Song of the South [1946]

Product Information

Inge, M. Thomas (September 2012). "Walt Disney's Song of the South and the Politics of Animation". Journal of American Culture. 35 (3): 228 . Retrieved July 2, 2016.

The score by Daniele Amfitheatrof, Paul J. Smith, and Charles Wolcott was nominated in the "Scoring of a Musical Picture" category, and " Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", written by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert, won the award for Best Original Song at the 20th Academy Awards on March 20, 1948. [70] A special Academy Award was given to Baskett "for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world in Walt Disney's Song of the South". For their portrayals of the children Johnny and Ginny, Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten were also discussed for Academy Juvenile Awards, but in 1947 it was decided not to present such awards at all. [71] Song of the South remains the Walt Disney Company’s most divisive endeavor. The question of whether to give it a home release moved through several elite Disney heads, with 1984-2005 CEO Michael Eisner reportedly requesting that the character of Uncle Remus be ignored in the Splash Mountain ride adaptation.Toy Story (1995) • A Bug's Life (1998) • Toy Story 2 (1999) · Monsters, Inc. (2001) • Finding Nemo (2003) • The Incredibles (2004) • Cars (2006) • Ratatouille (2007) • WALL-E (2008) • Up (2009) • Toy Story 3 (2010) • Cars 2 (2011) • Brave (2012) • Monsters University (2013) • Inside Out (2015) • The Good Dinosaur (2015) • Finding Dory (2016) • Cars 3 (2017) • Coco (2017) • Incredibles 2 (2018) • Toy Story 4 (2019) • Onward (2020) • Soul (2020) • Luca (2021) • Turning Red (2022) • Lightyear (2022) • Elemental (2023) Unlike some Disney titles that come with certain content warnings on the Disney+ streaming service, “Song of the South” will never be available even with an “outdated cultural depictions” disclaimer on the platform. All I Want": Traditional, new arrangement and lyrics by Ken Darby; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir Masters, Dorothy (November 28, 1946). "Disney Treat Screens Gospel of Uncle Remus". New York Daily News. p.C16 . Retrieved August 25, 2022– via Newspapers.com. AKAs for Song of the South". Archived from the original on February 25, 2007 . Retrieved January 18, 2007.

Walt Disney had long wanted to make a film based on the Uncle Remus storybook, but it wasn't until the mid-1940s that he had found a way to give the stories an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity. "I always felt that Uncle Remus should be played by a living person," Disney is quoted as saying, "as should also the young boy to whom Harris' old Negro philosopher relates his vivid stories of the Briar Patch. Several tests in previous pictures, especially in The Three Caballeros, were encouraging in the way living action and animation could be dovetailed. Finally, months ago, we 'took our foot in hand,' in the words of Uncle Remus, and jumped into our most venturesome but also more pleasurable undertaking." [2] [3] Pallotta, Frank (June 25, 2020). "Splash Mountain, a Disney ride based on a controversial film, will be 'completely reimagined' ". CNN . Retrieved June 25, 2020. The film is set in the Reconstruction-era American south, just as the Civil War has concluded and slavery has ended. And while the film’s legacy has been mostly buried, the Disney theme park ride Splash Mountain (which, at Disney World, is temporarily closed) is modeled on this troubling movie that Longworth savvily explored in her podcast.

Brantley, Mike (January 6, 2002). "Song of the South". Alabama Mobile Register. Song of the South.net . Retrieved January 18, 2007. Hill, Jim (July 5, 2007). "As "Tarzan" swings off Broadway, is Beyoncé getting ready to play Aida in Disney's next big movie musical?". Jim Hill Media . Retrieved July 6, 2007. I think we all end up being very biased when we try to evaluate Disney movies—perhaps because they will always be inevitably connected to the nice memories of our first viewing experience as children. Sperb, Jason (2013). Disney's Most Notorious Film: Race, Convergence, and the Hidden Histories of Song of the South. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0292756779.

Br'er Rabbit Runs Away: (~8 minutes) Based on " Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute". Includes the song " Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" The song "Look at the Sun" is marketed as one of the songs from the movie, though it is not actually in the film. There are only five minutes of the movie without any music. And the people who have seen this movie and still like to make false assertions that it's racist are people who watch it, with chips already planted in their shoulders and are trying to look for anything they can find to point to and say "it's racist". When it isn't. They don't realize that the NAACP 9 (An organization founded by white leftists, which has had a lot of crooked history - including giving Donald Sterling of all people 2 lifetime achievement awards.) made the declaration they made with ANY OF THEM HAVING SEEN THE FILM. To this day, the people who object the most about Disney releasing this film are people who have not seen this film. I watched the film for the first time in the early 1950s. I saw it at least once more on television in the 1950s. I have never associated it with slavery. My focus was on the stories and how they were used as lessons for the children. To criticize the story for the dialect the people and animals use would be the same as criticizing books because the characters use a French, German, Irish, Scottish, etc. accent that the authors spell out phonetically.

Uncommon Knowledge

When the film was first released, Walter Francis White, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) telegraphed major newspapers around the country with the following statement:

During the film’s production, Disney already felt uneasy. Studio publicist Disney publicist Vern Caldwell wrote to “Song of the South” producer Perce Pearce to say “the negro situation is a dangerous one. Between the negro haters and the negro lovers there are many chances to run afoul of situations that could run the gamut all the way from the nasty to the controversial.” Uncle Remus Said": Written by Eliot Daniel, Hy Heath, and Johnny Lange; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir Song of the South is a feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions, released on November 12, 1946 by RKO Radio Pictures and based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. It was one of Walt Disney's earliest feature films to combine live action footage with animation and was the first Disney feature film in which live actors were hired for lead roles. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the adventures of Br'er Rabbit and his friends. These anthropomorphic animal characters appear in animation. It was Walt's first live action film, and if you read Jim Korkis' book, you will learn about what I mean when I say 'incompetence' and rookie film school mistakes. To his credit, during production, Walt did ask people from the NAACP and the Urban League for consultation and input on how this film can be made and invited them to the set and they turned his offer down. But what is Song of the South and why do people still discuss it nearly 75 years after its release? What is Song of the South about? Credit: DisneyThe most commonly cited problem is what critics call the film’s idealized version of post-Civil War America, where slavery had only just been abolished. The Guardian was chief among those who found this element to be uncomfortable, writing: Walt Disney had wanted to produce a film based on the Uncle Remus stories for some time. In 1939 he began negotiating with the Harris family for the film rights, and in 1944, filming for Song of the South began. The studio constructed a plantation set, for the outdoor scenes, in Phoenix, Arizona, while other scenes were filmed in Hollywood. The film is predominantly live action, but includes three animated segments, which were later released as stand-alone television features. Some scenes also feature a combination of live action with animation. Song of the South premiered in Atlanta in November 1946 and the remainder of its initial theater run was a financial success. The song " Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Original Song [4] and Baskett received an Academy Honorary Award for his performance as Uncle Remus. However, if you have any doubt as to whether Song of the South will ever be available for streaming, listen to former Disney CEO Bob Iger. In March 2020, when asked whether the film would see a release, he described it as “not appropriate in today’s world”. He confirmed it wouldn’t be suitable for release even with an “outdated cultural depictions” disclaimer.