After banning smoking from its brand name films, Disney is extending the prohibition to all of its other movies marketed toward youths -- with exceptions for historical figures like Abe Lincoln, but not Marvel superheroes.
"We are extending our policy to prohibit smoking in movies across the board: Marvel, Lucas, Pixar and Disney films," Chairman and CEO Bob Iger declared during a shareholder meeting,
The Wrap reported.
Iger said that there would be exceptions from the rule, made "when we are depicting a historical figure who may have smoked at the time."
"For instance, we’ve been doing a movie on Abraham Lincoln, he was a smoker, and we would consider that acceptable," he explained.
Disney has a number of characters famous for smoking in its catalog, such as Cruella de Vil from "101 Dalmatians" and the hookah-smoking caterpillar from "Alice in Wonderland." Both characters were created over 50 years ago, however.
When it comes to Marvel Studios, 43 percent of its movies with a PG-13, PG, or G rating depict smoking.
Business Insider reported that Disney instituted its smoking ban in 2012. It only applied to movies "distributed under the Disney label," however, and will now extend to all of Disney's movie labels.
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