An individual by the name of Notelu has put quite a bit of effort into restoring and releasing Song of the South in its entirety on Archive.org in 1080p (HD) resolution.
As you probably know, Song of the South has never been commercially available in the United States (yet Disney released it in many other countries). While portions of Song of the South (and even the whole film) have made its way onto YouTube over the years, and been unofficially distributed on bootleg DVDs and VHS copies, this is the first time I’m aware of that someone other than Disney has gone through the effort of restoring the film.
The amount of work put into this project is impressive. Notelu cleaned and color corrected the film from a 35mm print, included extra features like trailers and behind the scenes footage, and even compiled audio tracks from various other VHS releases (Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Portugese, Hungarian, and Italian.)
Visit https://archive.org/details/SongOfTheSouthHD for more information.
You can also watch Notelu’s trailer on YouTube:
Knowing Disney and their attempts to have the MPAA shut down my web site back in 2001 and 2003, they will likely try to shut down this project as well. So, to borrow a phrase from MST3K… “Keep circulating the tapes!” and enjoy watching it while you can. Thanks to Nick Fleming for the news report!
I have found a couple copies of The Song of the South and remember seeing it when I was a kid in the 1950’s. I am glad that I found them and never knew why it is not produced and sold in this country.
This was a great restoration. The sound and picture are high quality, especially for such an old, and sadly obscure, film. I’m very happy and grateful to this Notelu person for doing the work and putting this out. Song of the South is not the terrible film some may think it is. It’s a product of it’s time, and considering, it’s very family and kid friendly. The relationship between Uncle Remus and Johnny outshines any race issues or problems. Uncle Remus is a wise, caring, and charismatic character, and James Baskett should be recognized and remembered for his work.