Song of the South on DVD

dude, are you kidding?? Ariel is hot!!!

 

DD:

Give us your take once you see the flick.

I remember loving Song of the South when I was a kid.

Zippidy Do Dah and all that.

I have no idea how it would play today.

 

Wow, you already got it after one day and from China!!

Out of curiosity, how much did you pay? I have seen copies on eBay that were European and then converted over to the regular US format going for at least $200 (that was the videotape version and not DVD).

 

I own quite a few of Disney's classics...
1. I plan to have kids one day.
2. I genuinely like the films.

Is this a problem?

 

Disney did change a line in the opening song of Aladdin because some found it offensive to Arabs.

 

I'm just saying your kid's childhood won't be ruined with the absence of Song of the South. I don't see the big deal, I'm sure there are a lot of films that different studios don't release anymore because they believe they aren't socially acceptable anymore. There are plenty of other options.

 

This is true, but if the film as become part of Americana. If a parent wants their child to experience that, and be able to at least have reference to the part of Americana that an older generation experienced, then it's ashame that Disney is making it so difficult to do. It is their film and their choice, but it was a fine piece of work, and it's ashame when we have to lose something that was well crafted because of fears of political correctness.

 

Along the same lines, but perhaps a bit more overtly offensive, is the infamous "banned eleven" group of Merrie Melodies/Loony Toons.

Titles include:

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarf
Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears
Uncle Tom's Bungalow
All This and Rabbit Stew (which I actually remember being "in rotation on channel 26 when I was a child).

The most offensive, in fact, actually has the most creative merit (Coal Black). You can download most of them off of Limewire, and not feel bad as they are not commercially "out there".

You'll also notice that many of the more "ethnic" voices from Tom & Jerry on Cartoon Network have been re-recorded in subtly less offensive ways. Additionally, there's also a whole series of "anti-Japanese" racist WWII cartoons that don't get shown, though they've pulled Popeye all-together.

Despite the fact that I enjoy the cultural relevance of these things, and can watch them and understand that they are to be examined in context, I do think that they should be set aside and not distributed through the regular channels that similar, non

In Disney's case, for instance, if they were to re-release "Song of the South" parents might send their children to the "Disney Name" without properly thinking it through and discussing it with their children, and suddenly you have a whole lot of children who develop mistaken racial stereotypes about the intelligence of all African-Americans, without understanding the way in which they were systematically deprived of educations.

Beyond that, I would imagine that if I had a sufficiently young child I wouldn't want to have to explain the flaws of the world to them in order to let them watch something that I watched as a kid simply because I remember it fondly.

In short, it's intended for children, and should therefore be self-censored with a heavy hand as the process of imprinting impressionable young minds with old ignorant stereotypes is a serious matter, and should supercede your desire for nostalga.

 

I'll throw this out:

Why has "Gone With the Wind" not been banned?? The character played by Hattie McDaniel could be deemed offensive in today's PC world.

If Turner or whoever is going to the trouble of changing the voice of Tom's master (known as Mammy Two-Step, I think) then why don't they do the same thing with Hattie McDaniel's character in Gone With the Wind??

 

Footnote:

I was looking at the biographies of the actors in the film and the first line of James Baskett (Uncle Remus) biography best sums up for me why the depection of African-Americans as happy-go-lucky morons is so offensive:

 

I agree Ottoman. There's too much "it's harmless" attitude going on in this thread. People think that because its a kid's movie that it doesn't have any social impact. But the exact opposite is true. You have very negative stereotypes being taught at an impressionable age. Like I said I've never seen the "Song of the South" but I have seen those Loony Tunes and Tom and Jerry that have been banned, and even at 9 years old I found those cartoons very offensive. They're not harmless. Why do you think such negative attitudes lasted in society through the 60's. Its because pop culture, including movies, makes them acceptable.

 

I think it's a matter of degree. I've read many accounts that Song of the South really pushed the line...but don't remember anything offensive about it 25 years ago.

I really want to see this movie now. I'm genuinely curious.

But I may have to rely on DaDa's fair and balanced review.

 

I remember watching Tom and Jerry in college and thinking "WTF, do they think that is still appropriate or funny?"



The one that comes to mind (that I couldn't find on the web) is the one where the maid leaves the clean house and tells Tom to make sure it doesn't get messed up. At the end a coal truck is back into the basement window and the house fills with coal, just as the maid walks in. Tom pops up and is completely black from the coal. The maid asks "Have you seen that no good Tom Cat 'round here?" To which Tom replies in a stereotypical "southern black" accent "No ma'am. I ain't seen no cat, no where, no ma'am." As he walks away hunched over with lips protruding, the bottom half if his body that is not black is revealed and he starts to run away...

 

My first thought is to say that Disney will never make Song of the South available. Can you imagine the headlines and CNN smearing that would occur if they did? Nope. Won't happen.

But then, I read this statement on SoungOfTheSouth.net from Roy Disney which says (typos corrected),

"I am sorry to tell you that this is yet another reason to do our best to move Eisner out. He has been - for quite a few years now - totally against (I think AFRAID is a better word) of re-releasing Song of the South, which happens to be one of my favorite of the old Disney films. A number of us have tried, for some time, to change his mind, to no avail.

So that's all I can tell you right now. It would be one of my first acts if I were to come back to the company!

Hope that helps, although I know it's not the best of news...

Roy "

hey DaDakota - I've been interested in getting it also for my kid(s). How good is the quality on your copy? Does your source have a website? If not, what was the name of ebay seller? how much did you pay? did you get it on dvd, or VHS?

we got our daughter the VHS of the Disney Sing Along Songs tape, which includes a clip from the movie with Zip-a-dee Doo Da. She loves it. I'd love for her to be able to see the whole film.

here's Song of the South on Laserdisc - I would think that a high quality rip could be made from that, but it's going for $131 so far (and there's time left on that auction - it'll probably sell for more).

-- droxford

 

Man, have you guys seen the Popeye short where he has this suicidal friend? They showed it on Cartoon Network a few months ago and it blew my mind. He even shoots himself at the end of the episode (albeit, in the dark). Hillarious nonetheless.

 

Perhaps it has to do with Gone With the Wind not being aimed at children currently (I know cartoons were not originally strictly for kids, but today, cartoons are mostly aimed at children).

Of course, Song of the South played in theaters in one of the rereleases when I was a kid. I saw it and didn't think anything too much of it. I was a kid at the time, though, and would not have noticed many subleties, if there. All I really remember is that guy from that Ralph Macchio movie Crossroads sat around telling some white kids some stories (EDIT: as it turns out, that wasn't the same guy. But like I said, it's been a while since I've seen it. I honestly didn't realize the movie was quite as old as it is).

By the way, here's one folklorist's take on the movie:

Disney's 20th century re-creation of Harris's frame story is much more heinous than the original. The days on the plantation located in "the United States of Georgia" begin and end with unsupervised Blacks singing songs about their wonderful home as they march to and from the fields. Disney and company made no attempt to to render the music in the style of the spirituals and work songs that would have been sung during this era. They provided no indication regarding the status of the Blacks on the plantation. Joel Chandler Harris set his stories in the post-slavery era, but Disney's version seems to take place during a surreal time when Blacks lived on slave quarters on a plantation, worked diligently for no visible reward and considered Atlanta a viable place for an old Black man to set out for.

Kind old Uncle Remus caters to the needs of the young white boy whose father has inexplicably left him and his mother at the plantation. An obviously ill-kept Black child of the same age named Toby is assigned to look after the white boy, Johnny. Although Toby makes one reference to his "ma," his parents are nowhere to be seen. The African-American adults in the film pay attention to him only when he neglects his responsibilities as Johnny's playmate-keeper. He is up before Johnny in the morning in order to bring his white charge water to wash with and keep him entertained.

The boys befriend a little blond girl, Ginny, whose family clearly represents the neighborhood's white trash. Although Johnny coaxes his mother into inviting Ginny to his fancy birthday party at the big house, Toby is curiously absent from the party scenes. Toby is good enough to catch frogs with, but not good enough to have birthday cake with. When Toby and Johnny are with Uncle Remus, the gray-haired Black man directs most of his attention to the white child. Thus Blacks on the plantation are seen as willingly subservient to the whites to the extent that they overlook the needs of their own children. When Johnny's mother threatens to keep her son away from the old gentleman's cabin, Uncle Remus is so hurt that he starts to run away. In the world that Disney made, the Blacks sublimate their own lives in order to be better servants to the white family. If Disney had truly understood the message of the tales he animated so delightfully, he would have realized the extent of distortion of the frame story.