Monday, September 22, 2008

Song of the South

I'll admit it, I love Disney's Song of the South! I saw it when it was released in theatres in the 80's and have always wanted it on dvd. Because of controversy it was never made for release in the US. After limited release in Europe it was pulled from shelves due to all of the controversy.

When Mark and I were riding Splash Mountain I realized that he didn't know the story of Br'er Rabbit. I explained as we were going through the ride and it made much more sense to him. It's hard to believe how many people have no idea about this movie, yet it's the theme of a major ride at Disneyland.

The only thing that I can see to be controversial is the Tar Baby - that's pretty bad for today's highly sensitive audiences. But, this movie was made in 1946. Everything else is fine - it's a movie about slaves and slave stories. I think to hide from this movie is sad - it's a beautiful movie and is one of the first major movies to combine animation and live-action.


Anyhoo...someone sent Mark a copy that was made from the laserdisc that was released in the 80's. We watched it last night and really enjoyed it. There were a couple of moments where we cringed a bit, but it was a great movie. I got online and was researching the movie when I discovered that it was again released and sold in Disney Paris, but this time was remastered for US dvd players. It's an official Disney release! So, I bought a copy.

I was always afraid that we would have this great Disney collection and always have a giant hole in it where Song of the South should be. Now we will have a complete collection!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We recently got into a big controversy at work over the term "tar baby". Someone used the term in talking about a mess you can't get out of. Someone else took offense and said that it's a racist term. I think that's ridiculous! Uncle Remus was one of my favorite books as a kid. The tar baby was created to intentionally provoke Bre'r Rabbit into hitting it so he would get stuck in the tar. The doll that was made of tar wouldn't speak back when BR spoke tohim, so BR got mad and hit him and got stuck. Just becasue the tar baby was made to look like a black kid doesn't make the whole thing racist. I think everyone has gotten way too PC! Olivia