"Songs of the South" on dvd

[JackPumpkinhead]

Personally, I think this is awesome news. I would love to own this little-known classic on dvd. Besides, it's had a ride for a while now, so shoudln't people know what inspired the ride? Anyway, what does everyone else think about this?

[Magnus]

Well, in the University I go to, not only is anything and everything by Disney hated and despised (apparently anything linked with the words "large corporation" is automatically evil), but "Song of the South" is seen as an icon of racial oppression. I saw the movie when I was young, and again more recently, and I while I believe Disney's intentions were pretty well-meant, I do think they definitely stretched their bounds at times, such as the tar baby scene.

However...that said, there is still a lot about this movie that I think will be forever classic. I don't care what my University thinks; if this came out on DVD I'd get it. How does that song go?

"How do you do? Fine, how are you? How ya come on? Pretty good, sure as yer born." And "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" is sung by a lot of people who don't even know where it comes from.

[JackPumpkinhead]

YES! Those are the two songs I have on the Disney Sin-Along videos! And I like that how do you do one.

[Toonboy]

Boy. And here I thought universities were supposed to be bastions of enlightment.

[Toonboy]

Personally I think if something is considered important or a work of art, access to it should be allowed for the public. I remember thoroughly enjoying it as a child and not seeing any racism in it. I mean how is this any different from Peter Pan?

[Inkwolf]

I grew up with a Little Golden Book of Disney's Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. I'd love to actually see the film again, which I saw when I was about six.

I fully understand and sympathize with those who object to it on racial grounds, but I'm against censorship in general.

[MonkeyFunk]

Great news - now everyone will finally be able to see how boring this movie is :P

*runs*

[RedowlKate]

Personally, I don't think this would be such a bad movie to allow children to watch. I'm sure somewhere out there ultra-PC parents are getting ready to swoop down and gather up a few "Song of the South" DVDs to burn and throw some sort of rally against it... But really, I remember watching this movie and thinking it was kind of boring and I did not pick up on any racist overtones that may have existed. I grew up to be a normal, tolerant individual, so I hope most people have the common sense to see that "Song of the South" isn't going to poison the minds of innocent children or warp the minds of mature adults who know better than to change their entire stance on humanity just because of an animated movie. We'll see, I might even pick it up for a trip down nostalgia lane

[tailsxcream]

the only good thing about that movie was the animated bits.

[lupercal]

the only good thing about that movie was the animated bits.

The animated bits were certainly the highlights, along with the songs - but the query seems to be, is it something we should not expose our children to (a supplementary question might be, even if it isn't, couldn't we give it an adults-only rating? I mean, nobody stopped 'Fight Club' being released because it was bad for kids)

Magnus, I went to the same university you did. I had to sit through a two-hour tutorial about Chaucher's 'Treatise on the Astrolabe') (1350-ish?) being a 'mysgonist text' because the mechanism of the astrolabe was supposed to represent the female body.

My personal opinion: it's a good movie, and deserved to be available years ago. If Disney insist on sitting on a work of art, good luck to the bootleggers. It's nothing short of revisionism to pretend this film never happened.

As for the message, well I was lucky enough to watch it for the first time (that I can remember) in about 2001 on laserdisc, when I'd gone to writing my PhD and didn't have to be exposed to all this academic BS every day. In my opinion, the white father is shown as the stupid/bad guy; the rest of the whites are shown as either credulous, dumb,or both, and Remus is clearly shown to be the most intelligent and wise character. Now, if our logic has become so twisted that we have to withold a film on the basis that it's racist to show a minority as being too GOOD, then I think that speaks for itself.

Besides, what about all those Warner and Disney wartime shorts, which were blatantly racist, and which you can still find?

IMHO it's a good film. Not a great one, but good. Better than most of what Disney did in the 90's, for example. But moreover, I just have a thing about revisionism, whether it's pro or anti whatever. This thing came out, and whatever your opinion of it, how can you really persuade anyone that you're right if they never get to see it?

I'm quite serious: if Disney won't release it, get a bootleg if there are any. It's part of your heritage, and, Disney are censoring your own cultural history.

Sooner or later it will be public domain anyway, and then they can't stop anyone seeing it. The awful truth might even come out, that it was a pretty decent film - maybe even a progressive one.

Loop

[Magnus]

Magnus, I went to the same university you did.

Metaphorically speaking, I'm guessing?

I had to sit through a two-hour tutorial about Chaucher's 'Treatise on the Astrolabe') (1350-ish?) being a 'mysgonist text' because the mechanism of the astrolabe was supposed to represent the female body.

Heh, wow...astrolabe = female body. That's gotta be a new record, somewhere. And yeah...that does sound like my university. In all honesty a good 75% of my classes here have all ended up being the same class: Basically, "Racism And Sexism Are Bad - 101."
(Although the curriculum allows for students to take the alternative class, "War Is Also Bad," for the same credit. :lol:)

For the rest of it, I agree (as usual) with most of what you say. I think some people just try to find the worst possible interpretation of a film like this and then go out of their way to give it a bad reputation. And I do think it's a good story, not nearly the disaster that my U makes it out to be, and it is certainly a part of American animation culture and even depicts a part of our history that involved, like it or not, a great deal of slavery.

However, I still think Disney was pushing it. It's just an incredibly sensitive subject, and you can't go around using phrases like "tar baby" without bad consequence. Of course, for better or worse (in this case worse), things were different when the film was made, and certainly when the original "Uncle Remus" tales were published, but I don't blame people for not liking this movie if they take it personally. However I will never support the idea of censoring it, and I'm sure one day soon it will join my growing collection of animated material.

[SamET]

Finally found a great DVD at http://www.songofthesouthdvdremastered.com . It's a laser disk transfer I believe but it's great DVD quality and even has a bunch of extras on the disk. Very nicely done overall. Far better than anything else I've seen.