Well, the counter finally hit 100,000! That’s quite a milestone. Thanks to all of you who continue to support this web site and get the word out!
Also of note is my friend James’ web site, UncleRemusPages.com, home of the Song of the South Petition. James is currently celebrating five years of web presence! Go have a visit!
Much to my pleasant surprise, out of the 100 figurines McDonald’s is including in happy meals celebrating Disney’s 100 Years of Magic, 3 are none other than our old pals, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox! The figures appear to be quite good both in quality and likeness. After examining McDonald’s complete character list, I found that only a few films were honored with the inclusion of more than two characters, and Song of the South was one of them! That’s fantastic news, because our lovable trio deserves no less!
Greg Collins emailed me this morning with a link to a very interesting thread over in Google Groups. The poster says he spoke with a “mid-level exec at Disney Home Video” and discussed the Disney Treasures line. This brought up the subject of Song of the South, to which the exec replied “we were just talking about that one.” Here is an excerpt:
This thread makes for a very interesting read. Go read it!
On Friday, March 8, I noticed my daily site traffic doubled. I figured that either it was a fluke or that Song of the South had been mentioned somewhere. Sure enough, my answer came shortly afterwards when a listener, Lawrence Whitney, contacted me:
It’s very interesting how much publicity Song of the South has been receiving lately and we hope this is just the beginning!
Today at 5:30 I was honored to be interviewed on the air by Geoff Metcalf on his daily radio program, The Geoff Metcalf Show. In my half hour with him, we discussed many things, including the reason behind Song of the South‘s unavailability, what we can do to try to persuade Disney to bring back Song of the South, and my personal interests with the film. He requested to put my Frequently Asked Questions up on his web site, WorldNetDaily.com, which I encouraged.
My sincere thanks goes out to Geoff for his true effort in helping with the continuing fight for this film’s survival!
As noted in the January 19 news release (see below), Song of the South was assigned ISBN and UPC numbers. Many readers contacted me regarding this. Here are the results so far:
UPC #717951531032 : The first six numbers tell us it belongs to Miramax Home Entertainment. This prefix matches several recent Disney UPC numbers, seen on both DVD and VHS. UPC numbers are bought in 100,000 number chunks, and so far I have not noticed any order as to their assignment. A list of currently known UPC numbers for Miramax Home Entertainment can be found here.
ISBN #1-55890-501-4 : This number didn’t prove to be as helpful. While I have found several Disney VHS tapes that have the same first six numbers, so far I have not found any that were released later than 1998. One fairly close match includes The Mighty Ducks (VHS).
As an additional note, Amazon.com has Song of the South listed on DVD noted as “Not Yet Released”. This is old news. However, Paul Sauberer noted that on subsequent pages, such as Technical Information, it states “Coming Soon–Preorder Today”! Could Amazon.com get away with such strong words if it wasn’t true? Hmm… [UPDATE]: Amazon has removed the “Coming Soon” comment. Looks like it wasn’t true after all.
Whether you’re convinced that Brer Rabbit could outsmart Mickey Mouse or Song of the South could out-sing Snow White, here’s an opportunity to make your vote count. Show Disney where Song of the South stands with the American people!
Vote for Song of the South as Favorite Animated Movie.
Vote for Song of the South as Favorite Musical.
Vote for Song of the South as Favorite Movie of the 1930’s/40’s.
Vote for Brer Rabbit as Favorite Classic Animated Character.
Now don’t get all excited just yet! But I and many other readers have noted that Disney’s Movie Finder has assigned ISBN and UPC numbers to their Song of the South VHS title even though it is “not currently for sale”. Here is the page.
Here are the numbers: ISBN #1-55890-501-4; UPC #717951531032
Can anyone verify these numbers as being unique and accurate? If so, this may be very good news indeed! Contact me.
Mike Brantley, editor of the TV & Media column of the Mobile Register in Alabama, has posted an excellent article on Song of the South, urging Disney to release this classic onto DVD. In the article he mentions several sources, including this web site and uncleremuspages.com. Thank you, Mike! The positive exposure you have given to the online Song of the South fan community is a great contribution.
Read the entire article here. [Note: Article is no longer on their website, but has been archived.]
For our Australian friends, Song of the South is playing this month:
Optus television, Disney Channel (CH.20):
Jan. 6 at 1pm; Jan. 10 at 7:30pm; Jan. 22 at 7:30pm; Jan. 27 at 6:30pm.
Foxtel television, Disney Channel (CH.27):
Jan. 22 at 7:30pm; Jan. 27 at 6:30pm.
Our source also suspects the schedule may be repeated in February as well. Thanks to Heather in Australia for this info!
