Roy Disney supports Song of the South release - Eisner does not (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

The other side of the coin:

It kind of sounds racist to me to not allow the sale of a 'black' movie

 

[Ernest Rister]

"The scenes of the shopkeepers are anything but satisfactual, as they are singing on there way to work in the fields, as if slaves enjoyed going to work for their owners!"


"Let the Rain Pour Down" from Song of the South(excerpt)

Havin' trouble with the weevil,
never did like that
Got the cotton full of evil
like a hypocrite's hat
When the weevil get the cotton
everybody feels low
There'll be nothin' on the table
when the dinner horn blow.

Let the rain pour down,
let the cold wind blow
Gonna stay right here
in the home I know

(Trouble fly away fly away)

When you're achin' with the mis'ry,
and you're old and gray,
Then you'd better be thankful
that He let you stay.
Let you stay to see the children
playin' 'round your door
For the time is soon a'comin'
when you won't be here no more.

Let the rain pour down,
let the cold wind blow
Gonna stay right here
in the home I know.

The sharecroppers aren't happy to be working for their masters...they're worried about not having food for their families, they want trouble to "fly away". However, they're glad that they are alive, they are thankful to God that they are able to spend time with their children and families, despite the misery and hardships of their labors.

Sounds like every working family in America to me.

 

[Joe_Pinney]

Guys, I just noticed that SOTS is actually one film among many that just got a pre-order notification listing at Amazon.com.

Not every film gets such a "Not Yet Released" listing, including films that we KNOW are coming out (like Bachelor & the Bobby-Soxer or The Sugarland Express or even the 2-disc of Around the World in 80 Days). The just-announced Star Wars series is listed, using the same type of listing. I found a BUNCH of other classics that just got these listings, too (Gunga Din, Ninotchka, King Kong), none of which was listed before yesterday. I think that certain titles only get such a listing if there's some kind of official indication from the studios to vendors that a title is "in the pipeline", but if there is any other criteria for such a listing that anyone knows of for certain, by all means share it with us!

 

[Ernest Rister]

It wouldn't surprise me to see Eisner unleashing the floodgates right now to try and boost every penny in profit he can in the Consumer Products division. Or maybe they're releasing it as a posion pill of controversey to dissuade the jackals at Comcast.

The vote is TOMORROW! GO ROY!

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

I read somewhere that the NAACP currently has no stance on SOTS. I believe it was at songofthesouth.net

We've already got another lengthy thread on this topic, but I just recently rescreened this film.

Gregg Toland's cinematography is incredible. This is a great example of what Disney could do in the 1940s. A successful blend of live action and animation was not something that you found in movies of this time period. The live action sequences are weak, but the film should be viewed as episodic to complement the Uncle Remus source material (a fascinating read if you get the chance to find it in the original Joel Chandler Harris form and not a simplified children's version). Then again, it seems like typical Disney live action. Remember that not everything that was produced by the studios was on the par of Treasure Island or 20,000 Leagues. SOTS live action sequences are superior to some other Disney misfires, which you can't really see until you watch a LOT of the studio's output from the 1950s and 1960s.

This is not offensive at all compared to some of the stereotypes present in 1930s animation or the big budget films of the 30s and 40s. How often do you see African American actors get the majority of screen time? James Baskett did win an honorary Oscar for his performance, and Hattie McDaniel is a name a few of you might remember.

I'd have no problem showing this film to anyone. I'm proud to have a VHS copy finally and equally ecstatic to have 10 minutes of it on DVD in Alice in Wonderland. Here's hoping Roy O. gets restored to the board so we can bring this film back.

 

[LukeB]

That's been around for quite some time. Nothing new to read into at this point.

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

43% vote no-confidence in Eisner today.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Which means what? Do they need a majority to oust him?

 

[TonyD]

that is from this article on philly.com.....

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/8095479.htm

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Say what you will about Song of the South, but they released The Aristocats on DVD with ALL of its racial stereotyping intact, which I found far more offensive. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I mean the Siamese cat in the jazz band. That is truly painful to watch. I want SotS just so I can see it! I missed it on its last theatrical re-release.

 

[Ernest Rister]

The "cat band" in The Aristocats is made up of several ethnicities...from the Russian to the Siamese to the Italian to the British "Liverpool" cat, to the African-American "Scat Cat"...the only one that bothered you was the Siamese cat? Have you seen Lady and the Tramp?

 

[Julian Lalor]

This film is regularly shown on The Disney Channel outside North America. No reports of racially motivated incidents have been reported in countries as ethnically diverse as the US. Most, if not all, children of an age that this film is geared towards would not be familiar with the Civil War or, indeed, slavery. Talk about a tempest in a tea cup.

 

[TonyD]

..

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I woke up this morning, turned on the radio
and heard the tail end of a report about a
change of management at Disney.

Anyone want to update us on today's events
and how that may possibly affect the release
of Song Of The South on DVD?

 

[James L White]

from yahoo.com

 

[Jon Martin]

Unfortunately, this means nothing. Eisner at least knows what is going on in the media industry. Mitchell was just a "prestige name" hired to be on the board. He doesn't know what he is doing. He had the second highest no confidence vote after Eisner.

As Roy Disney said, some of the board members have no idea how the movie business is run. I think he was talking about Mitchell when saying that.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The Siamese was the one that stuck out the most, since the others, while speaking with stereotypical accents, were not quite such sharply drawn stereotypes. Yes, I have seen Lady and the Tramp; the Siamese cats in that are tame compared to the Siamese in The Aristocats.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yeah, it's window dressing but Eisner's still in control. Too bad. :frowning:

The opposition came shockingly close to ousting him though--clearly shareholders are NOT happy.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"The Siamese was the one that stuck out the most, since the others, while speaking with stereotypical accents, were not quite such sharply drawn stereotypes. Yes, I have seen Lady and the Tramp; the Siamese cats in that are tame compared to the Siamese in The Aristocats."

This is exactly the sort of hyper-sensitivity that keeps Song of the South off video shelves in America, and convinces Disney to censor their animation library. Dopey puts a cymbal on his head and "acts Chinese" for a second in Snow White, let's go censor that, too. So a Siamese cat is drawn *too* Chinese in The Aristocats. Well, call out the revisionist thought police, can't have any of that in a cartoon.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

I don't think Song of the South is a racist film at all, and I don't think that it should be suppressed by Disney at all.

That having been said, I have no interest in purchasing The Song of the South if it ever gets released on DVD, simply because I find it to be a pretty lousy movie. I think that some people who are frothing at the mouth for the film's release will, upon finally watching it, wonder why they bothered wasting their time.