Song of the South Among MSNBC’s “10 Least Politically Correct Movies Ever”

MSNBC Contributor Michael Ventre has compiled a list of 10 comedies that “really went to the precipice of good taste and decorum in the quest for laughs.” The list includes Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, There’s Something About Mary, Caddyshack, Love and Death, Kentucky Fried Movie, Team America: World Police,Porky’s, Song of the South, and Bad Santa, respectively.

Song of the South seems out of place in this list. While its animated sequences could certainly be considered a comedy at times, the movie was billed as a live-action drama. Ventre aknowledges this in his description:

This mixture of live action and animation probably doesn’t fit snugly into the category of politically incorrect comedies, simply because it isn’t a straight comedy but more a lighthearted family picture. Also, the depictions of African-Americans here weren’t mean to elicit laughs, but were done in earnest in an attempt to portray life in a particular time period, right after the Civil War. But there’s no doubt this could never be made today the same way. In fact, Disney has refused to even release the film on home video in the United States (although it is available overseas) because the portrayals of African-Americans would create a firestorm today. Uncle Remus, a wise old black man, tells the story of Brer Rabbit and his pals to cheer up little Johnny, a white kid. But most of the black people are shown as subservient to whites. This isn’t exactly “Birth of a Nation,” but in terms of racial stereotypes, it’s in that ballpark. “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song.

You can read the entire article here. Thanks to Erik W. and Nicole for the news report!

New Song of the South Article: “My Year in the Dark”

Bill Vaughn has posted a new article entitled “My Year in the Dark.” In this article, he recounts watching Song of the South as a child in 1956, includes a synopsis of the story, shares his views of the film and intermixes it with other life events. Vaughn is a contributing editor for Outside Magazine and his web site, darkacres.com, is a journal devoted to current events, sports, and the arts. It’s a great article, and I highly recommend taking the time to read it!

Article Link: darkacres.com; Page 2

Two New Splash Mountain Brer Rabbit Pins Released

Disneyland Resort recently released two new Splash Mountain pins depicting Brer Rabbit released on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

The first pin features Brer Rabbit in a Splash Mountain log. Part of the E-Ticket Thrills Collection, this pin was a Gift With Purchase pin, available with each $20 purchase of pins or pin accessories at select Disneyland Resort locations.

The second pin depicts Brer Rabbit in the foreground of a pin-on-pin design with Splash Mountain in the background on a postage stamp. This pin, part of the Greetings from Disneyland Resort 2006 series, was limited to an edition of 1000 and retailed for $10.95.

Song of the South Parodied on Saturday Night Live

On TV yesterday, Saturday Night Live aired an episode of TV Funhouse that poked fun at Disney’s DVD sequel exploits. Modeled after a Disney commercial, kids are invited to take a “Journey to the Disney Vault.” Inside, the kids discover things that Disney has “kept secret.” One of the children picks up a video:

Boy: “I’ve never heard of this one… Song of the South?”
Mickey Mouse: “Ohh, nobody wants to see that one anymore!”
Girl: “How bad could it be?”
Mickey Mouse: “It’s the very original version that he [Disney] only played at parties.”
Uncle Remus: “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Ay… negroes are inferior in every way; whites are much cleaner, that’s what I say; Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Ay.”

Interestingly, they use actual footage from Song of the South. A clip of the entire TV Funhouse segment is available for viewing here. [Some content may be considered offensive.] Thanks to Nate for the initial news report and to Hans Geyer for posting the video clip to the forum.

Disney’s portrayal of Uncle Remus has been parodied before in Saturday Night Live’s “Uncle Jemimah’s Pure Mash Liquor” commercial, in which Uncle Jemimah walks among animated characters and music similar to Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is played in the background.

Disney CEO Robert Iger: No Song of the South Yet

During the question and answer session at Disney’s 2006 Annual Meeting of Shareholders in Anaheim, CA, the question was raised by a Disney shareholder why Song of the South has not been released. Here is a transcript:

“My name is Howard Cromer. I live in Cypress, I’m a Disney shareholder. I’m actually delivering a message from my son, 10. He wants to know in recent years, in the midst of all your re-releases of your videos, why you haven’t released Song of the South on your Disney Classics?” [Applause] “And, he wonders why. Frank Wells told me many years ago that it would be coming out. Well obviously Frank Wells isn’t around anymore, so we still wonder why. And by the way, Mr. Iger, he thinks it was a very good choice when they made you CEO of Disney.” [Applause]

Iger: “Thank you very much. You may change your mind when I answer your question, though. Um… we’ve discussed this a lot. We believe it’s actually an opportunity from a financial perspective to put Song of the South out. I screened it fairly recently because I hadn’t seen it since I was a child, and I have to tell you after I watched it, even considering the context that it was made, I had some concerns about it because of what it depicted. And thought it’s quite possible that people wouldn’t consider it in the context that it was made, and there were some… [long pause] depictions that I mentioned earlier in the film that I think would be bothersome to a lot of people. And so, owing to the sensitivity that exists in our culture, balancing it with the desire to, uh, maybe increase our earnings a bit, but never putting that in front of what we thought were our ethics and our integrity, we made the decision not to re-release it. Not a decision that is made forever, I imagine this is gonna continue to come up, but for now we simply don’t have plans to bring it back because of the sensitivities that I mentioned. Sorry.”

And with that, folks, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing a 60th anniversary of Song of the South either. If you’d like to listen to the audio of this, please click here to visit Disney Corporate. The question is asked about 1hr. 43min. into the presentation. Thanks to everyone who informed me of this. And if you haven’t signed the petition yet, you know what to do.

The Adventures of Brer Rabbit DVD Now Available for Pre-Order

As of February 14, Universal’s The Adventures of Brer Rabbit DVD is now available through Amazon.com for pre-order and is scheduled for a release date of March 21.

While the movie itself may not be directly related to Disney, it certainly has some Disney ties: the Executive Producer is former Disney artist Tad Stones, Director is Byron Vaughn, and Line Producer is Mary Thorne. And with the vocal talents of African-American stars Wayne Brady, Danny Glover, Phil LaMarr, Nick Cannon, D.L. Hughley, Wanda Sykes, and others, it sounds like it will be a great movie! This is Universal’s first direct-to-DVD release of a movie not based off of a feature film.

For more in-depth background information on the movie, I encourage you all to read Animation World Magazine’s article entitled The Tad Stones Interview. I certainly hope that this movie is received well, because if it is, it could possibly help pave the way for Disney to roll out the long-rumored 60th anniversary DVD of Song of the South we’ve been hoping for.

Jesse Cryor, Singing Voice of Brer Rabbit, Passes Away

I was recently contacted by Jesse Cryor’s granddaughter with the following sad news:

“I’m sending this email out to let you know that my grandfather, Jesse Cryor passed away this Wednesday past (January 11, 2006). He was 99 years old and still walking, talking, remembering, reading the paper, and writing and revising songs in his head up to the last week of his life. he was still singing up until he could no longer form his mouth to talk – about 2 days before death. i’m sure he was on stage performing long after that.

“His sense of humor was alive and intact, even on his death bed. Along with him he took a wellspring of information because there was no way for him to remember it all. But, his legacy will never die. He was a good man – a good human being – who with liberal, forward-thinking ideas about the world. He continued to advise many a young soul about the ways of life, the world and, of course, music and the business.”

Jesse Cryor performed the singing voice of Brer Rabbit. My sincere condolances go out to Jesse’s family. I would also encourage everyone to read Kimberley’s moving letter she sent to me in 2003 regarding her grandfather.

“Songs of the South: Hidden Melodies” – Audience Feedback

Today I was contacted by Kyle, who was able to attend “Songs of the South: Hidden Melodies” on Sunday (as previously reported):

As an enormous Song of the South fan, Imagine my shock when I saw the article showing Song of the South’s glimpse into the real world. The article ran in my hometown newspaper, and naturally, I decided to go.

First off, the show wasn’t like I expected. Some singers came up and sang full versions of How Do You Do?, That’s What Uncle Remus Said, and Song of the South. Then along came To-Ree-Nee Wolf and company to sing their own version of Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and Ev’rybody has a laughing Place, filling tham with hauntingly hypnotic melody and music, encouraging everyone in the theatre to listen.

Of course, afterward came the movie itself, but we were given a special announcement. We had a special guest in the audience: A woman hired to play as Ginny’s understudy! What an honor!

As the movie gradually unfolded, the audience (about 20-25 people, very modest for the little publicity.) laughed quite often, given most of it at Brer Bear, especially his clumsy version of the movie’s anthem. Naturally, I can say with the utmost conviction, that most everyone enjoyed this timeless classic. But before we all bid adieu, the singers had one last thing to say:

“Everybody has a Laughing Place…I know,” Sho’ nuff. I know I found mine.

I also received the following feedback from Brandon:

I also got the honor of attending the Songs Of The South: Hidden Melodies that Sunday. I have been wanting to see Song of the South for years, and this was finally my chance to do so. The music beforehand was interesting and very entertaining, and the movie was a very beautifull movie. I give my thanks to this site and Disneyland’s Splash Mountain for introducing me to this movie. I will remember it for years to come.

Thanks to both for their reports! If anyone else had the chance to attend this performance, I’d like to hear from you too. Please contact me. Thanks!

Arizona Daily Star: ‘Looking Anew at Song of the South’

An article by Djamila Grossman reports on “Songs of the South: Hidden Melodies”, an upcoming performance by Arizona Onstage Productions. The show will include a screening of Song of the South and will be accompanied by “performances that will challenge the audience with thought-provoking material.”

The show will be performed at 2:30 and 6:00 PM on Sunday, January 8th at Zuzi’s Theater. For more information about this event, click here to read the full article. Thanks to Joey Sartin for the news report.

Splash Mountain Pin and Sorry! Board Game Released

A couple of new Splash Mountain items were released recently. The first item, a limited edition Splash Mountain pin, is part of the “Piece of Disney History Collection” and features Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear in the Splash Mountain log. At the front of the log is a small plastic bubble that contains an actual piece of the fur from the Audio-Animatronic Brer Rabbit on the Splash Mountain ride. The pin is limited to an edition of 2500 and is available exclusively at Walt Disney World for $12.95. For more info and to see how this pin was made, visit the official Disney Pin Trading website.

Also released is a special Splash Mountain edition of the popular board game Sorry! featuring the Brer characters. It is available at Disney theme parks for $40 and comes in a collectible tin case. To my knowledge, this is the first true game (not counting puzzles) to feature the Brer characters since the original Uncle Remus Zip! marble game released in 1947.