Walt Disney-Song Of The South

[white avenger]

This is a movie that I loved as a child, and I recently tried to buy it for my granddaughter, only to find that it will "never be sold in the United States due to its offensive content." For those not familiar with the title, it's the '50's musical, combining both real and animated characters, based on the children's story series by Joel Chandler Harris. The stories concern characters like "Brer (Brother) Rabbit," "Brer Fox," and "Brer Bear," and were told to Harris as a child by "Uncle Remus," a slave on Harris' father's plantation.

My question is, "Do you find this story/subject matter offensive, and, unless you choose not to elaborate, why?"

 

[Lily]

I voted No, I do not.
As a child growing up I remember watching this and thinking, "What a nice old man, I wish I knew old people that would tell me stories" so I'm struggling to think why it's banned.
That's like saying The Colour Purple should be banned because it has racist elements? It's a story, and it's weird cause it really painted a story of how children can be the great equalizers in racial differences, because they haven't learnt the 'hate' behaviour.

Bizarre that the movie with Zippedeedooda (sp?) in it, could ever be banned, that song is pure sunshine 😀

 

[Joyce Summers]

I remember this film growing up and I loved it. I even used to have all the Brer stories in this lovely illustrated children's book. Both the book and the film had definite feel-good elements and like Lily said, I'm struggling to see why it's banned. There may be some racist undertones, but it wasn't exactly a KKK propaganda movie. The movie industry are getting more annoyingly paranoid about this subject by the day and it's very frustrating. A child should be able to still watch this movie. I mean who hasn't sung zippeededoodah?
I didn't find the content offensive then, and I don't find it offensive now, because whether there's racism or not, you are able to appreciate the context and the time capsule upon it.

 

[white avenger]

There may be some racist undertones, but it wasn't exactly a KKK propaganda movie. .

Yeah, that's kind of ironic, since the pro-KKK silent movie, "Birth Of A Nation" is considered a classic and easily obtained.

 

[Washburne]

I´ve never seen this movies so I´ll leave it with that and let you who has seen it continue the discussion. But you made me curious so maybe I´ll check it out some time.

 

[Bluebird]

I've not seen this movie either. But I remember it from the trailers you got on the old Disney VHS tapes so I must have seen the trailer a lot. Didn't think there was anything wrong with the film as a kid watching the trailer, looked like good fun. But I haven't seen the whole film, I can't judge now. But Disney was still advertising this film in the early 90's....
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Edit:
[br][/br]

white avenger agrees: It's available in europe. It's only here in the US that Disney has the self imposed ban.

Ah, I see. Well in that case, I think it's probably just the crazy US censorship. Although I can see how it could be seen as more offensive in the States than in Europe.

 

[hannahfngrl26]

I have not seen it so I will definitely check it out but I will say that I know Disney was a little risque back in the day especially around racism so I will definitley see if there is something to fuss about.

 

[Buffanator]

This has always been a source of subdued anger for me. I loved SotS when I was a child. It made me happy - I loved Uncle Remus - he was FUN! - never once did it enter my mind, nor was it ever "told" to me that there were racist undertones.... nope, see, that didn't happen until the past 20 or so years. All I ever saw was an old man, telling stories, & singing with "Mr. Bluebird" on his shoulder, & I must have sang that song a trillion times, along with my "phonograph" & "Song of the South record & storybook" that I got for my birthday that year...

I understand it completely - and I'm still waiting for the day *they* declare Gone With the Wind racist & refuse to continue selling it, too.

See, we're not supposed to get "happy" by singing Zip-pitty-doo-dah, Zip-pitty-ay! My oh my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine head'n my way.... Zip-pitty-doo-dah, Zip-pitty-ay! because the old man singing it has "no education" & is just a "dumb n****r" & other such b.s. So while it's perfectly OK for any black hip-hopper to say "n****r" eleventy-hundred times on his new album, it's NEVER OK for a white person to utter that word. And Uncle Remus is right up there with Aunt Jemima .... I wonder when they'll start taking the best syrup in the world off the store shelves because of that picture, which so OBVIOUSLY depicts an old black slave woman cooking for whitey.... :confused3 ::uh::



OOPS! - SORRY! - this is just one of those subjects that sincerely chaps my hyde. I hate racist related propaganda. But it's something we have to deal with day in & day out since "politically correct" became the rule of thumb... :cussing2: :brick:

WHATEVER. All I know is that it truly makes me sad that an entire generation of kids will never know how much wonderful fun it is to sing along with Uncle Remus... :crying2:

 

[Superstar]

"politically correct" became the rule of thumb

Politically "correct" is the drool of the dumb.

Considering that politics specializes in evasion of the truth and double-talk I suppose it is an accurate term.