Criticism of the Walt Disney Company, one of the largest media corporations in the world, has included its business practices, executives, and content. The Walt Disney Studios has been criticized for including stereotypical portrayal of non-white characters, sexism, and alleged plagiarism. Several of Disney's business ventures, which include television networks, theme parks, and product lines, have also sparked controversy amongst groups of consumers and media outlets.
Company officials and employees Bob Iger
In reaction to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said the actors' demands were "not realistic", adding they are "adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing". Iger has been criticized for these remarks in light of his contract with Disney allowing him to earn as much as $27 million for 2023 between his salary and bonuses. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called Iger's remarks "repugnant" and "tone deaf."
Brian Peck
Disney Channel faced backlash for hiring Brian Peck on the series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody after he had been convicted in 2004 for sexually abusing a minor in 2001, who has since been revealed to be former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell. Disney Channel executives fired Peck after learning about his conviction and Peck's voice lines and on-screen credits on the series were replaced or removed. Disney Channel representatives have stated that Peck was never on set nor interacted with the show's cast or crew.
Disney Consumer Products
Disney Princess
On December 24, 2006, Peggy Orenstein published "What's Wrong With Cinderella?" in The New York Times. In her article, Orenstein discussed her concerns about the effects of princess figures on young girls. Orenstein used the Disney Princesses specifically to present many of her points. Orenstein also noted the pervasive nature of princess-related merchandise and that every facet of play has its princess equivalent.
Other sources have also voiced concern that the franchise could possibly give young girls the wrong message. However, other parents who have young daughters say that they would eventually grow out of this phase.
Marvel Comics
Page 16 of Captain America #602 (March 2010) depicted an anti-tax protest march in Idaho in which one participant held a sign reading "Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You", with a caption containing the words of an off-screen African American superhero, the Falcon, telling Captain America, "I don't exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks."Captain America #602 (March 2010). Writer Ed Brubaker, penciler Luke Ross, colorist Dean White, letterer Joe Caramagna, editor Tom Brevoort, editor-in-chief Joe Quesada The cartoon drew the condemnation of Michael Johns, a board member of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition.
Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada characterized the sign as inadvertent and as "something that we need to apologize for and own up to." Quesada explained that with a printing deadline looming, the comic's editor noticed that the protest group's signs on the original art were empty, and the editor "asked the letterer on the book to just fudge in some quick signs. The letterer in his rush ... looked on the 'net and started pulling slogans from actual signs", including a "Tea Bag" sign.
Following the issue's printing, Marvel staff "caught the mistake" and "spoke to the letterer, [who] was mortified at his mistake and was truly sorry as he had no political agenda." Quesada said Marvel "removed the sign from the art files so that it no longer appears in future reprints of the title or collections. So, while the crowd protesting has nothing to do with the villains in the story, we in no way meant to say they were associated with the Tea Party movement."
Star Wars
On December 21, 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, which included the rights to the Star Wars franchise, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light and Magic as a subsidiary for the price of $4 billion. Lucasfilm and Star Wars in general were evaluated to decide upon how each area was to be approached.
After Dark Horse Comics lost the rights to create Star Wars comics, in 2014, Marvel Comics gained the rights as a subsidiary in the area of expertise. With the elimination of the LucasArts developing arm, EA Games is being entrusted to make Star Wars video games in the future. The well-regarded animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was cancelled a few seasons from the end of its run, in order to shift the series' team to Star Wars Rebels, a new animated TV series created for Disney XD, set approximately five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. They eventually revived Clone Wars for a final season.
Disney General Entertainment Content Disney Channel
Some critics disapprove of the Disney Channel marketing strategy led by Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney Channel from 1996 to 2014. Under Sweeney, the Disney Channel's programming was geared mainly towards preteen and teenage girls, with a decrease in animated programming. Criticism was also aimed at removing almost all Walt-era and pre-1990s material from the channel in 2002 with the removal of the late-night "Vault Disney" block devoted to this material, which used to make up the majority of the channel's programming since its inception in 1983. In 2008, Sweeney explained that Disney Channel, resulting from its multi-platform marketing strategy using television and music, would become "the major profit driver for the [Walt Disney] Company."
The channel has also pulled (and sometimes re-shot) episodes that have featured subject matter deemed inappropriate for its target audience, due either to humor or to timing of real-life events. In November 2008, the episode "No Sugar, Sugar" (Hannah Montana), in which Mitchel Musso's character, Oliver Oken, is revealed to have Type 1 diabetes, was pulled before its broadcast, due to parent complaints about its portrayal of diabetics and sugar intake. The episode was later revised with new scenes filmed after consulting with the diabetes research-funding organization JDRF; the updated version was aired during the program's third season on September 20, 2009 titled "Uptight (Oliver's Alright)". In December 2011, Disney Channel pulled episodes of two of its original series, due to complaints on Twitter from Demi Lovato about their portrayal of eating disorders. Pulled episodes included "Party It Up" (Shake It Up) and "Colbie Caillat" (So Random!). The former episode eventually began airing reruns regularly again on Disney Channel by removing dialogue deemed insensitive. In May 2013, Disney Channel pulled "Quitting Cold Koala" (Jessie) due to parental concerns over a scene in which a character's gluten-free diet leads to ridicule. The episode would eventually air with the scene replaced. In December 2017, Disney XD redubbed lines originally done by Louis C.K. for the Gravity Falls episode "Weirdmaggedon" due to the comedian admitting sexual misconduct following revelations published in The New York Times. C.K's lines were replaced by series creator Alex Hirsch according to a Disney Channel spokesperson. In December 2018, Disney Channel removed all Andi Mack episodes featuring the actor Stoney Westmoreland from circulation for sexually encountering a minor. In July 2024, multiple changes were made for the animated series Primos to emphasize that the show was set in Los Angeles and not in Latin America after its opening sequence received criticism on social media, largely from some Mexicans and other Latin-American communities.
ESPN
ESPN has also been accused of overpaying for sports broadcasting rights, and that Wall Street analysts have raised concerns that this could be a major drain on Disney as a whole, since the amount of money that can be recuperated from retransmission consent fees and advertising is limited; Disney still profits from the ESPN division but as of 2015 was cutting the network's higher-priced content to ensure long-term profitability. In October 2015, ESPN laid off about 300 employees, citing the rights costs combined with the increasing trend of cord-cutting.
In November 2019, ESPN's owner The Walt Disney Company launched the streaming service called Disney+. ESPN heavily promoted the Disney+ launch, leading to accusations that the network was sacrificing its journalistic integrity. Examples cited by critics included a Simpsons-themed edition of SportsCenter "Top 10", as well as NFL reporter Adam Schefter tweeting that Disney+ "will change lives". Writing in Slate, Laura Wagner said that the "tongue bath" for Disney+ "represents a new inflection point in ESPN's decline from journalistic institution to entertainment company". Wagner added "This clumsy marketing blitz is an embarrassing exercise that turns ostensible reporters into stooges. It's also a stark example of just how flimsy ESPN's editorial vision has become." Meanwhile, Kelly McBride of the nonprofit journalism organization the Poynter Institute in an interview with The Washington Post said "You're turning the journalist into a salesperson and asking them to upsell the product. That's not the relationship you want the journalist to have with the audience member. You want that relationship to be about trust in the journalist's expertise."
American Broadcasting Company
Over the years, ABC, a division of The Walt Disney Company, including ABC Daytime and ABC News, has faced criticism and controversy on a range of issues, including depicting a school shooting rampage, Ted Koppel reading names of the members of the United States Armed Forces who were killed in Iraq, a contract dispute, false credentials, the purchase of Freeform, suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, and guests hosted on The View. Separately, company officials and employees like Alexis Debat and Michael Eisner have been criticized, while ABC series Ellen and Nothing Sacred have been criticized by Christian religious organizations.
Disney Entertainment Hulu Kardashian-Roblox scandal
The series premiere of The Kardashians, which debuted on April 14, 2022, titled "Burn Them All to the F*cking Ground", led to a public feud between Kim Kardashian and Roblox. In the episode, Kim's son Saint West shows his mother an experience on the platform from a tablet that depicts an image of Kim crying across the skybox and baseplate. She claimed, however, that the person who uploaded the experience had also obtained footage of her and Ray J's sex tape, and that she reacted by crying and claiming to later sue the company. Despite this allegation, the incident has been seen by many as a hoax, and was deceptively edited and staged as a way to cause uproar and false drama.
A spokesperson for Roblox responded by saying "The referenced video was never available on our platform. We have strict moderation and policies to protect our community, including zero tolerance for sexual content of any kind which violates our community rules." and "The text reference to the tape that got around our filters was quickly taken down and fortunately visible only to an extremely small number of people on the platform. We also swiftly took down the associated experience and banned the community developer involved with the incident." An individual close to the Kardashian family denied accusations of faking the event.
Disney+
Several other Disney+ titles that had been earmarked for removal like A Spark Story, Marvel's MPower and Marvel's Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever stayed due a similar backlash.
Disney Experiences