Customer Reviews

Song of the South

5 star:		(456)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Like everyone else mentioned in previous reviews, I grew up with Uncle Remus. I remember the wise lessons Uncle Remus taught through Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear. It had been 25 years since I first saw the movie and was fortunate to obtain a converted copy. What I saw was a wonderful wise old man who loved children. I saw a small, frightened boy who came to love Uncle Remus. What I failed to see were racist remarks or portrayals. Slavery was part of our history. It was wrong. What Disney beautifully portrayed was a rich, white boy who called slaves and a share cropper's daughter his friends while purposfully avoiding the other rich white little children invited to his birthday party. Since when is it considered racist to have children of different races and economic backgrounds holding hands and playing peacefully together. Wasn't that Dr. King's dream? Please bring back Song of the South and allow future generations to find their "Laughing Place".

I loved this movie as a child, and was finally able to find a copy in Europe. When I viewed it, I couldn't understand why Disney has caved in to social pressure over the 'offensive' content. The whole movie overflows with warmth and happiness and understanding, and if the Old South setting bothers some, they need to get over it. History is history, and to deny the positive message of this touching happy film is just tragic. The animation is UN-believable in how the characters mix in with the live-action! The song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" is a classic, and the characters of Uncle Remus, Brer Bear, Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit deserve to be discovered by a new generation! I hope Disney goes forward with plans to release the film on video and DVD; it is well overdue!

Our world is changing everyday. It is so good to go back and see some classics and enjoy the innocence of their day. "Song of the South" is one of them. I saw this in a theater as a child and loved the stories, music, and history. This is truely one of Disney's greatest feature. I am a DVD collector. I love to collect such classics like Disney (before the political correctness) and admire the devotion of the film makers.

I have heard that Disney will never release this in the States because of the controversy of the subject matter. That really bothers and distrubes me. Knowing that they make (in my opinion) distrubing features and release them to the public tells me that they are ignoring historial (fictional) story lines, and trying to develop inappropriate behavior for our children in the future.

Maybe Disney will get the hint and release it. This is no black eye to them but an acheivement because it is one of the first if not the first to have interactions between animation and live actors. This movie should be available to the public. I know that it is admired by many. I happen to be one of them.

As a person of color I have seen plenty of racism on television to last a lifetime. I know racism when I see it, believe me, but Song of the South is not it. It is a tribute to our proud African-American heritage and should be seen. Uncle Remus is clearly admired in this movie more than any other character. The animation and music ranks among the best work ever done by Disney and the black folklore is included. Considering that the REALLY harmful Birth of a Nation is widely available and hailed as a masterpiece, adds injury to insult regarding the absence of this classic that is a proud illustration of the African-American heritage.

First of all, let's clear up the rumor mill. The NAACP nor any other civil rights group or leader has anything to do with SOS being off the market today. Disney withdrew the film after a 1986 theatrical rerelease on their own accord. It's true that some NAACP members griped about the film upon its initial release in 1946, but they've had other priorities since then.

So back to the film. I'm an African American historian and folklore fanatic myself who grew up with elders spellbinding me with stores much as James Baskette/Uncle Remus does with the children in this movie. So I love this aspect of the film! The animated segments integrate well with the action and the B'rer Rabbit tales are real knee-slappers that gave me some hearty belly-laughs upon viewing this DVD in its entirety last night.

One could argue that one drawback of this film is that it paints too rosy a picture of slavery/sharecropping (the film itself is never clear whether it's during or after slavery, but Joel Chandler's original book was set during sharecropping). But that can be cured by parents checking out some books about the realities of this era and discussing all this with their kids afterwards.

However all but the most hard-nosed and bitter will agree that this film has some good things to say about race relations and human relations in general. It is clear as the rich white boy looks admiringly at Uncle Remus from his bedroom window after a storytelling session that he has tremendous respect for this black man's mind. While Uncle Remus may not be educated in the European/American sense of the word, he is certainly more of a force to be reckoned with as opposed to the typical Black characterizations of this era and is posessed with a dignity all his own.

This was not unusual for the actor James Baskette. He also played a very dignified preacher named Reverend Johnson in the Amos and Andy comedies. He deservedly received a special academy award for Uncle Remus shortly before his death a few years later. (BTW-Johnny Lee, who played Lawyer Calhoun in A&A, was also the voice of Brer Rabbit).

Many people are aware that the film was based on Joel Chanbdler Harris' 1881 book "Uncle Remus' Songs and Sayings" and that the white Georgian Harris based his book on the "Brer (brother) animal tales" passed orally among African-American slaves. What most people don't know is that a decade earlier, another white writer named Abbie Holmes Christensen recorded Brer Rabbit tales being told among ex-slaves around Port Royal, SC for her pioneering book "Afro-American Folktales." I have met many older African-Americans in rural South Carolina who had heard "rabbit stories" (as they are called among the indigenous) from their elders without knowing of Harris or this movie. So this is a legitimate part of Black culture.

The movie actually improves on Harris' book in a number of ways. The "N'word" is tossed frequently in Harris' book and Harris' Uncle Remus is shown as preferring slavery to education. James Baskette's character lacks these negative aspects. The thread story of the little boy who turns to Uncle remus from his troubled relationship with his family is expanded from the book's brief framing devices of the white boy simply enjoying the old man's stories.

So if you want an accurate history of Blacks during this era, not quite! But if you believe that children should be exposed to the joys of storytelling and the idea that friendship goes beyond age, race, and social class-then this is for the children and for the child in you! Enjoy-and think!

As a woman of 52, I remember this movie so vividly like I saw it yesterday. I have often grieved at not having it brought back for my children, and now my grandchildren. This heartwarming story of compassion and friendship has never left my memory. Uncle Remus stories, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, are all a very real part of my own childhood. I have always strived to treat each and every person as just that...a person. Not looking at color of skin, but the Heart that that person owns. THIS glorious movie teaches that Heart remains. The rich colors that Disney used, the animation that he presented mixed with the real life people, and the best happiest music around, all combine to make this truly one of Walt Disney's finest. Please endeavor to try to convince Disney to release this wonderful, soulful, heartfelt, satisfying movie for all the generations to enjoy and learn from.

Anyone looking here is obviously interested in this movie so here's a question to ask Disney concerning the reasons why it isn't available in the US. If the movie's content is so offensive then why was it shown last month (April 2000) on national TV (in the middle of the day) in the UK ? Kids, sat at home during the Easter holiday period, were able to watch this movie and enjoy its content and they're not running around the streets subjecting kids from any ethnic minority to taunts about slavery and, let's face it, it was us English who profitted very well from the trade. Any feelings of rascism are not going to be started by watching this movie, any more than they will be stopped by its not being available. So come on Disney, play fair and give the people what they want - they only want to see a movie with some great songs that remind them of their childhood. This is the Free World and censorship should be done by the individual for himself, not forced upon us by persons unknown. I just hope amazon see fit to post this comment and allow you all the chance to see you're being treated like babies who can't make up their own minds if something is fit for you to see.

When Disney Studios started releasing laser disks and then DVDs it was decided by Eisner (the most overpaid child robber in business history--remember "just available for 60 days, then back in the vaults for years", and never mind how your kids feel when the tape breaks") that THEY WOULD NEVER RELEASE "SONG OF THE SOUTH" BECAUSE IT WAS "POLITICALLY INCORRECT". However, before that a need for cash got Disney to sell ALL of the cartoons to Japan. They loved Laser disks and put all movies--INCLUDING SONG OF THE SOUTH OUT. Looking ahead they put (it is mono!) Japanese on one track and English on the other (subtitles on some songs). They are VERY HARD TO FIND, and a search of West Coast importers is the best chance. MAYBE some day the "suits" will take a chance and put it out--but don't hold your breath. It is a FOLK TALE and a product of its times, but the drawing/acting and music are wonderful. GOOD LUCK.

Isn't it time we stop rewriting history? Slavery happened. It wasn't a good thing but it happened. Song of the South was made and released. Are we supposed to ignore this fact? I loved this movie as a child. I never saw anything offensive about it's content. I wanted my children to have the same experience that I had. But they were not blessed enough to see it. Movies are made for entertainment. Have any of you seen the movie released by Disney called "Pochahantas"? Are you aware that the land where this story took place in Virginia has no waterfall? No one expects Disney movies to be precise and accurate. I would hope that the viewing audiance is intellegent enough to know fact from fiction. Please bring back this masterpiece. Release it so that more generations can enjoy the stories, the songs, and the magic.

There is so much controversy over the contents and characters within this film! It's all absurd. Song of the South was the first 'theater' movie my dad took me too as a young child with my mom and brother. I have forever cherished the moment and the story. I grew up in a time when no one analyzed to death the 'politically correct' insanity of nearly everything on the airwaves.
If Song of the South is 'politically and socially inept' ... then why are re-runs of such shows from the 70's: 'Sanford & Son'; 'All in the Family'; 'The Jefferson's'; M*A*S*H; etc .... being left out of the argument of what's 'appropriate' to release when at any given time more violence and sexual content goes into PG-13 movies now than ever before?? Pick on Song of the South??? Why? This is history and nostalgia to all that saw it as kids ... who want to share this beautiful story with their children and grandchildren. I hope Disney will either re-release this or surrender rights for another studio to do it. It's a shame to hide behind such absurdity and leave it collecting dust on shelves. I'd pay a pretty sum to obtain a copy of this classic for myself; my children and theirs to enjoy! It's a magical and imaginative wonder with nothing but uplifting spirits when the credits run!