Song of the South officially turns 76 years old today. The controversial film debuted on November 12, 1946 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Fox Theater. It won 2 Academy Awards: Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah won Best Song, and an honorary Oscar was presented to James Baskett for his portrayal of Uncle Remus. Many photos from the world premier can be found in the Photos section. Lots of memorabilia, radio programs, music and more from the 1946 premier can also be found on the 1946 Campaign page.
There is not much else to report at this point; Song of the South still remains unavailable to watch on Disney+, and Disney is still planning to revamp Splash Mountain to remove all references to the film and its iconic characters including Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear.
Back in August, several fans nominated Song of the South to be added to the National Film Registry (as we do every year), and we should have the results around mid-December. If Song of the South didn’t make it, we’ll do it all again next year!
If you’re looking to watch the movie and are tired of waiting for Disney to officially release it (which will likely never happen under Disney’s current regime), head on over to Archive.org. Or, if you’re looking for a physical copy, many fan-made DVDs and Blu-rays can be found all over the web. It’s pretty clear that Disney has lost control over third parties distributing this historic film, despite their best efforts to censor and suppress. And the film’s copyright is still set to expire in 2041… so only 19 years to go!
I’m still actively collecting memorabilia from the movie, and more items will be added into the Memorabilia Museum in the coming months. I have at least 30-40 new items sitting on my scanner just waiting to be scanned and added to the database. It’s still amazing to me after all these years of collecting how much more is still out there just waiting to be discovered (especially items that were released in non-U.S. countries). Walt Disney truly did distribute this movie far and wide! A far cry from today.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas season and New Year’s!
Sincerely,
Christian
Thanks Christian!
SOTS.net is still the number one destination for all things SOTS, one of Walt Disney’s finest films and certainly one of my favourites. I often drop along once in a while to see what’s new and, while updates are understandably fewer thesedays, I’m sure others would join me in thanking you for keeping the memory of this classic, magic movie alive in the internet age, and for keeping this very site going online, maintained and updated.
Don’t ever let this wealth of material, facts and fun be lost — it is far, far too valuable! A perfect resource for such a criminally under seen film. Hopefully someday times will change to something more sensible and the powers that be will allow us to see a restored version of the 4K scan we know has been captured from the original camera negative. Then we all will truly have found our laughing place!
Best of luck, and thanks again!
— Ben, Animated Views.