Those of you with the magical combination of children and Netflix will be familiar with the cycle of programmes you can make magically appear one after the other when you need an hour of shuteye. One of those shows is Maya The Bee, an animated programmed based on the not very good film from a few years ago (which in turn was based on a 1912 children’s book).
The show is aimed at a younger audience, and over 70 episodes of it have been made. But it turns out that one of the episodes has an image of a human penis drawn in the background. It’s only on-screen for a few seconds, etched into a tree trunk. But the drawing was has now come to the attention of Netflix, after parents complained about the image. The episode was swiftly withdrawn, although not before the key image had done the rounds on social media.
This one:
Now, the production company behind the show has now only issued an apology, but also started legal action against those responsible. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, they wrote “an absolutely inappropriate image has been discovered in a four-second fly-by scene in one episode of the total of 78 episodes of the series. The origin of this image obviously results from a very bad joke from one of the 150 artists working on the production.”
“This is indeed unacceptable to the Studio 100 Group as owner of the brand and all its partners and doesn’t reflect the quality of its work and its values. Legal action has already been started. Studio 100 very much regrets this incident and would like to offer its sincere apologies to all Maya the Bee fans. At the same time the company is taking all suitable technical measures to remedy the situation”.
Yikes. Maya The Bee, now without background penis picture, can be found on Netflix.