Does anyone remember the Disney movie, “Song of the South”? I have fond (but vague) memories of it, and want the video…but Disney no longer sells it because of the racial aspect – and that’s what I’m asking the teeming millions about. I recall that the movie was about an old slave telling the master’s son (live action) all about brer rabbit and brer bear, the tar baby, etc. (animated). As I recall, when the video came out, many blacks complained and wanted it withdrawn because of the slave. Well there have been many movies about slaves since then, so why can’t I buy it? I’m speculating that perhaps (not sure) the movie portrayed the slave as being happy with his lot in life and that’s why blacks wanted it banned. I’ve searched the Net, and found someone selling the video for over $100. Anyone have a better recollection of these events and how I can get hold of the video for a lot less than $100?
I saw it years ago, when I was quite young. I think it was on video, or maybe the Disney Channel. I wasn’t even aware that Uncle Remus was supposed to be a slave until now, but maybe I just forgot about that. I thought the animated stories were alot of fun, and I was rather upset when the ultra-sensative types got Song of the South pretty much banned.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
“Song of the South” is based on the tales of a young white journalist named Joe Harris. He published his first collection of Uncle Remus stories in 1879, and claimed that he wrote them as they were told to him by an elderly ex-slave. I don’t know if anyone was ever able to substanciate this claim. The objection to the tales may be on the basis that they have absolutely no foundation in African-American folklore and that they are the fabrication of a white writer using a fictitious black narrator (Uncle Remus). I believe that blacks may have the same objections to the stories in the same way that the Japanese might object to G&S’s The Mikado.
Its been a while since I’ve read about Harris and I don’t know if the existence of Uncle Remus has ever been proven to be either an actual person or a composite of several black storytellers.
BTW, Zipidy doo dah was the first song I learned to sing all the way through. My Dad took me to a re-release of the film when I was 5 years old. That was the last time I saw it. I don’t think Disney is concerned about people being offended by the story. Disneyland created a ride (splash mountain) around the movie in just the last ten years or so.
I’ve seen that movie lots of times, on the disney channel, even. It couldn’t have been banned, because this would have to have been within the last few years (I haven’t had that channel very long).
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
– Henry David Thoreau
I’ve checked out Disney’s web site and you can buy every animated movie they ever made except that one. Interestingly, among the recordings they’re selling is Zippedy-do-dah from the movie. I get the Disney channel and will keep an eye out for it. Thanks.
I hadn’t heard that the movie was dropped because of civil rights pressure. Disney tends to cycle through their older films when releasing them to video. I’d say it’s probably due to come out again in the next couple of years.
“The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.” -George Carlin
Sorry PB, the author’s name is Joel Chandler Harris, not Joe.
SONG OF THE SOUTH is available for purchase in the U.K., but not in the U.S.
The movie has a live-action story line about a little (white) boy who moves to the South, I think set in post-Civil War era (I don’t recollect exactly) but it could be pre-Emancipation, now I think on it. His parents are fighting and about to divorce, his life is pretty tumultuous. He makes friends with the plantation blacks, and with Uncle Remus, the old black story-teller. When the kid is upset, Uncle Remus tells him stories (three or four animated short cartoons within the movie) about B’rer Rabbit overcoming obstacles by being clever… and then the kid adapts that to his own situation to outwit bullies, etc.
The climax of the movie has the father leaving, the kid runs after him through a bull pasture and is attacked and injured – very scarey scene, even for Disney – this brings the parents back together and all ends happily ever after.
OK, that’s the film. The movie has not been released on video in the U.S.; the last theatrical release was about 20 years ago, if I remember aright.
The ride at Disney World is based on the cartoon stories-within-the-story, and I suspect that anything you’ve seen on the Disney channel has also been the cartoons, not the live action part.
Now, why is this movie not released in the U.S.? In part, because black organizations contend that the image of the plantation blacks is very, very stereotypical of the 1950s attitude. I personally don’t remember this, but then I’m not black; my memory is that the black characters were given a great deal of dignity and individual character, but I’m sure that there are some of those stereotypes in the story.
The kid’s mother, for instance, scolds him for hanging out with the blacks (reflecting the segregationist attitude) but the film shows that she’s wrong, he learns a great deal more from Uncle Remus’s stories than he does from her hypocrisy.
The other side of the story is Uncle Remus. Based on a character created by Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus tells wonderful folk-lore stories. But Uncle Remus has come to be a symbol, like Uncle Tom, of black subjugation. I don’t know why this should be so; I personally think Uncle Remus would be a fantastic example of black history and culture within the U.S. But the mere mention of Uncle Remus draws scorn from blacks, who haven’t read the stories, as though they were somehow derogatory. I would like an explanation of this.
That’s my take.
I concur with CK, I saw the movie, I guess 20 years ago now. From recollection I do not remember anything that was negative about blacks.
My parents went on a trip to Europe a few years ago and bought the video. Being that European VCRs are somewhat different, they had to have the tape converted to our regular VHS.
I have not watched the movie again, but I do not know what the problem is. I remember it is a fun movie for children and maybe the adults could learn something too.
Jeffery
The last theatrical release must be more recent than 20 years, though I’ll acknowledge the possibility of it being 15 years or so ago. (I saw it in the movie theater and I remember it and I’m only 24.) I don’t remember it real well. It seems like I saw somewhere that Disney hasn’t ruled out the possibility of releasing it again in the theaters or on video, since the racial aspect isn’t “that bad” all things considered(and/or Disney denies that the reason they’ve not released it recently has anything to do with race). But, it seems likely that they are in no rush to release it, in part because of concerns about protests from oversensitive people.
I am not a folklore scholar, so I cannot say whether Harris’s book has any connection with “African-American” folklore (whatever that may mean), but there are certainly suggestions of African roots to it.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
I did see “Song of the South” in a theater around 1973. I am pretty sure it was rereleased once after that, although only for a brief time and there was quite a bit of controversy over it at the time, IIRC.
“Splash Mountain” at Disneyland (I don’t know if it’s at the other parks) is not a very scintillating ride except for the big drop at the end. It’s four or five minutes of floating through little tableaus of scenes from the cartoons of the film.
Then you get to go down a flume. Not too scintillating.
I had the book as a kid, and I remember something about a “Tar Baby” being made out of tar, and set in the middle of the road, and having brer fox trying to talk to the tar baby, getting upset that he wouldn’t talk back, punching it, and getting stuck in the tar.
That’s, I would assume, the most incindiary part. Not so bad, really.
Also, the original Fantasia has never been released (the one with the Aunt-Jemima-looking pegasus shining the hooves of the bride-to-be pegasuses.) It’s been altered in all subsequent releases.
And I don’t know if anyone wants to go here or not, but I found it sort of unsettling in the Jungle Book, to hear the jazz-playing black-actor-voiced monkeys singing how they want to be like men too.
“I wanna be like you… I wanna walk like you, talk like you, it’s true… You see, an ape like me… can learn to be human too.”
-Quadell
The voice of the ape is Louis Prima. So much for the “black voice” actually being one…unless I am wrong that it’s Prima, but I think that it is.
“Song of the South”, as CK noted IS set in the post Civil War years.
Disney has never commented publically on it’s lack of release. It is available elsewhere besides the US; I have a Japanese imported laserdisc. Apparently they feel that foreign sensibilities are less sesnitive to the racial issues. They also have tentative plans for a month and a half festival where all of their animated features will be released for one day each, culminating in the release of “Fantasia 2000” but it’s yet to be seem whether this feature will be part of the program.
The consensus seems to be that Disney wants to try and distance themselves from this film as much as possible, just to save themselves any possible trouble. On the other hand, the policy at Disney seems to be “never say never.” After all, they did once say that they would never release 'Snow White" or “Fantasia” on video.
Saint Eutychus
www.disneyshorts.org
Funny they find this movie racist. What about the crows in Dumbo? Even the fact that African American characters are portrayed as crows could be offensive.
I still think Dumbo is good movie to teach children about compassion. I can’t watch it without crying.
Gail
“Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend–
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again…”
-Steely Dan
According to Leonard Maltin, this movie is only available on Laserdisc from Japan.
Further, the Laserdisc’s English soundtrack is on the right channel and the Japanese on the left channel, the songs are subtitled, and it contains previews for Dumbo, Robin Hood, and Mary Poppins.
This movie was rereleased in 1986. I remember, because I was in college, and involved in the big brothers/big sisters program, and took my little sister to it. At the time of the release, we read a newspaper article that stated this was the last time Disney would release the film, because it was so dated in so many ways-- not just the Black character, but the unrealistic picture of divorce.
I wish I could remember more details from the article; it explained very saliently the African-American perspective on Uncle Remus, and having just seen the movie, I absolutely sympathized.
I suppose you could do a search. It would have been late 1985 or 1986. I’m pretty sure it was an AP article in the local paper.
I seem to recall one objection was that even though the movie was sympathatic to the Black character, it did so it a way that was inappropriate for the 80’s-- in other words, it began with the assumption that Black characters were beneath the ability to teach something to whites, but the white kid learns that (gasp!) Black people might actually have something to say worth listening to. For an 80’s kid to return to that perspective in order to sympathize with the white kid, was actually a step backward.
–Rowan
Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny
Also, IIRC, tar baby was a derogatory term for black person or black child.
Mastery is not perfection but a journey, and the true master must be willing to try and fail and try again