The Walt Disney Company is utterly unique as a movie studio. No other major production house is so inexorably linked to a particular type of content. When you talk about a "Disney movie" everybody has a general idea of what you're talking about. It's content that is suitable for the entire family. When the company announced the Disney+ streaming service, it was clear that the service would continue this tradition, including only movies and series that you would be comfortable sitting you kids in front of. However, in the case of the 1980s comedy Splash, that apparently took a bit of work.
Splash is a romantic comedy that stars a young Tom Hanks opposite Daryl Hannah, a beautiful woman who is also a mermaid. The film was produced by Disney's Touchstone label, a production company that was specifically designed to let the Walt Disney Company make more adult themed films, but really the only thing "adult" about Splash is a couple of shots Daryl Hannah's naked rear. However, that naked rear was apparently too much for Disney+, as the streaming service has digitally altered the film to cover the naked ass, which has the internet laughing out loud.
The Walt Disney Company is an utterly uniq
While Daryl Hannah's hair in Splash is always quite long, mermaids don't get a lot of haircuts, it's not that long, or that thick, if you watch the original version of the scene. Hair has been added digitally to make absolutely certain that you don't see anything that you might consider nudity.
On the one hand, you sort of get it. If Disney+ is the streaming service where you're going to let your kids decide what to watch, you want to be sure there's nothing on there you don't want them to see. Depending on the kids, and depending on the parents, seeing the original version of Splash might not be that big a deal, but Disney is always going to err on the side of caution because there will certainly be some parents that will have an issue.
At the same time, if the nudity was an issue, Splash could have always been left off Disney+ and put on Hulu instead. The digital work here looks weird, and in the opinion of some, the cure is worse than the disease.
A number of old Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures films have been put on Disney+, films that were never quite "Disney movies" in the way that the popular culture thinks of them, but were otherwise perfectly family friendly. None of the others, as far we we're aware, have been edited.
Of course, Disney is no stranger to this sort of editing, even in the company's animation work there have been edits made over the years as something that was done in the past gets seen in a different light.
Although, really, if Disney+ is going to censor one naked ass, the service should really be fair across the board, right?
In the grand scheme of things this is a minor detail. The CGI is weak but it's also largely irrelevant to whether Splash is a good movie. It is, and it's great that people can watch it, even if part of the fun of it is now laughing at the silly CGI.
