I dug up some of my old Disney records to make a compilation tape for my nephew, and listened to (for the first time in years) Song of the South.
Now I know that Disney was never much for historical or literary accuracy, but…this is insane(or I’ve missed a bunch of J.C.Harris’s stories).
The opening song is sung by a bunch of the black characters and it goes (in part…I’ve snipped a few verses):
"(More, more, tell us more:)
The camel 'crossed the desert sands
With brightly colored caravans,
His sandy bed was full of lumps!
That’s how the camel got his humps.
(Dat’s what Uncle Remus say
Dat’s what Uncle Remus say
His sandy bed was full of lumps
That’s how the camel got his humps.
More more tell us more: )
The Pig, he saw his monkey friend
A’swingin’ by his other end
he tried the same thing on a rail
That’s how the pig got a curley tail.
Dat’s what Uncle Remus say…etc"
I’m pretty sure that this isn’t what “Uncle Remus say” at all, it’s actually a lot closer to what “Rudyard Kipling say” in the Just So Stories and he won’t say them for another 30 or so years from the setting of the movie. It’s not exactly Kipling, since the “Camel’s Hump” story involves The Camel pissing off a Djinn, but still…
Did Kipling ‘borrow’ from Joel Chandler (Uncle Remus) Harris? If not, what was Disney’s research department thinking? It’s not like I expect accuracy from Disney, but it’s as jarring as if they sang:
“While riding on a Tor-na-do
Dorothy and her dog Toto
Landed on the wicked Witch
Got her shoes without a hitch
That’s what Uncle Remus say…etc”
Fenris