I will again repeat what I always say when the Song Of The South comes up. I managed a 1000 seat theatre in downtown Balto. Md. when it last ran, there were none,none at all complaints about it in any way. The crowd was almost 100% black. Everyone enjoyed it. I don't think we knew we were not suppose to like it!.Edwin-S said:
Until we were told.
It was even set to be the very last value-priced Gold DVD release (after they'd already gotten to the very bottom after Black Cauldron, and the packages), but suddenly disappeared off the radar just before Disney ended the Gold label. (Thus starting all the rumors about "packaging" it with Song, or Disney Treasures, or apparently, they just weren't that completist.) Not a bad movie, just too dull and obscure a one for them to market, even with the other 40's hybrids. If it ever comes back, it won't be by itself.MatthewA said:
And the DVD is beautiful. Would that Song of the South had gotten that kind of treatment.
That's just the point. Nobody thought SOTS was a very racist movie, until a few studio types started getting nervous about it. If you want to see a really racist cartoon, look for Walter Lantz's "Scrub Me, Mama (With a Boogie Beat)." Sheesh! That one makes SOTS look like Veggie Tales...Everett Stallings said:I will again repeat what I always say when the Song Of The South comes up. I managed a 1000 seat theatre in downtown Balto. Md. when it last ran, there were none,none at all complaints about it in any way. The crowd was almost 100% black. Everyone enjoyed it. I don't think we knew we were not suppose to like it!.
How do you know that? Just because some of us don't view it that way, doesn't mean others thought differently of it.
Wasn't even the studios--According to old stories, Disney was trying to find a project for Clarence Muse, who was the big 'prestige" black-entertainment name at the time; Muse had various ego falling-outs with the studio, and took his grievances to the NAACP, claiming that Walt was "racist". The NAACP, who up until now had few complaints against the positive ideas (Remus as surrogate-father) in SOTS, had recently been on a new kick about role imagery in films, routinely attacked any of Hattie McDaniel's wisecracking-domestic roles to the point that her career suffered (using her as the extreme example of why blacks "should" emulate Lena Horne roles instead), and did a sudden turnabout to claim that James Baskett's to-the-point-of-creepy chuckling was enforcing the "Happy slave" stereotype. (Even though no indication in the movie that it was before or after slavery, which itself was spun as "avoiding the issue".) And it's been Prestige Black-Star Ego ever since: Whoopi Goldberg on Disney's A-list after Sister Act, Sidney Poitier on Disney's board, Maya "Best buddies with Clinton" Angelou...Ethan Riley said:
So would I. I don't think either will happen but if I had to pick which would happen first, it'd be the 11 simply because they don't have the same notoriety as Song Of The South.ahollis said:
That goes without saying that a Blu-ray successor to Walt Disney Treasures should be started as soon as possible. That would have been the perfect venue for Song of the South, but it just didn't happen. Some of the 1930s Technicolor cartoons seem to have serious fringing issues they could fix digitally. But as long as the cartoons aren't censored or dumped out in slapdash kid-oriented collections with outdated transfers (I swear, some of the Donald Duck Volume 2 transfers are so old, they must have been made when Ron Miller was still in charge), I'll be happy. But they're going to have to do more than just re-do the Treasures sets in HD. New extras in addition to the old ones would be essential (I would kill for isolated scores or music-and-effects tracks, where they exist).
Of course, the Disney Treasures wasn't only designed to archive the Shorts, it was also designed to move all the classic Disneyland TV episodes off of late-nite Disney Channel, so they could make room for more Lizzie McGuire episodes. Most of the Treasures (like Syn) were TV rarities, and while Walt used film source for most of them, it's hard to say how many could be reconverted. Also, Disney historian Leonard Maltin wasn't just chirpy host but also czar of what themed projects were dug up--He knows that if Disney Treasures ever come back, fan requests for a "Welcome to WDW" and "Jiminy Cricket Educational" set are ahead of it in line. But, for every "WWII Front Lines", Disney has also had a "Annette: the Complete Series", so after poor sales on the not-really-DT True-Life Adventure series, they're not in any hurry to bring it back.MatthewA said:
