Song of the South (1 Viewer)

[Jari K]

Disney should just release the film on DVD/BD, along with the new, informative documentary about "the era" when the film was made. They could include new interviews from the different angles - political, historical, "Hollywood in the 1940s", "Animation meets live actors", etc.

The film is easy enough to obtain (it was released on e.g. Laserdisc), so it's a bit too late for Disney to hide it.

 

[Sumnernor]

I have the VHS (legal) from England and I must have seen it when I was you8ng. I am white but it is my belief that the movie is NOT raciast. Sadly many people complain about ii without having seen the movie. I consider "Gone With The Wind" far worse.One black mentioned that GWTW has received so many awards! A star of Song of the South was black and received a special oscar. He was a big PLUS and no way was an insult.

 

[Michael Elliott]

We could probably name hundreds of movies that are far more offensive and are on DVD or Blu. Heck, I'd say dozens of more offensive films appear on TCM each month. The entire "I'm young, free and white" is a line a dialogue that I hear at least twice a month while going through my TCM recordings.

I agree it doesn't make much sense to pretend these movies or this era was never around. You can only learn from it but I think those who want this film hidden don't care about learning and that the NAACP would go on the attack and wouldn't care about the history behind it. I do find it rather insulting that so many racial/sexual stereotypes are allowed to be released except when it comes to certain groups. I understand why some might be offended by SOTS but even in today's climate there are insulting things that are shown on television and they don't get pulled/edited just because a certain group are offended (wasn't it that upcoming show DADS that has a few upset?).

 

[FoxyMulder]

Being Scottish i am used to racial stereotyping of my country, apparently we all love alcohol, get drunk regularly and are very tight with our money, i mean seriously, come on, anyways i'm off now for a few pints of McEwan's Lager and i sure as hell am not buying.

 

[ScottHM]

I'd say dozens of more offensive films appear on TCM each month. The entire "I'm young, free and white" is a line a dialogue that I hear at least twice a month while going through my TCM recordings.

That is very offensive now that I'm no longer young, but I like those films anyway.---------------

 

[Vic Pardo]

Being Scottish i am used to racial stereotyping of my country, apparently we all love alcohol, get drunk regularly and are very tight with our money, i mean seriously, come on, anyways i'm off now for a few pints of McEwan's Lager and i sure as hell am not buying.

Don't forget your bagpipes...and your kilt!

 

[rich_d]

Being Scottish i am used to racial stereotyping of my country, apparently we all love alcohol, get drunk regularly and are very tight with our money, i mean seriously, come on, anyways i'm off now for a few pints of McEwan's Lager and i sure as hell am not buying.

Funny stuff.

Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks did this skit years back of a stuffy, teeth-clenching William Buckley-type WASP from Connecticut, Connecticut. Where there are no children, because they pay poor Italian couples in Hartford to look after them. I found it to be mildly amusing only in how outrageous it was.

However, I've never felt oppressed and even the notion that I might be in some sort of oppressed sub-group is a foreign concept to me. That said, if I went to visit someone from the South as their guest and they pulled out that skit to share with me ... I would think it to be ... ungracious. Likewise, if I were to host a film party for an adult black couple is there a chance in the world of me suggesting we watch Song of the South? No.

So, that's why I give Disney a complete pass in all of this. They are in the business of entertainment, including resort sites where they host people. Should Disney be in the position of being anything but the perfect host? Should any of their guest feel uncomfortable or unwelcome? Quite the opposite, they should feel that Disney is delighted for them to be there. That's part of the role of a host - strong consideration for all guests (and for a business, all customers).

Song of the South may be an endearing film and I really don't think that it's racist by design. I just don't think those two points are the pertinent issue to the film's general release though. It's simply bad form.

 

[SilverWook]

Which is why Disney censors it's old movies, even when the "offensive" bits exist only in the minds of loons, like the "boner" in Little Mermaid. They even alter their classic rides to be PC, because pirates aren't allowed to chase wenches anymore.

Heaven forbid anyobody be offended by anything, except maybe the steep admission prices to the parks.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Being Scottish i am used to racial stereotyping of my country, apparently we all love alcohol, get drunk regularly and are very tight with our money, i mean seriously, come on, anyways i'm off now for a few pints of McEwan's Lager and i sure as hell am not buying.

I spent a wonderful year at the University of Edinburgh back in the 1990s. One event I do remember was, in the cafeteria, asking what an item on the salad bar was. The Scottish woman tending it told me that it was beets, and I replied that I had never had them before and would like to try them. She made repeated attempts to talk me out of ordering them out of the apparent fear that I would not like them and they would go to waste. I persisted, but she was right, I did not like them.

 

[Mike*HTF]

They even alter their classic rides to be PC, because pirates aren't allowed to chase wenches anymore.

Did this actually happen? This is the first I'd heard of it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Did this actually happen? This is the first I'd heard of it.

Check HERE.

In its original form, the Disneyland attraction contained a scene in which pirates were shown chasing women in circles (achieved by simply placing figures on rotating platforms hidden below guests' view), along with a "comical" reversal in which an overweight woman was seen chasing a pirate. When guests were offended by this depiction, Disney initially changed the tableau of the woman chasing the pirate by having her try to hit him with a rolling pin. In 1997, this scene was changed so that the pirates pursued women holding pies, and the large woman is chasing a pirate with a stolen ham. However, the audio of the women's giggles while being chased remained despite complaints. Sometime after this the audio was also removed.

Originally, one overweight pirate (sometimes known as the "Pooped Pirate") was shown exhausted from his pursuit of an unwilling teenaged female. He brandished a petticoat as guests floated past and uttered suggestive dialogue, including: "It's sore I be to hoist me colors upon the likes of that shy little wench", and "I be willing to share, I be". Behind him, the woman he had been pursuing would anxiously peer out from her hiding place inside a barrel. This scene was altered in the American parks, but it remains unchanged in the version at Disneyland Paris. In the 1997 refurbishment, the "Pooped Pirate" was recast as the Gluttonous Pirate, a rogue in search of food. His dialogue included lines such as: "Me belly be feeling like galleon with a load of treasure", and "I be looking for a fine pork loin, I be". The woman hiding in the barrel was replaced by a cat.

At the Magic Kingdom, the chase scene was altered to show the pirates making off with various treasure as the formerly "chased" women attempt to thwart them. The "Pooped Pirate" here holds a treasure map in his lap and a magnifying glass in one hand. His lines include: "This map says X marks the spot, but I be seein' no X's afore me". The woman in the barrel remains, although this time she is hiding a small treasure chest in the barrel with her.

These modifications garnered criticism from longtime fans and some of the attraction's original Imagineers; in Jason Surrell's book Pirates of the Caribbean: From The Magic Kingdom to the Movies, showwriter Francis Xavier "X" Atencio referred to these "softening" touches as "Boy Scouts of the Caribbean".

 

[Richard--W]

That quoted passage is political correctness run amok.

No wonder I can't stand the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Which is why Disney censors it's old movies, even when the "offensive" bits exist only in the minds of loons, like the "boner" in Little Mermaid. They even alter their classic rides to be PC, because pirates aren't allowed to chase wenches anymore.

Heaven forbid anyobody be offended by anything, except maybe the steep admission prices to the parks.

Something similar happened at Old Tucson Studio. Tourists from all over the world loved to gather on both sides of the street at Old Tucson Studio to watch the stunt actors perform live gunfights and fist fights. It's been a principle attraction in Arizona since 1963. You can see one of these gunfights in Death Wish (1974) when Paul Kersey goes to Arizona. When new management took over in 1995, a woman, she decided to cancel the gunfights. She announced it was the end of male dominated entertainment at the studio. Instead she put on Victorian skits and plays in the town square. Some aggression was permitted, but no violence and no follies dancers showing their frilly pantelletes. Gradually the tourists stopped coming. She compromised and allowed the stunt men to stage some action and stunts, but no fighting or gunfights. When that failed to attract the tourist agencies, she reinstated the gunfights and fistfights. Attendance picked up, but it has never reached the heights it once had.

 

[Emanuel1]

Iger hates this movie, for whatever reason. I am hoping when he retires, the next CEO will understand there is tremendous demand for this film. They don't have to make it a general release in Wal-mart and stores like that. They just need restore the film, put it on Blu-ray and make it a Disney Movie club exclusive. People will go crazy ordering it.

 

[MatthewA]

The internal backlash started after the 1986 US re-release, which actually out-grossed that same year's re-release of Sleeping Beauty (per Box Office Mojo).

Disney is afraid of a backlash or protests over a theoretical home video release, but Splash Mountain had no protests, and nor, to the best of my knowledge, did any of the foreign video releases. But they've squandered numerous opportunities to do it right. In the 1990s, it would have been perfect for the "Exclusive Archive Collection" laserdisc series. They also missed their chance to get Ruth Warrick's involvement when she was on All My Children; now I don't think any of the cast is still alive.

 

[battlebeast]

Doesn't Disney and all of you realize they've already released song of the south on blu ray? Or, at least, part of it?

 

[MatthewA]

You mean that clip of the film from the One Hour in Wonderland TV special? It's in SD on the Blu-ray of Alice in Wonderland. That, too, adds another layer of cognitive dissonance in this whole saga.

There's plenty of material for a documentary about the film from the same people who have been making the Disney documentaries such as The Boys and Waking Sleeping Beauty. From Joel Chandler Harris himself to the pre- and post-production controversies (Jim Korkis' book covers it very well) to the fact that this film seems to be locked in a glass vault: you can't see the film through official means, but you can still see and hear elements of it throughout the world of Disney. Most people involved with the film are dead, sadly, but there have to be some relevant interviews in the vault.

 

[battlebeast]

Yes, that's what I mean. If they truly wanted the film kept locked up, they would have edited this segment out. It does add another layer, doesn't it?

 

[MatthewA]

And guess what Disney movie about the founder of the company and an Australian author who nitpicked and cried all the way to the banks plays "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" in one of its key scenes?

 

[Charles Smith]

Yes, couldn't help but smile at that moment in the theater yesterday.