Song of the South: Disney's Great Unknown

One of Disney World’s most popular rides is Splash Mountain, which is based on the 1946 Disney movie “Song of the South.” When my kids asked about the movie, I couldn’t tell them anything because I’ve never seen it. It has never been on video or DVD in the U.S., has only been sporadically re-released in theaters (the last time was in 1986) and Disney has no current plans to change this policy.

While the ride focuses on the animated parts of the film with Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, Brer Fox and the rest of the Briar Patch crew, Song of the South was actually Disney’s very first foray into films that combined live action with animation, decades before Mary Poppins. Fans of Southern literature also may know the movie is based on the Uncle Remus tales of Joel Chandler Harris that were published after the Civil War. Harris based his (fictional) Uncle’s tales on stories told by freed slaves in the South at that time.

There’s a few web sites that are dedicated to the movie, most of which are petitioning Disney to finally release it. The movie’s animated sequences are told outside of the live action sections, where Uncle Remus tells Chandler’s stories to both black and white children. Allegedly Remus and other African Americans live as sharecroppers on a huge, white-owned plantation where they are extremely happy with their lives and work. And that appears to be the main reason why Disney has kept Song of the South in its vault despite growing requests to release it, most likely spurred by the ride. When released, the NAACP condemned the movie for its sugarcoated master/slave depiction and the alleged happy subservience of African Americans to their white landowners. I say “alleged” and “appears” a few times here since I haven’t seen the movie and can’t say whether this is accurate.

Perhaps when it was released in 1946, Song of the South was a product of its time and Disney did not think it was racist. And it was depicting the Reconstruction-era South, (which did not have slavery but life was not much better for African Americans then either). But the film won two Oscars – a special one for James Baskett, who plays Uncle Remus and another for best song (Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah). Baskett was the first African American man to ever win an Oscar and Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah remains one of Disney’s most popular songs. You can see and hear clips and songs from the movie on Disney compilation DVDs and CDs, and videos of the whole movie have been released overseas. But nothing in America.

Should Song of the South be released, or kept in the vault because of its (potentially) racist undertones? I have two ideas. The first would be to remake the movie. There is more than enough demand and new interest thanks to Splash Mountain for Disney to make an updated Song of the South with new animation while keeping the classic songs. At the same time, I’m quite sure Disney could do a much better and updated job with handling the racial climate of Reconstruction in the 21st century, and I bet lots of today’s big African American celebrities would jump at the chance to either be in the movie or do voice-over work.

The second idea would be to finally issue the movie on DVD, but use the occasion to properly frame the movie in its context of both 1946 and the time it represents. Disney can have plenty of material on the DVD that could address the film’s history and its reluctance to reissue it. Confronting the issue properly could start very useful dialogue with kids regarding our past.
When we have America’s first African American president about to take office, I vote that it’s time for the public to finally view Song of the South and determine either if the movie was truly racist in the first place or if it has been a lost and misunderstood classic. If that never happens, the movie will eventually enter the public domain in 2039.

More Info: Song of the South Fan Site, including info about the film, pictures and how to petition Disney to rerelease it.
Urban Legends on the Movie from Snopes
A Two Minute YouTube clip from the movie - Short, but judge for yourself