Another development in the ongoing cultural sensitivity changes at Jungle Cruise occurred this morning. Two t-shirts featuring a Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto logo, a popular tiki bar at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, were pulled from the shelves at BouTiki this morning.
A men’s t-shirt, pictured on the left, featured the logo on the back. A woman’s scoop-neck t-shirt, pictured on the right, had the same logo on the front. Both shirts were released in December 2020, before the Jungle Cruise changes were announced.
The Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto logo included imagery of a “tiki mask” and two canoe paddles with “tribal” faces. Tiki masks are often used to evoke Polynesian themes and were traditionally used as religious artifacts in some Polynesian cultures.
Inside Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, tiki mask motifs can be seen. These types of thematic elements are prevalent in Adventureland attractions all around the world.
The Trader Sam animatronic that the bar is named after was recently removed from the Jungle Cruise. Disney announced that the scene will be replaced by “Trader Sam’s Gift Shop.”
When asked about the removal of the shirts, a Cast Member said they were asked to pull the shirts “to be destroyed”.
UPDATE: It is worth noting that some believe the shirts were actually a copyright infringement on some designs from Oceanic Arts, but this is not the information that was relayed to cast members at the location.
Stay tuned to WDWNT for more updates on the ongoing cultural sensitivity changes around the Disney Parks.
Comments on this post are sure to be thoughtful and considerate as I’ve come to expect from the readers of this site.
It seems the comments were all civil, while speaking of their enmity. I don’t see anyone being super rude, unless you consider the word stupid to be that bad.
When is the Stupid, going to stop, this is getting way out of hand, people are telling Disney please just stop with the WOKE/SJW stuff, please, but now there gonna double down on stupid
Disney will stop this when they go broke due to their woke/SJW crap.
Woke just another word for brainwashed
Those are good-looking shirts.
This is getting beyond absurd
I wouldn’t be surprised if they change to name of the tiki bars on both coasts to be more “culturally sensitive and inclusive.”
This is getting out of hand, if you’re going to go to Disney and complain about stuff like this then you need to just sit home and never leave the house. I hate to be blunt but someone needs to say it.
Yes, we all need to take a stand against the extreme cancelling of expression. We are edging on a world where there is no humor allowed, or else you are labeled as a bad person or racist.
it is culturally sensitive to me the nonsense of “woke” and the price that we are having to pay because of it. It is culturally sensitive to me that WDW is pandering to this crap and raising the prices to cover the merchandise revenue lost and the retooling price to change what has been a part of the “Magic” for years. Stop pandering to the minute minority of cry babies.
Might as well remove the ride. Cancel Culture is going to cancel Disney. Since hey go woke go broke. Seriously these people are becoming INSANE. Let’s cancel Frontierland now for the period of history it takes place in.
It’s no longer the happiest place on earth. It’s the wokest place on earth.
I’ve always been one to respect different cultures around the world. Certainly, some depictions of peoples in art can be in fact degrading. However, in other cases, there is more of an innocent and playful nature with no disrespect intended. In my opinion right now, this is one of those cases.
As a lifelong cartoonist and artist, I am seriously afraid that we are getting to a place where we can no longer create any kind of expression that’s beyond a very serious and 100% accurate depiction of anything. We are creating a world in which there can be no humor, no characters, no fun. Everything needs to be taken seriously.
There is a delicate balance to be had, but we should not go 100% full throttle to one side…. And that side is a world in which everyone’s walking on eggshells and living in complete fear of saying the wrong thing, even though they have the best intentions and respect for everyone. A world in which there is no humor, a world in which you get punished and labeled as a bad person or a bad company just because of one wrong word or drawing uttered.
We need to educate but also give each other a little wiggle room here, the freedom of expression with no ill intent.
I think that the pendulum needs to be brought back to the center. Just remember that you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
So, if I go to Hawaii and purchase tiki themed merchandise it’s Ok, but not at Disney? What about merch from Aulani? I truly hope this is a copyright issue and not something else.
What’s next, cancelling the Polynesian resort?!?!? Although, that wouldn’t been much different to the axing Disney has done to the Poly in recent years. Yes, I’m still lamenting over the removal of the atrium waterfall in the Great Ceremonial House!
This is terrible! People work hard for their $ To learn and enjoy !! Now i have to call my AAA agent. to find out what is going on with my favorite. Hotel the Poly. I hope they still have the nighttime show!!! I felt like i was back in Hawaii.
disney will not be happy until they “woke” disney into nonexistence.
Maybe Disney stock needs to keep tanking for them to get the message. They don’t seem to have gotten it yet
Woke is a derivative movement from Marxism that was started in the late 1920’s at the Frankfort School in Germany so if you think being WOKE is a positive then you have been duped by the Marxists, it has NOTHING to do with cultural sensitivity and everything to do with erasure of history and control.
Tucker, is that you?
Tucker for Disney CEO
What about the people that want to buy the shirts
They will have to go to Disney Character warehouse or the internet
I’m pretty liberal (and biased because I make tiki mugs) but tiki is not polynesian, it’s fiction and a pastiche based vaguely on Pacific Island motifs, heavily altered and interpreted. This feels like a road to criminalizing art.
Gotta get your government art permit before creating anything. Also, they’re retro-actively revocable, and you can be held liable.
Maori use the term Hei-Tiki for a tiki carving with big eyes and a tilted head.Maori are also of the polynesian race. So, Tiki IS polynesian. It’s just become an overused word to define any wooden/stone carving of Polynesia.
The word Grog is offensive. Or at least appropriation. Name needs to go next. Also why are we demeaning Sam by referring to him only as his occupation undoubtedly pushed on him by a capitalistic society forcing its way into his home land?
To bad folks don’t Boycott Disney before things keep getting worse. Disney keeps caving to the Cancel Culture…..ridiculous!!!
I’ll be part of the solution by taking my money elsewhere
Pretty sure this is a copyright issue. The likeness to the Oceanic Arts design is undeniable.
The shirts and pins has been out for ages, the timing seems strange.
Glad I got to enjoy Disney World, Epcot and Universal Studios before they became woke. Wouldn’t spend a dime to go now.
Let’s hope this is an issue of copyright infringement and not the unreasonable “problems” of how far things have gotten with the whole “cultural sensitivity” thing. “Sorry, you can’t use any reference to a culture without being insensitive”.
This is ridiculous at this point. Disney is allowing an extremely small percentage of people to dictate what happens. They best pay attention to their fans and ignore the little snowflakes.
Exactly what I’ve been saying!
Why is it that when companies or people try and right past wrongs that some (especially this site) scream!how bad this is? If you have a problem because a make believe character or design or even part of a ride is changed to remove the OBVIOUSLY insensitive nature of said item then you are a compassion less human who only cares about the space immediately surrounding yourself. There is no harm to you for this change but shows those whose cultures were misappropriated or characterized negatively that Disney is wanting to correct the wrong and welcome them to their facility.
Anyone wanna buy my DVC? This is getting out of hand…… I’m are m seriously thinking about never going back.
Just bought Universal Annual Passes for my family. We’re done.
I grew up going to Disney at least once a month. I did some work with them in the past. I had gold annual passes for my family 6. I will no longer directly give the Disney corporation a dime of my money. Being WOKE and Cancel Culture is for losers and terrorist! I didn’t spend 20 years in the military to let these people destroy Our Constitution. The greatest irony of all is that Disney is a full on Capitalist Company only to make a profit on the backs of cheap labor… Funny how the WOKE give them any money…?
Disney needs to wake up to the fact that they are offending many more people by doing this crap than they are by leaving it be.
Disney needs to stop the nonsense already! What happened to the most Magical Place on Earth..The place we all went to escape from the real world.. where everyone came together with no cares, to laugh and make memories. I don’t think this is the world that Walt imagined..
It’s a design that was released December 2020 and someone at Disney reconsider it’s use with the brand. There is no history with the design, nor popularity and there is a possibility that it was pulled because of copyright infringement.
Stop being so trigger over any change. You people want this country to be stuck in 20’s and not evolve. Here’s the issues, cultures that do not evolve, become extinct. Change is constant and necessary.
This is really getting ridiculous! So I can go visit Hawaii and buy tiki merchandise over there but it’s insensitive over here in California? Enough is enough Disney! Stop canceling everything!
Not impressed wdwnt.com Click bait headline. Get the all the info BEFORE you write the story and headline. If you’re not sure if the t-shirt removal is cultural appropriation OR copyright infringment then don’t put up a biased headline.
Signed, someone who ACTUALLY has a degree in journalism!
Well, as someone else who has a degree in journalism: the cast members who work in the store removing the shirts would be a primary source that is reliable, the other theory is simply presented because it is out there, but it does not come from anywhere reputable. A Facebook group of tiki aficionados is not really a credible source.