Disney asked, and Disney definitely did not like the answer.
The entertainment giant posted what seemed like an innocent prompt on Threads this week: “Share a #Disney quote that sums up how you’re feeling right now!” What followed was thousands of responses from users quoting Disney’s own movies back at them—and nearly every single one was anti-fascist, anti-authoritarian content.
Disney quietly deleted the post the next day. Except, it wasn’t so quiet. Everyone noticed.
WHAT’S GOING ON: Users flooded the post with quotes from Pocahontas, Mulan, The Lion King, and dozens of other Disney properties—all with a clear, unmistakable message about the current political moment.
According to multiple users who documented the responses before the deletion, one of the most-liked replies featured Pocahontas lyrics. The responses were, as one Threads user put it, a “brilliant collection of antifascist cinematic moments.”
OF COURSE: Disney’s response to getting ratio’d by their own content was to make it disappear. “Curiously, @disney has removed that post,” one user noted dryly. Another called Disney “cowards” for deleting what she described as a post “full of righteous protest.”
The internet, of course, is forever—users screenshotted (and even screen recorded) the responses before Disney could memory-hole them.
View on Threads
WHY IT MATTERS: This isn’t just a funny social media fail.
It’s a corporation that spent decades profiting from stories about fighting tyranny, standing up for the oppressed, and speaking truth to power—now scrambling to hide when its own audience uses those exact messages to express how they feel about the current political climate.
Disney wants the brand equity of being associated with courage and resistance without any of the actual resistance.
View on Threads
ZOOM OUT: This comes as Disney continues to face pressure from multiple directions. The company fired Jimmy Kimmel last year after reportedly “pissing themselves” in fear of government retaliation, sparking boycotts and stock losses. Just last week, they hit Kimmel with major budget cuts.
Now they can’t even post a harmless engagement prompt without their audience turning it into an anti-authoritarian rally cry—and their instinct is still to silence rather than listen.
BOTTOM LINE: Disney built an empire on stories where the heroes stand up to tyrants. Turns out they only like that narrative when it’s fictional and profitable.
The moment their own audience started quoting Pocahontas and Mulan to express real political feelings, Disney hit delete.
But here’s the thing: you can’t scrub the internet, and you definitely can’t scrub the fact that your own movies taught an entire generation that fascism is worth fighting.
The mouse may run from its own message, but the people remember.