Disney Removed a ‘Toy Story 2’ Blooper Gag That Implies Sexual Misconduct

The #MeToo movement has changed how Hollywood addresses allegations of sexual misconduct in the film and television industries, especially when it comes to high-powered producers and executives using their sway to manipulate, coerce and abuse women for their own gratification. And now that movement has caused Disney to look back at a gag from one of Pixar’s animated films and just pretend it never existed.

In conjunction with the release of Toy Story 4, the rest of the Toy Story films were re-released in 4K Ultra HD. That means a lot of people have been going back to see how computer animation has evolved over the years and how good the animation looks in such high-definition. But someone noticed that Disney and Pixar removed a certain sequence from the gag reel that plays during the credits of Toy Story 2.

Here’s the Toy Story 2 gag reel scene that is now missing from digital copies of the movie (via ReReleaseNews.com):

For those of you who may not remember, that’s Kelsey Grammer voicing the prospector Stinky Pete, one of the toys who was part of the Woody’s Round-Up line of merchandise from decades ago. The blooper in question has Woody stumbling upon Stinky Pete clearly making inappropriate insinuations about getting these two identical Barbie dolls a part in Toy Story 3. But suddenly, when he realizes that he’s back on camera, he shuffles the girls out of his packaging as if nothing inappropriate is going on. He even takes one final look at the dolls’ backsides as they walk out.

Now, we can all acknowledge that this joke feels extremely inappropriate by today’s standards. Hell, it probably should have been deemed in appropriate when Toy Story 2 was made in 1999. But this was the kind of behavior was allowed because it had always been deemed as part of “paying your dues” in an industry dominated by male gatekeepers. It’s especially a bad look since John Lasseter stepped down from Pixar and left Disney entirely amidst accusations of inappropriate behavior.

Having said that, completely wiping the blooper from recent releases of Toy Story 2 feels like an erasure of history. There are plenty of movies with jokes, behavior, and scenes that are infinitely more inappropriate today than they were at the time a given movie was made. But we can’t keep going back and changing those movies. This one doesn’t seem quite as egregious since it’s a blooper from the credits and doesn’t have an impact on the overall movie. But it’s still a convenient way to erase what should be a public mistake for us all to remember how shortsighted and ignorant we were to the plight of those who were sexually harassed and manipulated in Hollywood for a long time.

Thankfully, anyone who still hasn’t let go of physical media wins out in this scenario. If you already had a copy of Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray or DVD, then you will have that gag reel scene forever. And you can explain to your kids, “This scene is a relic of a time when people thought the chauvinism of Hollywood was a punchline. Now go put away your hologram toys and let’s go get some space pizza.”

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