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So Disney’s latest movie Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers has been released on Disney Plus and while the movie is primarily known for resurrecting Ugly Sonic, it has been causing an entirely separate controversy surrounding its portrayal of Peter Pan.
Peter Pan or Sweet Pete as he’s referred to is the main antagonist of Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). The movie explains that after Peter Pan hit puberty he was dropped from movie roles leading him into a life of crime. He traffics other toons, re-edits their designs, and forces them to act in bad bootleg movies.
The problem is the eerie similarities between Pete’s backstory and the tragic real-life story of Peter Pan’s original voice actor Bobby Driscoll.
Bobby Driscoll
Boddy Driscoll was a child star in the late 1940s. He was actually the first actor to sign a long-term contract with Disney and starred in several popular movies like Song of The South, Melody Time, and Treasure Island.
He would eventually land the lead role in the animated classic Peter Pan when he was 16. The character would be modeled after his face and gestures. He even played Peter Pan in person at the Walt Disney Christmas Show.
Everything went downhill when Driscoll shifted from teenager to young adult. In 1953, only a few weeks after the release of Peter Pan, Disney terminated his contract.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood biographer Marc Eliot said “When Howard Hughes bought RKO [the company that owned Disney at the time], he, in effect, became the owner of the Disney studio. He controlled the money and he hated Bobby Driscoll. Hughes hated Hollywood kids. He thought they were precocious, weren’t real, and were incredibly annoying. He didn’t want Bobby Driscoll to be with Disney anymore.”
Billy Gray, an actor who befriended Driscoll said “The way I understand it, it was a rather rude dismissal. I heard that he was informed that he was no longer under contract through them by driving up to the entrance and being refused entrance into the studio. That was his notification that he was no longer needed there.”
Life After Disney
Driscoll’s life continued to spiral. He returned to public school where he was heavily bullied for his acting career. Later, he became addicted to drugs, was in and out of jail, and eventually died at the age of 31. He only had a few minor film and tv roles before his death.
His body was found in an abandoned apartment block in 1968 but was only identified a year later in 1969 when his mother, who had not seen him in years, placed advertisements in New York newspapers asking for information on his whereabouts.
The public wouldn’t find out about his death for even longer. It was four years later in 1972 when Disney re-released Song of The South and reporters investigated Driscoll, did the public find out that he had died. He didn’t even get a proper burial, as he was placed in a mass grave alongside other unidentified bodies. Since then, Disney has been very tight-lipped about Bobby Driscoll, all while making millions off products that have his face or voice in them.
Chip ‘N Dale Controversy
With this in mind, many netizens have found the depiction of Sweet Pete, whose backstory is strikingly similar to Driscoll’s, to be fairly insensitive if not outright insulting to the actor and have made their opinions known online.
This is indefensible. Fuck this movie, it should have never been made if they were going to attack Bobby Driscoll when he can’t defend himself. This is a vile and abhorrent decision https://t.co/tSMp4xzsrv
— Seaweed Brain (@mickeyshy12) May 20, 2022
context: Bobby Driscoll, peter pan’s va, was a Disney golden child and got dropped as he aged. subsequently developed a serious substance use disorder that took his life at a very young age. he was unclaimed and buried in a potter’s field. this feels incredibly tasteless. https://t.co/qeCxIX3z9k
— kai (french robot hyperfixation era) (@kaiklapollo) May 22, 2022
Counter Points
Many have defended this portrayal saying that it could have just been a coincidence. Driscoll’s story happened decades ago and the idea of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, actually growing up into a washed-up adult, has always been a recurring joke about the character in pop culture for years.
Other says that perhaps the writers were using Sweet Pete directly to parody and bring attention to the tragedy. I will personally say that if this was the case, it doesn’t work. Sweet Pete is a pretty one-note villain with nothing to really make you sympathize with him or act as deeper commentary. With that being said, I must admit I only learned about Bobby Driscoll because of the discourse surrounding Peter Pan in Chip ‘N Dale. With that in mind, I suppose the movie did make people more aware of his struggle.
Overall, I do think it’s most likely that it was just a coincidence. However, if it was intentional, then it was in poor taste on the writer’s part. With that being said, we can hope that the controversy has at the very least made people more aware of Driscoll and the poor treatment he and many other child stars experienced in early Hollywood.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
