Song of the South (1946)

Song of the South is a beautiful film, with fine values -- fine moral values as well as exceptional production values. The animation is state of the art, the songs humable - Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is a classic. But many Black people find it painful to watch, painful to the extent that Disney fears a boycott of its other films if it releases this one. Corporations are in the business of making money -- not art. We are lucky when art is an incidental by product, as it is in this case.

The DVD I watched is from Buddha Video Co in Taiwan. Their telephone number if 886-2-2571337. Unlike some VHS releases, the Chinese subtitles can be turned off. The company logo appears briefly but annoyingly in several scenes, but that is a minor irritation. The transfer is better than VHS, though far from the pristine transfer we can wish far, in a happier time, when the old racial hate becomes as remote as the wars between Athens and Sparta. The box has a professional look -- the only strange thing is the absence of any mention of Walt Disney.

Of course, I cannot view this film the way a Black person would, but I hope that Black viewers at least realize both the good intent and the good effect this movie had. Evidentally not all do -- there are posts to this board that accuse the film of racism. It is obvious to anyone who lived though real racism that the message of the film is one of respect.

When I first saw the movie, I was a young white boy growing up in the Deep South, and I think this movie, and movies like it, led me to reject the racism of the adults around me. In much the same way, the TV show "I Spy" opened the minds of the generation that came after mine.

The potential to offend is in all great art, and the offended are often moved to try to suppress what causes them pain. Song of the South is in the same class with Huckleberry Finn, Showboat, Gone With the Wind, and The African Queen -- offensive to some, loved by many, good in both intent and effect on society, but unacceptable today to those who do not want to be reminded of the truth about the past.

Modern films, which invariably show Black people in the past as able to treat all whites like equals and not get lynched, are pure fantasy, but they are a fantasy that those who would rather forget history demand. But there were many close friendships across racial lines. Friendships such as the one shown in Song of the South between the grandmother and Uncle Remus did happen.

One final comment, addressed to those who wish the horrors of Reconstruction were explicit in the film -- there are horrors enough hovering around the edges. The father, for example, is clearly risking his life by publishing a progressive newspaper in Atlanta. The mother, while she is not a racist, looks down on the "lower class". But these things are, rightly, kept to one side. This is a children's film, after all, about love, intelligence, and the healing power stories.

Fmovies: The black people in this movie aren't depicted as lazy or stupid or criminal. Uncle Remus is depicted as a wise and caring man. It's true that the black people are depicted as subservient, but what movie from this period doesn't portray them as such? It would be historically inaccurate to depict the opposite. Should EVERY movie from this period with black people in it be banned? Disney is run by politically correct buffoons. Ironically, the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah. is played at Disneyland. The animation in Technicolor is beautiful. Some of the acting is rather stiff, but it's a warm hearted tale, and the Bre'r Rabbit stories are fun.

I am a lifelong Southerner. No one can gainsay that slavery was a terrible thing. It is our great national sin. But to dump all of that on these delightful folk stories seems to me a bit much.

I saw Song of the South as a small child. I didn't once think how dumb Uncle Remus was; I thought how dumb the smart aleck fox was! According to the foreword in my copy of Joel Chandler Harris' volume, these stories came from Africa originally where the characters were the lion, the jackal and whatever else they used. They are the Aesop's fables of a whole culture and they deal with how one who is weak and powerless--say a slave or a small child trying to survive his parents' problems--can deal with a world and come out with a whole skin. The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong is the whole theme of the Uncle Remus tales. And everybody's gotta have a laughing place if they want to stay sane in this old world.

Good on you, Uncle Remus! Good on you!

Song of the South fmovies. The NAACP should be ashamed of themselves and Disney should as well. As a person of color I was not offended by what was shown on the video. What next Turner bans Gone With The Wind? I'm more offended by Prissy than anything in this film. I was in London recently and found a used PAL copy for sale cheap. Lucky for me I work in the entertainment industry and had the ability to convert the film and sat down and watched it. What a sweet wonderful film I loved it. I've since been making copies (free) for all of my family and my neices and newphews have watched it every day. Ti hear them all singing Zippy Do Dah made it worth it. Now all my friends are begging for copies. So for the cost of the tape and time and wear and tear on my machines I've been making them copies. I feel like giving one to everyoine in the world. This movie should never have been banned!!!

I saw this on one of it's re-releases when I was very young and it has stayed with me. It is one of Disney's best efforts and I'd love to see it again. Unfortunately, Disney is loathe to offend anyone and it therefore seems that this film will be consigned to the vaults because Disney is unwilling to risk any heat. It's too bad, because the film teachs tolerance among other lessons. Recommended, if you can see it at all.

I think it's a great shame that the 1946 Walt Disney classic, "Song Of The South," has been banned in the U.S. because some civil rights groups **15 years ago** complained that the movie was racist and they did not want it to be shown anymore. And Disney, not wanting to offend anyone, bowed down to their demands and yanked the film from public viewing in North America, where it has not been seen since. The only way you can watch "Song Of The South" now is if you still own a laserdisc player and you're willing to spring for a costly Japanese import disc, OR if you manage to track down a UK VHS copy of the film released in 1997 and have it transferred. Well, having viewed a transferred VHS copy of "Song Of The South" recently, I can honestly say that this is a marvelous Disney movie that is NOT racist and does NOT deserve to be hidden away.

While I can certainly understand the concerns of the civil rights groups over "Song Of The South," the fact that the movie is set during the turn-of-the-century South when many blacks served subservient roles is NOT a good enough reason to hide the film away from the public. This is not an issue of racism, it is simply a historical fact. Furthermore, the black characters in "Song Of The South" are all treated with respect. They are not treated badly, nor are they spoken to badly. Further still, are we going to destroy all copies of "Gone With The Wind" just because it features a black maid? Think about it.

What also upsets me about the shunning of "Song Of The South" in the U.S. is that most Americans will now never get to see anymore the marvelous performance of James Baskett as the loveable storyteller Uncle Remus (and Baskett DID win an Honorary Oscar for his fine work in this film, lest we forget). Nor will Americans ever get to see again the wonderful Disney artistry on display in "Song Of The South" that perfectly blends live action with animation (the very first film to do so, if I'm not mistaken). They won't get to enjoy the hilarious adventures of Brer Rabbit ever again. Nor will they be able to sing along with the Oscar-winning song, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" anymore. All of this, in my opinion, is very, very shameful.

I strongly implore Walt Disney Productions to reconsider re-issuing "Song Of The South" in North America, if *only* for a limited time on home video, so anybody Stateside who wants the film can finally have it. And with all due respect to the civil rights groups who complained about "Song Of The South" back in 1986, I strongly implore them to seriously rethink the ban that they had Disney place upon the film. On the Grammy telecast this past year, just before mega-controversial rapper Eminem took the stage to perform "Stan," the Grammy president came onstage to give a little pep talk about freedom of speech & freedom of expression. He said that we cannot ban certain artists and their work just because it makes certain people uncomfortable. The EXACT same thing can be said for Walt Disney's "Song Of The South."