Hi Insiders! If you haven’t heard yet today, Dr. Seuss Enterprises will no longer be publishing a few Dr. Seuss books due to offensive images within the books.
Here is the official statement from Dr. Seuss Enterprises:
Today, on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.
We are committed to action. To that end, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo,McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.
Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.
Universal Studios Island’s of Adventure has a play-area, Seuss’s Landing, themed after one of the books that are no longer going to be published (“If I Ran the Zoo”), so naturally we’re all wondering if and how that will affect the play area at the theme park.
Ashley Carter, from Spectrum News 13, reached out to Universal Studios Orlando directly to find out:
Seuss Landing in Universal's Islands of Adventure features a play area themed after If I Ran the Zoo, one of the Dr. Seuss books that will no longer be published. I reached out to Universal Orlando about whether that decision would impact this area. Universal sent this statement: pic.twitter.com/unzNHgUuwE
— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) March 2, 2021
As seen in the Twitter post above, Universal’s response reads:
Seuss Landing continues to be very popular with our guests and we value our relationship with Seuss Enterprises. We’ve removed the books from our shelves as they have asked and we’ll be evaluating our in-park experience too. But our guests can plan on continuing to be able to enjoy their favorite experiences at Seuss Landing.
From Universal Orland’s response, we would not be surprised to see the popular gift-shop, Mulberry Street, along with the popular children’s play area re-themed in the near future.
