely heard of this before, but just in case you haven't, Winnie the Pooh, the character, has been banned in China, including Hong Kong and Macau, because he was a meme used to mock Chinese President Xi Jingping. Like, frankly, I don't even know what to say about this, you literally banned Winnie the Pooh from your countries media for a meme, that would be like Donald Trump banning Hello Kitty because people kept comparing him to Badtz-Maru, or if Justin Trudeau banned Doonesbury because it was written by Garry Trudeau. Seriously, this might be the stupidest ban on this entire list.
To reiterate, the point of this blog was predominately for educational purposes, as when we talk about film history, we tend to overlook minor reactions to the films. Also, I want to make the statement that this is not an indictment on any of the countries mentioned or their people, bans start at positions of power, bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated here.
Throughout this list, we've seen some films banned for stupid reasons, and some films banned and censored for less than stupid reasons. If I had to pick the stupidest bans, I think it would be The Bahamas banning Demon Slayer, China banning Winnie the Pooh, and Israel temporarily banning Shrek 2. Of course, there are a few dubious claims on here as well, I should do the proper journalism thing and just cut them, but I wanted to keep them up here because, first of all, if these bans are legitimate, they should be known about, and second, if these bans aren't legitimate, then it's a good lesson on being able to verify your sources, if I found an entry on this list to be dubious, I did mark it as such, but keep in mind, I am human, I make mistakes, so something may have slipped through the cracks.
This blog took a lot out of me.
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