WHO Goodwill Ambassador protests discriminatory portrayal of leprosy in animated movie trailer.

After learning that a trailer for a forthcoming animated feature film The Pirates! Band of Misfits produced by Aardman Animations Ltd. (headquarters: United Kingdom) and Sony Pictures Animation (headquarters: United States) portrays leprosy in a discriminatory manner, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and Japanese Government Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of Persons Affected by Leprosy Yohei Sasakawa sent letters of protest on January 18 to the two production companies, calling on them to promptly amend or remove the scene in question. He has also written to the distributor, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., and other companies involved to take appropriate action.

In the scene, a pirate captain boards a boat demanding gold. “Afraid we don’t have any gold, old man, this is a leper-boat,” a crew member replies. “See,” he says as his arm falls off.
Sasakawa is seeking to have the scene amended or deleted on the grounds that:

Sasakawa has also requested that if other inappropriate expressions or scenes relating to leprosy appear in the film proper, that these too be modified or deleted.

The URL for The Pirates! movie trailer is here: http://www.thepirates-movie.com/