The claim
Netflix removed an episode of the children's series "Maya the Bee 3D" in 2017 due to a "sex scandal" after parents expressed outrage on social media.
Our conclusion
Fact! In episode 35 of the first season, an image of a penis could be seen carved into a tree trunk, whereupon Netflix removed this episode from its offering.
“In an unknown land a bee was very well known…” – and not only there, but everywhere, children grew up with Maya the Bee. So do I. Next to “Wickie and the Strong Men” “Maya the Bee” was my favorite series. I really liked Willi and his mumbled whining, Maya the Bee himself was a little too ambitious for me, and I found Flip, the grasshopper, very dashing with his top hat. I also knew by heart the order in the credits, when each character came swimming in the water lily.
So I'm scrolling through Facebook a little bit when a picture of Willi and Maja immediately gets my full attention. And then I read the text: “After sex scandal: Netflix deletes “Maya the Bee”

I'm reading it again.
Can not be…. What would cause a sex scandal with Maya the Bee? Is it because no one is clothed, or just partially? Can the term “pollen dumplings” be interpreted in any other or abnormal way? Or is it even the name “Willi” that someone could interpret ambiguously?
I need to know that!
Nobody, absolutely nobody, is allowed to attack the heroes of my childhood. Nobody is allowed to drag them into the mud. So I'm looking for it. “Sex scandal, pfffff...” is what rumbles in my head.
And I find what I'm looking for: a video was uploaded to YouTube that shows the "culprit". The title of the video: “Male Body part DRAWING IN KIDS SHOW! REAL! (Maya The Bee)" / "Drawing of a male body part in a children's show! REAL! (The bee Maja)"
At the same time, the YouTuber user denounces Netflix:
“That’s really quite wrong. I understand how Spongebob does that and can portray it as innocent, but that's a whole other story. I'm surprised it hasn't been edited/changed or removed from Netflix yet, considering it's a children's TV show and that's the main audience. Netflix should not support this.”
In fact, as shown in the video, there is a “Willi” here.
But not Maya the Bee's yellow-striped buddy, but a penis as a kind of cave painting. The video was uploaded to YouTube on September 16, 2017. And at this point, various media and blogs also reported on this incident, such as Stern .
Mother outraged by frivolous detail from “Maya the Bee”
The streaming service Netflix added the computer-animated new edition of Maya the Bee to its offering in the USA from 2013.
This was not available in Germany. In episode 35, a mother discovered the same drawing scratched into a fallen tree trunk and posted the video and a screenshot on Facebook in outrage.

The video quickly made the rounds and after a short time around a million people had already seen it. The reactions were different. Many users joined the mother and criticized the fact that phallic symbols had no place in children's series. Others were encouraged to smile.
There was no public statement from Netflix, but the said episode of the series was removed from the streaming service's program.
However, the production company Studio100 spoke out and apologized:
“A completely inappropriate image was discovered in a four-second flyby scene in one episode of the series' 78 total episodes. The origin of this image apparently resulted from a very bad joke from one of the 150 artists working on the production.”
Source: Variety
Studio100 took legal action, but this proved difficult because the scandalous image had been inserted during the compositing or layout phase, which involved over 150 people. The culprit could therefore not be identified Variety
Slashfilm” reports in its blog that such “Easter Eggs” are not an isolated case .
Conclusion
Actually. In an episode of the series “Maya the Bee 3D”, an employee of the production company Studio100… well, let’s call it “creatively let off steam”.
A mother who was outraged at seeing a cave-painted penis in the children's series got the ball rolling, so Netflix removed the episode in question (Season 1 / 35) from its offering.
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Source: Stern , Variety , Slashfilm
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