The Song Of The South Movie

[Buzz-Light-Beer]

Will this movie ever be re-released in the United States in my lifetime? I love the songs from the movie and would really love to see it released on DVD/Blu-Ray in the United States.

 

[skipfierce]

I doubt it. Apparently it's not PC anymore. What a joke! You can find it on youtube however. I just watched the entire movie a few months ago.

 

[Buzz-Light-Beer]

I doubt it. Apparently it's not PC anymore. What a joke! You can find it on youtube however. I just watched the entire movie a few months ago.

That is awful. Not PC is ridiculous. I have read a children's book of it when I was little and I thought it was a fantastic story. Thank You, I will look on youtube to watch it.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

The movie definitely has some racist elements because it was the product of its time. There have been reports over the years that Disney was investigating how to release the movie but put it in a modern context with a lot of content to help define, interpret, and explain. In one sense... apologize. Nothing has ever come of this, to date. I am not sure it could ever happen.

 

[maltdizzy]

There is a common misconception that the offensive part is the tar baby scene in the animated segments because "tar baby" was a common racial slur for a long time. Indeed the idea of a tar baby character is still rightfully offensive to many people (although actually deeply rooted in an ancient origin myth from Senegal).

In actually, it's the presentation of the live-action frame tale is full of outmoded,, fictional, embarrassing racial stereotypes that many people, black and white, considered outdated and offensive when the film was released in 1946. How to deal with race was hotted debated in Hollywood since before Gone with the Wind. But after WWII and the holocaust, there was a giant effort to try and balance for more realistic portrayals and squash stereotypes.

The fact that many don't recognize how offensive the film is at times is both a positive and a negative. On the positive side, many people don't recognize the racial stereotypes because many of those stereotypes are now thankfully obscure...on the negative side, many people still don't realize how inaccurate and insulting those characters are.

The actual stories of Lapin and Bouke that inspired Brer Rabbit are a huge part of oral storytelling tradition and well worth reading the stories and studying their history.

 

[maltdizzy]

I should add...I feel it should get a release in some sort of archival format, just not a general blu-ray release at Target/Walmart/etc. aimed at children. It is no more racially offensive the the wartime Donald Duck cartoons that were released in the Walt Disney Treasures collection. I have shown it to my son...along with a very long talk about the film's context.

 

[whiporee]

There is a common misconception that the offensive part is the tar baby scene in the animated segments because "tar baby" was a common racial slur for a long time. Indeed the idea of a tar baby character is still rightfully offensive is to many people (although actually deeply rooted in an ancient origin myth from Senegal).

In actually, it's the presentation of the live-action frame tale is full of outmoded,, fictional, embarrassing racial stereotypes that many people, black and white, considered outdated and offensive when the film was released in 1946. How to deal with race was hotted debated in Hollywood since before Gone with the Wind. But after WWII and the holocaust, there was a giant effort to try and balance for more realistic portrayals and squash stereotypes.

The fact that many don't recognize how offensive the film is at times is both a positive and a negative. On the positive side, many people don't recognize the racial stereotypes because many of those stereotypes are now thankfully obscure...on the negative side, many people still don't realize how inaccurate and insulting those characters are.

The actual stories of Lapin and Bouke that inspired Brer Rabbit are a huge part of oral storytelling tradition and well worth reading the stories and studying their history.

I bought a bootleg copy last year, and I can tell you this movie will never be re-released in any kind of mainstream form.

It's not just that live-action stuff is racist -- maybe not racist, but certainly an rosy depiction of what was an ugly time. Ruth Warrick's character lorded over Uncle Remus like she owned him, even though the setting appears to be during Reclamation. The sharecroppers are shown singing' and laughing' and have a great ol' time as they take whatever the landholders give them. And the actual plot is ... well, it's just stupid. The live action stuff is just flat out bad.

But it's not just the live-action stuff. Everyone in the animated section could have been culled directly from Amos n Andy, with every negative stereotype displayed there in full force. While they may have been rooted in folk tales, the way they are depicted in the film is in no way noble.

That said, some good songs. But a bad movie. Of course, the same could be said of a lot of those Disney films.

 

[NanO754]

I wish it could be released again. Splash Mountain is my favorite ride at WDW - Magic Kingdom, yet I hardly know much of the story behind it.

 

[maltdizzy]

I wish it could be released again. Splash Mountain is my favorite ride at WDW - Magic Kingdom, yet I hardly know much of the story behind it.

As someone mentioned above, it can be found streaming online. You might be disappointed.

Most of the movie is a live action tale featuring the fictional Uncle Remus, a happy-go-lucky freed slave still living the plantation, and his growing friendship with the grandson of the stern plantation owning widow. The animated segments with Br'er Rabbit total out to maybe 10-15 minutes and their voices are far more "minstrel show" than in the attraction. Plus...most the animals in the original DL Splash Mountain finale weren't from the movie, but were reused animatronics, stripped out of "America Sings" in Tomorrowland. And, of course, the tar baby does not appear in Splash Mountain (though he had a cameo in the Roger Rabbit movie).

Disney used to show the animated parts on Wonderful World of Disney (was on every Sunday night into the '80's), but now even those are cringe-worthy because of their accents. There are also storybvooks, both Disney and not, for just the Br'er Rabbit stuff.

We should discuss a little history. The original tales of Lapin and Bouke were collected from interviewing slaves in Louisiana plantations. The stories came mostly from Senegal, but the characters got their french names ("lapin" is french for "rabbit") over time in French-owned Louisiana. An (white) author named Joel Chandler Harris, under the pseudonym Uncle Remus, worked these into the tales of Br'er Rabbit (Lapin) and wrote them in a stereotyped pidgin-style English. The literary equivalent of blackface at a minstrel show or something like the old Amos'n'Andy radio show. I doubt ti was meant to harm or be insulting, it was 1881 and it was just the conception people had at the time

 

[NanO754]

Thank you maltdizzy for the history and information about the Song of the South film and Uncle Remus stories. It's interesting to learn how these stories came to be.

Perhaps I'll continue to enjoy the Splash Mountain attraction, and the music and characters, just the way Disney has created it. I think I might be a little disappointed, like you mentioned, if I dig too much. I do like Splash Mountain at both parks just the way they are

 

[3DisneyFanz]

I'm always amazed at how awful this movie is yet classics line Holiday Inn, Gone With the Wind, etc. are cinematic masterpieces.

 

[maltdizzy]

I'm always amazed at how awful this movie is yet classics line Holiday Inn, Gone With the Wind, etc. are cinematic masterpieces.

The portrayal of the "loyal" slaves in Gone with the Wind has been decried since the film was made. TCM usually runs a disclaimer in front of the film and definitely does for Holiday Inn. It's common to see USC film history professor Todd Boyd being interviewed before these sensitive films to set a context.

How to portray slavery, African-Americans, etc. has been a tough choice for Hollywood for over a hundred years, Birth of a Nation was massive financial success, but it's blatant racism damaged D.W. Griffith's remaining career. When Gone with the Wind came out, there was a lot of hand-wringing over how to portray slaves, and they thought they hit a successful formula, but WWII changed everyone's mind about prejudice before Walt tried similar with Song of the South.

A big difference is Gone With the Wind is an incredible epic film...humor, action, romance, danger, etc. It deserves comparisons with Titanic, Mary Poppins, etc. Song of the South is just a weak film period.