Splash Mountain - Song of the South?

[MagicalMomAZ]

Is it still SotS themed? I THOUGHT I remembered talk of it being changed to Pooh......

If it IS still SotS, can you get the movie anywhere? I'd like my kids to see it before we got there but I know it's no longer politically correct & they removed it from the shelves long ago. I remember looking for it like 5 or 6 yrs ago w/ no luck.

 

[DangerMouse]

It's still SotS themed. I have never heard talk of changing it (they better not!)

Song of the South has not been released in the States. You can get bootlegged copies from other countries but the quality is poor. There have been rumors for years that the "powers that be" are considering releasing it here in the US. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed since it was a childhood favorite movie of mine.

 

[DLR29]

No, Splash is still "SotS" themed. Yes, there is Brer Rabbit and characters. But no non-PC Uncle Remus.

You may be thinking of the old Country Bear Jamboree. That was torn down and a Winnie-the-Pooh ride is now in its place. That was 2003 I think.

 

[mystic_path]

Can you imagine how many people would protest, and how many disappointed people there would be if the closed splash? I wouldnt even wanna think about it. Thats one sure way to lose a lot of money for the park.

 

[bclydia]

I remember recently that the execs at Disney reviewed Song of the South and said publicly that they had no plans to release it in North America due to the questionable racial content. I can't remember the movie from my childhood so really am not familiar with the storyline but there are conflicting opinions on whether the storyline is really bigotted or not.
Having said all of that, the ride at Splash Mountain is still Song of the South, not Pooh bear. It's my favourite!

 

[limace]

I do love Splash Mountain, though I can definitely understand the offensiveness about the movie-it's been a long time since I've seen it, but I have vague memories of happy slaves singing cheerful songs, which IS pretty offensive IMO.

With that said, DH just found the movie through bit torrent (download) and the quality looks fine. I know it's not legal, though I think the question is a little hazier here since you can't get the movie any other way.

 

[Another^Dimension]

I remember recently that the execs at Disney reviewed Song of the South and said publicly that they had no plans to release it in North America due to the questionable racial content.

Disney executives common sense as a whole, is often questionable.


Uncle Remus was a sharecropper, and Song of the South occured years after slavery.
Uncle Remus used to be a slave, isn't anymore and is a free man ... and those situations are somehow actually bad in some peoples minds? That's weak.



I think it's a wonderful movie!

But seriously... as adults... everyone should decide for themselves.
The Walt Disney Company, is not your parent or guardian.
Well isn't mine anyway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ3UbCgNnCQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3bYiZu9fug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7acPWj4fAoU

I can't remember the movie from my childhood so really am not familiar with the storyline but there are conflicting opinions on whether the storyline is really bigotted or not.

Many don't find it biggoted or racist at all...

Having said all of that, the ride at Splash Mountain is still Song of the South, not Pooh bear. It's my favourite!

Splash is really fun, I miss it.

I can't wait for this extended refurb to end!!

 

[brenda1966]

If you do some internet searches you can find "copies" of SotS for sale online. I probably paid $20 for mine. It's of marginal, perhaps even poor quality, but at least we get to watch it. I will say that DD is not very interested in it.

Perhaps a better alternative is to find a book about the Brer Rabbit stories at your library and read those to your kids. I did that and DD enjoyed the stories. A lot of the movie is the real people, whereas the ride is about the Brer Rabbit stories.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I remember recently that the execs at Disney reviewed Song of the South and said publicly that they had no plans to release it in North America due to the questionable racial content. I can't remember the movie from my childhood so really am not familiar with the storyline but there are conflicting opinions on whether the storyline is really bigotted or not.
Having said all of that, the ride at Splash Mountain is still Song of the South, not Pooh bear. It's my favourite!

The specific problems.

The story of the tar baby. To make a long story short Brer Fox and Brer bear make a tar baby doll to trap brer Rabbit. Rabbit gets mad at the Tar baby when it won't talk to him and kicks it thereby trapping himself. As Fox is deciding what to do with hapless rabbit, rabbit begs fox not to throw him into the briar patch and fox does just that. Of course rabbits tend to like brier patches for the cover they provide and that is just where rabbit wanted to go. Rabbit then escapes. Tar baby is not used in a racist context here. Indeed it was not a racist term at the time of the movie. It simply referred to a sticky wicket so to speak.
So the story isn't itself racist. The problem is the term Tar Baby has since become used as a racial slur. On the ride splash mountain, the tar baby does not appear. Instead, Rabbit gets stuck in a beehive.

The other problem is with the character of Uncle Remus.

There is no doubt that Joel Chandler Harris intended Uncle Remus to be the stereotypical "good black" romanticized in the post civil war south. He's not a slave in the story but picture the happy house slave depicted in that era. And Chandler even wrote at one point that he hoped it would become a defense of the slave owner. This was seen in the post civil war south as a sort of noble, enlightened portrayal of things. But it has come to be seen as demeaning and racist.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Perhaps a better alternative is to find a book about the Brer Rabbit stories at your library and read those to your kids. I did that and DD enjoyed the stories. A lot of the movie is the real people, whereas the ride is about the Brer Rabbit stories.

A great suggestion.

Disney executives common sense as a whole, is often questionable.

Common sense being defined of course by what you want them to do. Disney, quite frankly, has far more projects they can make money with that don't carry the baggage that this one would.

 

[brenda1966]

I had another thought of how to introduce your kids to the SotS music, characters: borrow some of those Sing Along Songs videos from the library. One of them has "laughing place" on it and one has "zip a dee do dah" on it (and they may even be on the same one). (You can also find these videos on ebay a lot or local consignment shops)

 

[queenarmadillo]

I always find it amazing that as a Brit, I have access to Disney material most Americans dont. I think the first couple of times I saw it, the race issues escaped me completely. Perhaps that it a cultural thing though.
You could try UK ebay to see if you can get a legitimate copy (although not sure whether or not there are any official DVD releases of it). Be aware thought that I'm pretty sure it is not legal for them to sell it to you, so you may want to request theyre not too specific when noting the contents of the package.

 

[DevilDuckie]

The specific problems.

The other problem is with the character of Uncle Remus.

There is no doubt that Joel Chandler Harris intended Uncle Remus to be the stereotypical "good black" romanticized in the post civil war south. He's not a slave in the story but picture the happy house slave depicted in that era. And Chandler even wrote at one point that he hoped it would become a defense of the slave owner. This was seen in the post civil war south as a sort of noble, enlightened portrayal of things. But it has come to be seen as demeaning and racist.

Uncle Remus is a literary character, like Cinderella or Snow White who existed long before Disney got involved. He was first written by Joel Harris in 1879. The stories themselves are older still. Harris recorded them for posterity, probably (by all extant evidence) never realizing what he was documenting.

The Brer Fox stories, originally told by slaves and ex-slaves are actually subversive- but carefully couched in terms that would not get them branded as such and therefore banned. The black-face style attitudes of submission to white authority actually mask tales of the oppressed outwitting the oppressor.

Why yes, I *did* major in English with a focus on antebellum literature. Why do you ask?

 

[ShawnaF]

Well, thanks for all the info on the movie because I do NOT remember it at all! I think a lot of the older movies have content that we would now consider questionable. So why would they re-release the princess movies when all the princesses are teenagers and their parents go ahead and marry them off? Ariel is 16 for goodness sake! So is Aurora. As a mom of a daughter, that bothers me a bit - but I'm not going to stop her from enjoying the princesses and like the other poster said, I plan to continue to be her parent rather than Disney.