Song of the South/Splash Mountain

[WaltD4Me]

We have a copy. It is not one bit worse than Gone with the Wind. In fact, GWTW is worse. Not releasing it is silly.

Sandra

ITA...it's ridiculous. I could see if they made the movie now, but it is how old?
30 years? More? There are ALOT of movies made 30, 40 years ago that are not politically correct, hello, they were made before political correctness! times were different...that's just the way it was, doesn't mean you have to destroy every movie made before we all became so PC. I love Song of the South. About 15, maybe even 20 years ago it was re-released to theatres and I went to go see it...by myself and I loved it. I was singing Zippee-do-dah for days. I would buy it in a heartbeat if Disney puts it out on DVD. Why can't it be our decision if we want to watch it? Same as GWTW, or any other movie basically, if you find it offensive...don't buy it, watch it. Sheesh.

 

[PanamaMike]

The film was released in 1946 and was re-released in fall 1986.

 

[princessreilly]

I would like to have this movie as well. I want to see it before I ride SM. I've just been on the lookout at local flea markets, but no luck.

 

[PrincessTigerLily]

Bought a copy off the internet, site said that it was a copy bought and brought home from Disneyland Paris. Once received, it was so quite obviously a copy. It was my Dad's Christmas present though, and he didn't care he just wanted it anyway. DD and DS enjoy watching it at the grandparents' house, and I think she will get Splash Mountain when she finally rides it!

 

[CanadianGuy]

When this finally does see the light of day as a release in North America, and that's a "when" not an "if" I'd say, they'll likely work to develop a number of DVD 'bonus features' that would help to contextualize the content of the film to the era of the films release AND the era depicted in the film.

I think Disney can and will find a way to make this release both educational AND entertaining.. but I don't think it will happen tomorrow.



Knox

 

[starbox]

You can watch most of the classic bits (Zip a Dee Do Da and the Brer Rabbit vignettes) on youtube.

I teach high school English in an inner city Atlanta school that's about 5 miles from the Wren's Nest (home of Joel Chandler Harris and the center for the preservation of the Uncle Remus stories and the African heritage they chronicle). I teach about Brer Rabbit every year when we study archetypes (hey - I even work in a connection between Brer Rabbit and Captain Jack as trickster archetypes).

That said, I would never show Song of the South to my students. I do think there are some really racist and stereotypical portrayals in the live action parts of the film. Yes, it's history - but it's ugly history - and it's not something I want candy-coated and Disney-ified when I present it to my own children or the students that I teach. That said - the cartoon Brer Rabbit stories are fabulous and really ought not be lost.

 

[hawkeyesparks]

This movie has such historical significance to the Disney story, it's truly sad that they have done so much in recent years to keep it under wraps all in the name of pc. This is one of the first movies Disney used to incorporate live actors in a major motion picture(It might actually be the first major motion picture he did this way), but apparently Disney doesn't want you to know that.

Also, James BAscket(Uncle Remus) was the first African-American to receive an oscar. ARe you kidding, the first to receive an oscar and Disney doesn't want you to know that either.

And the very height of hipocrasy is you can go to WDW go to the shop right beside SM and you can buy the stuffed animals from the ride and the actual Uncle REmus stories in the shop.

It truly amazes me how stupid Disney can be at times.

With that said, I totally agree with Canadian guy, they will probably release it soon with a whole host of African-American notables explaining the difficult subject matter, with Leonard Maltin mixed in for good measure.



What I think it all boils down to is for most of us, me included, when you tell me I can't have something, that becomes the only thing I want.

 

[kmk1180]

You can watch most of the classic bits (Zip a Dee Do Da and the Brer Rabbit vignettes) on youtube.

I teach high school English in an inner city Atlanta school that's about 5 miles from the Wren's Nest (home of Joel Chandler Harris and the center for the preservation of the Uncle Remus stories and the African heritage they chronicle). I teach about Brer Rabbit every year when we study archetypes (hey - I even work in a connection between Brer Rabbit and Captain Jack as trickster archetypes).

That said, I would never show Song of the South to my students. I do think there are some really racist and stereotypical portrayals in the live action parts of the film. Yes, it's history - but it's ugly history - and it's not something I want candy-coated and Disney-ified when I present it to my own children or the students that I teach. That said - the cartoon Brer Rabbit stories are fabulous and really ought not be lost.

So what if it's ugly history? It's real history. You/we can't teach only the good parts of history, including our own.
(I've heard that even today Japan doesn't teach it's kids some of the things their soldiers were ordered to do in WWII.)
Heck it' probably more accurate than alot of the so called documentary films put out today. Like any Micheal Moore film has been proven to have lies and made up material. And in that Al Gore gobal warming film (I forgot it's name) there's a sceen where he claims he's flying over Antartica inspecting the ice that used to be larger. But a reporter proved it was just footage from the movie Day After Tomorrow.

I have the film. I agree with alot of the others. It's no worse than many other films of that era. PCing everything will do more harm than good in the long run.
Personally I didn't think it was racist, just portrayal of they way people treated each other then. And as others have said, in the end the black man is shown to be the rightous and good man.
What I found most disturbing is the two bad boys who wanted to take the puppy they found and drown it for fun.
That creeped me out more than any racial tones.

 

[Stitchless]

I would love to see this movie released. I had a copy on dvd but it got a case of dvd rot and no longer plays. Ah well, I have the cover to look at.

 

[brightvalleyjrts]

I also would love a copy of this DVD. I remember seeing it in the movies when I was a little girl. It was one of my favorites! I really hope it gets released one day.

 

[Angel007]

I bought a copy of "Song of the South" off the internet about 4-5 years ago. I guess WDW sees anything related to the deep south during the civil war times....racist. That is the only reason I can fathom that they changed "Dixie Landings" to "Port Orleans Riverside".

 

[Micca]

I'm a fan of mixing animation with live action, and the music is good, so I enjoy the movie. I have a hard time imagining kids today would be terribly intrigued by the movie as it is very dated in its style(i.e., it's pretty low-key,not a lot of action). I doubt we'll ever see an official re-release.

 

[Robo]

I'm a fan of mixing animation with live action, and the music is good, so I enjoy the movie. I have a hard time imagining kids today would be terribly intrigued by the movie as it is very dated in its style(i.e., it's pretty low-key,not a lot of action). I doubt we'll ever see an official re-release.

OTOH-

Kids love:

Snow White
Pinocchio
Bambi
Dumbo
Cinderella

no need to go on.

 

[Brer Shay]

I thoroughly enjoy the Song of the South movie, I loved it and the Brer Rabbit stories when I was a kid, and now my kids 4, 7, and 9 do as well. I bought a copy of a European version because Disney won't sell it - if they did, I'd buy it from them.

Is this an ugly part of US history, yes. Did it happen, yes. Other than being a film with fun stories and decent moral lessons, it's also been an appropriate door for our family to talk about slavery and racism and why it was wrong outside of issues of outright abuse. It demonstrates that people are people and should be judged according to their actions and care for the world and people around them, not color.

It will always be a favorite.

 

[kakiegirl]

Great Movie. DD (9) and I watched it for the first time a couple of weeks ago (dh ordered dvd off of ebay). We cried sad and happy tears. We loved it. I think our country has become way to politically correct. I personally saw nothing in the movie that anyone should take offense at. I think one should take into consideration the period the film was made. Slavery is part of this countries history and pushing it under the rug will not make it go away. I thought Uncle Remus was a great character and shown as in intelligent caring man. I also got the impression from the film the possibly the boys father was writing articles against slavery and that is why they had to leave town ( that is just me reading between the lines). I also got the impression that Uncle Remus was free because he left the plantation of his own free will.

 

[Sandy321]

dd and I watched it on youtube!!

 

[RMulieri]

Not too long ago someone had started a petition to send to Disney about re-releasing Song of the South.I wonder what ever became of it?I would like to see it again, and I know my Dad was disappointed that they don't have it in this country.

 

[goofyernmost]

First of all, let me ask, why is everyone saying it isn't available here. I just bought one about a year ago. I don't remember what source I used to purchase it (oldtimers disease) but I am pretty sure it was through one of the Disney boards that I frequent. If it was copied they did a great job, and the DVD cover looked pretty "official" to me.

Second, this thread has gotten me thinking (very dangerous) and I started to wonder about what actually the reason might be for it not being readily available. The first, and most speculative, is that almost everyone that has seen it, including myself, has stated that they didn't see anything even slightly detrimental to black people. We all stated that we thought that it was the white folks that came out looking bad. Let's run with that and wonder if it isn't being held back because of how it depicted white people, instead of the other way around. I would hate to think that anyone would be that resentful, but, stranger things have happened.

The second, and hopefully most likely now, is that Disney has always had the policy of creating demand. They have locked up so many of the "classics" and released them only when they thought the time was right to have maximum demand. It could be that they only release a few to feel the waters to see if now might be a good time or not.

Whatever the case, if you look around you will find it available. It is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes shocking and sometimes peaceful, but, a great movie with many worthwhile moral teachings for kids.

 

[dawminatrix]

I just recently saw this movie again. I swore that I had seen it as a child, and went back and read up on the history of its releases. I had seen it, and had fond memories of mr. bluebird....and that's about it. My dad had the original stories in a book, and used to read them to me as a child. I loved the witty character of Brer Rabbit and how he tricked the fox and bear.

Now that I have re watched the movie as an adult and studied Joel Chandler Harris in college(English Graduate) I agree that it is no worst than Gone With the Wind (like SandrainNC says) and depicts a candy coated version of life on the plantation. But it's still a cute/good movie.

Like Starbox said....I would also not show it to a class of high school students. It's just not an acurate interpretation of the stories and lends no insight to the text.

A re-release by Disney will probably happen, with the added extras of the origins and a Disney history of the south. I'd love to own a "real" copy of it in my disney collection.

 

[centurythree]

I've always felt that the reason the movie hasn't been rereleased recently is because (with the exception of the animated sequences) the movie just isn't that good.

When Disney wants to resolve problems like this, they do. Fantasia was rereleased with some clever editing, for example. I don't think it would be worth the trouble for Disney to bother with a major rerelease.