Disney's Song of the South on DVD

[Doctor Strange]

I recall seeing it back during its 70s rerelease, and also thought that it was a pretty mediocre film, but with good live action/animation combination effects.

Don't get me started on the whole politically currect bushwa. ALL old media should be available in their original forms - with associated explanatory material if needed - so that we can understand the past accurately. Trying to rewrite the past, or keep its less-appealing aspects hidden, can only lead to real problems in the long run.

In my own little way, I do this. I've got a 16mm print of one of the "censored 11" WB cartoons, and I always show it at my film fests and classes. With a proper intro, it always goes over great... and I've never gotten complaints that it's inappropriate/insulting/demeaning/dangerous to society, etc.

 

[AlanC]

If/when it comes out I'll be ready to buy it.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Zip a dee doo dah!

I have been waiting for this: saw an old VHS for about 25 bucks some years ago at a flea market but I was poor then. Yay!

 

[NRay]

I remember watching this when I was younger. If I recall correctly, the movie deals alot with poverty and racial tolerance in a pretty positive way. I'm sure there is some stereotyping that goes on, but it doesn't have the all-out racism that some other old released classic films have (i.e. The Birth of a Nation). With an Academy Award-winning song (Zip-a-dee-doo-da) and some Disney park rides based on it (Splash Mountain), I don't think there is anything wrong with releasing Song of the South on D.V.D.

 

[HadleyH]

zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!

Love that song! I feel like dancing every time I hear it!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I saw Song of the South in the early '70s, when Disney re-released it in movie theaters. Like other non-black kids, I loved it. I didn't walk out of the theater thinking, "People of African descent are grinning, ragged, and cunning." Instead, I thought that Brer Rabbit was Bugs Bunny's ancestor. Now, if I had been a black kid instead of a white, I might have felt differently. (Then again, I might not have chosen to see the movie at all.)


Incidentally, Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) -- the journalist from Georgia who wrote the "Remus" tales -- was never a slaveholder. Half-Irish, poor, the product of a broken home, Harris apprenticed himself (while still a teenager) to a man who published a newspaper on his plantation. It was from the slaves on this plantation that Harris first heard the African American folktales that were to make him famous.


Lamentably, Harris placed his first version of "Uncle Remus" in an urban setting, using the character as a mouthpiece for criticizing ex-slaves, particularly those who sought political power and formal education. However, "Remus" soon evolved into the character with whom Disney fans are familiar: the gentle old man who transfixes a little white boy (Disney added a girl, for good measure) night after night (Disney made it daytime to avoid unsavory implications) with stories about small, seemingly defenseless animals whose cunning outwits stronger but less intelligent beasts.


Hardly anyone remembers that Harris also wrote several novels and a collection of sketches built around a poor white homespun philosopher called "Uncle Billy Sanders".


.

 

[The Wolf]

We touched upon this before

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=7016

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Roger]

Let's see; would I rather see Song of the South and listen to zippedy doo day dippedy day or take my children to see lasts years Academy Award winning Hustle and Flow with that delightful song; "it's hard to be a pimp"?:rage:

 

[Lady Day]

Let's see; would I rather see Song of the South and listen to zippedy doo day dippedy day or take my children to see lasts years Academy Award winning Hustle and Flow with that delightful song; "it's hard to be a pimp"?:rage:

Neither of these I would let children watch.

LD

 

[Elaina]

My dad has a version of it, and to be honest, while I can see as an adult the pros and cons of seeing the movie, it will bring up questions from little kids as to why concerning the subject matter.

Now, I've never (at least when asked) denied that my family is typically southern (I'm not), I will say my mom wouldn't let me see the film as a kid.

 

[Lincsong]

The Walt Disney Company has produced several movies and television shows (Alamo and Desperate Housewives) in the last 20 years under various divisions that are far more offensive than Song of the South. It's a harmless movie, I've seen it as a kid. I also watched; Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, Good Times, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Shaft, Car Wash, Roots and a host of other '70s movies/shows, as well as Gone with the Wind (made me fall asleep) and the Shirley Temple movies, as a 6-9 year old I was able to distinguish between modern and 19th Century people. Watching the modern shows are going to affect a child more, both in a positive and negative sense, because they are going to place the portrayals in a contemporary context while Song of the South will be seen as ancient history.

I'm not going to assume that others are less educated than myself and unable to reach a conclusion other than the movie is entertainment. Kids are more aware of what's happening around them and more intelligent than adults assume. The age of innocence is long gone, and for the worse. Any controversy concerning this film is purely censorship and that only adds to it's appeal. Let the marketplace determine it's outcome, then let the chips fall as they may.

In the Song of the South, the blacks are not slaves. When Uncle Remus was told he couldn't tell the boy stories anymore he decided to leave, it was when he was leaving that the boy ran across the field to stop him from leaving, as he was running through the field in a red suit a bull charged at him and gorged him. As the boy lay dieing in bed he called out for Uncle Remus. When Uncle Remus came into the room the boy's face lit up. That doesn't sound very offensive to me.[huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

One thing worth noting is that controversy over Song of the South is not strictly a latter-day phenomenon -- the picture was picketed at its premiere in 1946 following a campaign begun by Walter White, then the executive secretary of the NAACP, as part of a larger campaign to discourage racial stereotyping in film.

There were actually mixed opinions among the NAACP's leadership over whether the group needed to be devoting that much attention to that particular battle at that particular time, given the other pressing civil rights issues of the day, and there were concerns expressed among African-American actors that such campaigns would end up convincing white producers not to cast black talent at all, for fear of generating further controversies. There's an excellent scholarly article from the Journal of Popular Film and Television about White's Hollywood activities and their long-term influence at http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-137213001.html

It's a very long article, but a fascinating one, and worth examining to get some serious historical background.

 

[Lincsong]

I've heard about that also Lizzie. I've also heard that the NAACP does not have an official statement on the film.

 

[Cherriexo]

I just went to an art exhibit this weekend,and long story short it showcased a very offensive comic from the Victorian period aimed at poor Irish in NY.

This country was built on rich English making fun of African Americans and Irish.

Yet were allowed to consider the Yellow Kid "art" and something like Song of the South is to be banned and offensive.

My,my do I love political correctness.