Song of the South Turns 74; Blu-rays Abound

UPDATE: The Blu-ray reviewed in this article appears to no longer be available. Song of the South is still available for viewing over at Archive.org.

Today marks the 74th anniversary of Song of the South. The Academy Award winning and controversial film debuted on November 12, 1946 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Fox Theater. 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.

With the 75th anniversary of the movie just around the corner in 2021, it’s looking less and less likely for Disney to officially re-release this film. 2020 has proven to be a very active year for news related to Song of the South:

• March 11, 2020: Disney Chairman Robert Iger states that Song of the South will not appear on Disney+, despite several other movies receiving disclaimers for “outdated cultural depictions”.
• June 2020: Some Disney fans began petitioning Disney to re-theme their popular theme park attraction Splash Mountain, loosely based on Song of the South’s animated sequences, with The Princess and the Frog. The petition reached over 21,377 signatures before declaring victory.
• June 25, 2020: Disney Parks announces on their Twitter account plans to “Completely Reimagine” Splash Mountain to The Princess and the Frog. Reactions have been mixed, with the tweet gaining over 78K likes, but a counter-petition to leave the ride as-is garnering nearly 86,000 signatures as of this posting.
• August 26, 2020: Disney begins removing the Academy Award winning song “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” from their theme parks.

Meanwhile — faced with the reality of an unlikely official release of the movie — fan-based, unofficial Blu-ray copies of the film have exploded in popularity this year. Copies can be found all over the Internet and eBay. I had an opportunity to review one such copy, produced by Stinky Tuna. The quality is by far the best out there to date, owing in part to its source — a 16mm film print originally remastered and still available to view on archive.org.

There are also a lot more special features than previous unofficial, lower quality DVD releases, including History of The Tar Baby, Read & Sing-Along Video, Virtual Reality Ride of Splash Mountain, Rare Behind-the-Scenes and B-Roll Footage, and multiple Theatrical Trailers. This particular Blu-ray is manufactured in Japan, where Disney’s copyright on Song of the South has expired — in 2006, Japanese courts ruled that any movies made prior to 1953 were now public domain. The movie is available to purchase over at StinkyTuna.com for $17.99. [Update: Link removed as this link no longer works.]

As long as you’re comfortable with unofficial, fan-made copies, the plethora of Blu-rays saturating the market today almost completely satisfies the need of making this movie available to the public. This makes hunting down official-but-inferior-quality VHS or Laserdisc copies a thing of the past.

Still, we will always hold out hope that Disney will choose to own up to its history and make this film available officially before it becomes public domain in 2041. Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to this movie, it was one of Walt Disney’s personal favorites (read why), and it won 2 Academy Awards, including the first ever Oscar to an African American man, James Baskett, for his outstanding portrayal of the wise and kind folklore hero, Uncle Remus.

As always, you can sign the petition to release the film, nominate Song of the South to be added to the National Film Registry, and more. Read more about how you can help over on the Frequently Asked Questions page.