What is with this Brer Rabbit movie - Universal???

[boomhauer]

Has anyone else seen this new DVD that came out? It has Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and all the others from Splash Mountain, but is released by Universal.

What is going on with that?

 

[Barb D]

I know nothing about the movie, but the Brers are not necessarily Disney characters. They were characters in a series of "Uncle Remus" children's books. http://www.uncleremus.com/

 

[Wishing on a star]

I know that they did not 'originate' with Disney.

But didn't disney release the movie?

I can not imagine that Disney would not own the rights to these characters!

??????

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

The characters, I believe, are folklore and in the public domain, like most fairy tales and fables. Disney owns the rights to their depictions and appearance of those characters, so Universal's would have to vary, but I don't believe Disney actually owns the stories.

By comparison, DC Comics publishes a series called Fables under their Vertigo line. Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, and other characters from fairy tales all appear, but bare no resemblance to anything seen in a Disney production.

Uncle Remus, OTOH, may be a different story. From what I can gather in the link Barb D provided, he was created by Joel Chandler Harris, therefore his estate would own the licensing rights to that character. Disney, I'm sure, still owns the rights despite their foolish PC stubbornness in not releasing "Song of the South" on DVD.

So Universal can make a DVD retelling the stories, but not from the perspective of Uncle Remus.

Hey, if this DVD from Universal helps convince Disney to release SOTS on DVD, so much the better.

 

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

Yes we have the new dvd. Now my DD4 says she wants to be Brer Rabbit for halloween. Yeah I'm sure I won't have any problems finding that costume

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'll be interested in seeing Universal's movie. I wish I could see Song of the South, but it doesn't sound like Disney will release it again.

Here is a recent thread about Song of the South:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1061622

 

[POB14]

The characters, I believe, are folklore and in the public domain, like most fairy tales and fables. Disney owns the rights to their depictions and appearance of those characters, so Universal's would have to vary, but I don't believe Disney actually owns the stories.

Yep, kind of like these, from those friendly ripoff artists at Goodtimes Video:

All perfectly legal. You can't copyright an idea, just the expression of an idea (like the "look" of the Disney characters, and the particular wording of the script.)