Should Disney re-issue "Song of the South" on DVD/Blu-Ray?

[OmahaBlueDog]

Poll question: Should Disney re-issue "Song of the South" on DVD/Blu-Ray?

Song of the South is a 1946 feature film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the adventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends. These anthropomorphic animal characters appear in animation. The hit song from the film was "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song and is frequently used as part of Disney's montage themes, and which has become widely-used in popular culture. The film inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain.

The film has never been released in its entirety on home video in the USA,<3> because of content which Disney executives believe would be construed by some as racist toward black people, and is thus subject to much rumor. Some portions of this film have been issued on VHS and DVD as part of either compilations or special editions of Disney films.

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_South

View a clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrAKhHcZM-Y

More background at: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/sots.asp

[aquart]

1. Doesn't matter. No Mouse in MY House.

Soap killers.

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. MTV's psuedo reality shows and shows like Judge Judy killed the soaps

ABC and CBS are just turning off the life support.

[immoderate]

3. The Brer Rabbit stories are charming, provocative, and should be seen.

The children will survive.

--imm

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. If nothing else, it's a conversation starter

Also, IIRC, one can (if one so chooses) get a copy of "Birth of a Nation." There's far more sinister stuff in that film.

[sofa king]

5. I loved it when I was a kid.

Now it occurs to me that I must have been one of the very last kids to see it, in the '70s. It came back briefly in the mid-80s, when the conservatives were trying to make racism cool again, but I don't think it was widely distributed then.

I still remember a pregnant pause on the ride home when I asked my parents, "how come Brer Rabbit and Bugs Bunny aren't friends?"

[nomorenomore08]

8. Sometimes, serving as an awkward-conversation starter is a very valuable function...

:)

[sofa king]

11. Heh. I'm pretty sure I had that base covered.

Just to clarify, the Bugs Bunny cartoons were on one channel, and the Wonderful World of Disney, which by then was running in the early evenings, was on another channel. The Disney show ran the Brer Rabbit cartoons frequently, so I was already familiar with them before I saw the film (I was probably an adult before I even knew the name of the film). As a kid, I wondered why the two rabbits didn't team up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNDKxySTvU

An unfortunate side-effect of pulling Song of the South is that Ralph Bakshi's finest film, Street Fight (also known by another name), loses much of its meaning if viewers aren't familiar with Song of the South:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALzuKUhc2Do

"It was a tar rabbit, baby!"

[annabanana]

7. +1

Not releasing this is kind of like banning Kipling. You have to take a historical perspective on how things used to be.

[tularetom]

6. WHy is this even a question?

Are they proposing to release it? I hope so. I remember watching the movie as a kid and what I got from it was that black people (or "colored" people) as my mom and dad referred to them in the 40's were far more clever and ingenious than the whites with whom they were forced to deal every day.

Of course dialects were used and were I suppose somewhat stereotypical. But if you want to be offended by cartoon depictions of African Americans, I suggest you take a look at "Boondocks".

[Nevernose]

9. I think you might have missed the point of The Boondocks

Personally, I think it's a sometimes-brilliant show, the entire point of which is that it's against racism and especially black stereotypes. Take a look at the episodes taking on the reaction over R. Kelley, BET, gangster rappers, and Tyler Perry as evidence.

I can see how you and others might be offended at the language used -- that's a given.

[tularetom]

16. Au contraire mon frere

I enjoy the Boondocks and I am very much aware of what the point of the toon is.

My point is that the Uncle Remus stories are satire much the same as Boondocks is, but done in the more subtle, less jarring, style of the times. If 1940's cartoon stereotypes of black people offends you, the repeated use of the n word in the Boondocks might send you to the fainting couch.

And how in the world you could infer from what I posted that I would be offended by the language in the series is beyond me.

[REP]

20. Just got to add this about The Boondocks - it's a gorgeous cartoon

The drawings and color work are just astounding. It's a really funny show, too, despite most episodes being vaguely sad. Dismissing it because of the language is to miss a surprisingly complex show (I know neither of you are dismissing it; I'm making a general statement as a huge cartoon geek).

[KittyWampus]

10. Yes, and it'd be nice to have a prominent black actress or actor do an intro about it on the dvd.

Some brief commentary aimed at say, a sixth grade level.

[ThatPoetGuy]

12. +1. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Good call, Kitty

A very good idea.

[TheMightyFavog]

14. Or Henry Lous Gates doing a commentary, as well?

Have one for the adults, too.

[Rex]

21. Exxxcellent idea!

I'd love to hear Morgan Freeman narrate it.

[Snoutport]

24. Cheers. Have you seen it as an adult?

I like your idea. I'm a special ed teacher and when we have a party we always have a movie playing in a more quiet area. The students who can't take the party usually choose to watch a Disney flick. I am really careful as to what I let the kids--I was subbing once right after I started teaching and a teacher left me a movie toplay the class. A mom was there that day observing...and part way into the movie the kid in it says Hell, damnit and bitch. OMG! I nearly had a heart attack and I sprinted across the room and started poking all the buttons in the dark to turn the %&$^&%^ing thing off!!!

So I guess I'd have to see Song of the South now as an adult. But it would be bad if there was a chance kids would use it to tease each other. (I liked the movie as a kid but had no idea why I got in trouble for using the word "tarbaby".)

[OmahaBlueDog]

28. I'd be very good with that

...or (if he could be induced), President Obama

[Atman]

15. I would love to see the entire film.

I haven't seen it since I was a little kid. My dad was a civil right activist, and he actually used the Uncle Remus stories as lessons, re-telling bedtime stories, complete with all the voices, but always using them to give a little lesson. I never really knew what he fuss was about back then. I'd really like to see it again under a new light of history.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Zip-a-dee doo-dah, zippity - yea

I loved that movie when I was a kid, and it has never really seemed politically incorrect to me, although I have to admit I haven't seen it since I was about eight.

Mr Bluebird's on my shoulder
It's the truth, it's actual
Everything is satisfactual.

:)

[Wait Wut]

18. I loved Uncle Remus.

I had an album...Uncle Remus sings or something. I listened to it over and over and over. It made me damned happy and I had no idea I was a racist because Uncle Remus made me want to sing and dance.

Damnit. Now I've got that one song in my head..."It's the truth! It's factual! Everything is satisfactual!!" Along with that my childhood trauma of not being able to whistle has returned.

On second thought....BAN UNCLE REMUS!!!!

:eyes:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. It was so long ago, the only thing I remember about it is...

...I was pissed because there was too much live action and too little cartoon.

[blondeatlast]

23. *snort*

:rofl:

[blondeatlast]

22. Yes, but I can imagine the PR nightmare it might create. Still, I think very few of us

were harmed by whatever was supposed to harm us in it.

As teachable moments go, SotS is a pretty lovely, very entertaining, very pleasant way to spend an evening discovering and discussing with the kids.

[d_r]

25. I have it on a british video tape

I have a lot of classic animation. Anyway, a few years ago I made my kids an "abbreviated" version of just the animated scenes, which are the brer rabbit, fox, bear stories. I think that what is offensive about it isn't the retelling of the Uncle Remus stories, tar baby withstanding. What is offensive to me, what I didn't want my children soaking in, is the cold racism of the time it was made - the 1930's, 1940s. It is hard to describe. On the surface level, it easy to describe it as a movie where the black man, Uncle Remus, is portrayed as a kind, caring man with lots of wisdom, who loves the white boy and is loved back of course. But deeper than that is the racism of the time. The happy darkies singing away on the plantation. It isn't really clear that these are slaves - in fact, I think they are sharecroppers during the reconstruction after the war. But there is such a clear division of power along racial line. The white folks are obviously the grown ups, obviously in charge. The colored folks love their bosses, and come and stand outside and sing and pray while the white boy is sick. There's a lot of yessuhs and yessums, a lot of black folks looking down when white folks are talking.

It is subtle, but to me it is the reason I'd rather not my children watch it as children. When they are old enough to understand the times and hollywood and racism and how movies are made and so on, fine. It will bore them silly by then, anyway, because frankly it is an amazingly boring movie during the live action scenes.

I'd be happy if Disney put together an abridged version of the animated portions - some would probably not be - but I really, personally, don't like the live action parts. It is so hard to put in to words, because in some ways it really is sweet. The white folks really love Uncle Remus. The black folks really do love their white bosses. In a way, it is hard to explain why that is objectionable - everyone is nice to each other. But the underlying tone of differential power along racial lines is really in there, and it really seems like a revisionist version of the story of the relationship between white and black folks. I don't think it was happy like that.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

26. I don't understand the hubbub.

:shrug: I saw it as a child at the movie theatre. It was great. I'm not sure why everyone FREAKS out about it. Slavery was an unfortunate part of our history, but they existed and covering up the fact is disrespectful. Those people fought hard and fought really hard to preserve their culture in a world that hated them. I'm sure the man who played the old slave was proud of his part. The stories teach us something and burying the movie is just stupid. We don't bury Gone with the Wind and that movie was horrible and we should. There are tons of movies worse than that that we don't bury. Not really sure why.
Duckie

[mysuzuki2]

27. I saw this movie when I was a small child in the 1950s

I remember liking it so when it was in the theaters again in the mid 80s I took my daughter, then about 7, to see it. What a mistake! It was downright embarassing in it's stereotyped and condescending depiction of black people. I don't think it was meant to be racist but sensibilities have changed greatly since 1947. The Uncle Remus stories are a genuine and valuable part of American folklore but this is no longer an appropriate context.

[davepc]

29. I never saw it, but what makes it more racist then Gone with the Wind?

Which, as an 'American classic' I thought was a vile film celebrating a treasonous immoral disgusting way of life.

[Nye Bevan]

30. "To Kill a Mockingbird" also has scenes that could be "construed as racist"

But I don't think that movie should be suppressed, either.

[msu2ba]

31. A favorite Carnac the Magnificent.....

(Holds envelope to forehead)
"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"
(Opens envelope)
"What should you say to someone whose doo-dah is open?"

Yes, I'm old, and yes, I miss Johnny Carson.

[azureblue]

32. I saw the song of the South

and the excerpts of it that Disney used to show on Sunday nights. What I got from it, (and I was a child of the Deep South) was that Uncle Remus had a far greater grasp of human nature and a wisdom that was grounded in life, not books. To me, Uncle Remus was the good humored country sage, not a stereotype of poor Southern blacks. White grown ups were stiff, closed minded know it alls, whose follies seemed to always catch up with them. In fact, if you look at a lot of Disney stuff, that was a recurring theme - the educated fool full of self importance, the rich person wielding his money as a weapon, disdainful of those less than he. Remus knew what us kids knew, that you could learn from nature and book learning did not always make you smart, so you better pay attention to what Mother Nature is trying to teach you. Maybe there are some parts that should be examined, but I think the wisdom of the tales of Uncle Remus should be an important part of growing up, especially in these times where people are so disconnected from Nature.