Song of the South
Song of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, a racial reconciliation activist writer and journalist. Harris compiled six volumes between 1881 and 1907; a further three books were published posthumously, following his death in 1908. Photoplay director was Harve Foster, cartoon director was Wilfred Jackson.[1]
Content
The film is set in a post-Civil War scenery on a struggling plantation in Georgia during the Reconstruction era. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the adventures of Br'er Rabbit and his friends. These anthropomorphic animal characters appear in animation. The hit song from the film was "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song and is frequently used as part of Disney's montage themes, and which has become widely used in popular culture. The film inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain.
The film has never been released in its entirety on LaserDisc, Beta and VHS in the U.S., or Blu-ray worldwide, except on VHS and DVD editions outside of the U.S., due to accusations of racism and stereotypes of African Americans, and is thus subject to much rumor today. For this reason, the producers decided to not make it available on the streaming platform Disney+. Some portions of this film have been issued on VHS and DVD as part of either compilations or special editions of Disney films.[2]
In the United Kingdom, it was released on PAL VHS between 1982 and 2000. In Japan, it appeared on NTSC VHS and LaserDisc in 1985, 1990 and 1992, with Japanese subtitles during songs. (Under Japanese copyright law, the film is now in the public domain.) Most of the foreign releases of the film are literal translations of the English title; the German title Onkel Remus' Wunderland translates to "Uncle Remus's Wonderland", the Italian title I Racconti Dello Zio Tom translates to "The Stories of Uncle Tom", and the Norwegian title Onkel Remus forteller translates to "Storyteller Uncle Remus". Baskett’s vocal talent was so extensive he even filled in for Johnny Lee, the voice of Brer Rabbit, in the Laughing Place sequence, when he was called away on a USO tour.
Song of the South won Best Original Song for “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”, which Baskett sings in the film, and two of the child actors, Driscoll and Patten, were nominated for the Academy Juvenile Awards. The saga of Harris’ stories did not end in 1946 with Song of the South’s original run. Its first theatrical re-release was in 1956 for its tenth anniversary. The publicity campaign run for this re-release was immense, as it coincided with the opening of Disneyland. Disney went all out – partnering with Scotch brand tape to have special packaging on 8 million tape dispensers. The designs on the dispensers included all three of the main Br’er characters – Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear – Uncle Remus, and “Win One Of 25 Family Trips To Disneyland”.
The re-release/Disneyland campaign was so massive that it boasted “15,000 special counter displays in full color, 30,000 floor-stand display units in full color for large retail stores, full-color ads in Sunday comics, a national magazine ad campaign, back page full-color ads in eleven Dell brand comic strips, window streamers and banners, and ABC-TV nationwide network coverage” (Song of the South 1956 Official Campaign Book, Disney). Complete with its tagline of “Here Comes The Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Show!”, the campaign was a smashing success. The first re-release not only got more people to see and fall in love with the movie but also played a major role in Disneyland seeing five million guests by October of that year.
James Baskett
James "Jimmy" Franklin Baskett (b. 16 February 1904 in Indianapolis, Indiana) voiced Fats Crow in the animated Disney film Dumbo (1941), and he also had bit parts in several B movies, including Harlem in Heaven (1932), Policy Man (1938), Straight to Heaven (1939), Comes Midnight (1940), that of Lazarus in Revenge of the Zombies (1943), a porter in The Heavenly Body (1944), and the native tribal leader Orbon in Jungle Queen (1945).
From 1944 until 1948, he was part of the cast of the Amos 'n' Andy Show live radio program as lawyer Gabby Gibson. In 1945, he auditioned for a bit part voicing a talking butterfly in Song of the South. Upon review of his voice, Walt Disney wanted to meet James personally. Not only did he get the part of the butterfly's voice, but also the voice of Brer Fox and as actor the part of Uncle Remus, becoming the first live actor to be hired by Walt Disney.
Negro actor James Baskett, after committed support from famous columnist Hedda Hopper and Walt Disney, won an Honorary Oscar ("Special Award") at the 20th Academy Awards in 1948, presented to him by Ingrid Bergman on 20 March 1948. Only months later, on 9 July 1948 Baskett, who had been battling diabetes for years (he suffered a first heart attack during the filming of Song of the South), died at his home in Los Angeles of heart failure at age 44. He was survived by his wife Margaret and his mother Elizabeth. He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Disney+
- Unlike some Disney titles that come with certain content warnings on the Disney+ streaming service, “Song of the South” will never be available even with an “outdated cultural depictions” disclaimer on the platform. Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the issue back in 2020 as the streaming service started its rollout of classic titles. During one of Disney’s annual shareholder meetings, Iger answered an audience question about what will and won’t be made available to stream from the Disney library, adding that this film is “not appropriate in today’s world” and therefore will not be re-released.[3]
Cast
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Actors
- James Baskett as Uncle Remus
- Robert "Bobby" Cletus Driscoll as Johnny
- Luana Patten as Ginny Favers (poor white girl)
- Glenn Leedy as Toby (Johnny's black friend)
- Ruth Warrick as Sally (Johnny's Mama)
- Lucile Watson as Grandmother (benevolent plantation owner Miss Doshy, Johnny's maternal "Grandma")
- Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempe (the first black performer to win an Oscar, for her supporting role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind)
- Erik Rolf as John (Johnny's Daddy; returned to Atlanta for his job at a newspaper)
- Olivier Urbain as Mr. Favers (uncredited)
- Mary Field as Mrs. Favers (poor white neighbor family)
- Anita Brown as Maid (black maid Chloe)
- George Nokes as Jake Favers
- Gene Holland as Joe Favers
Voices
- Johnny Lee as Br'er Rabbit
- James Baskett as Br'er Fox (also Br'er Rabbit in the "Laughing Place" segment)
- Nick "Nicodemus" Stewart as Br'er Bear
See also
External links
- Liberating the Magical Negro: A Mission Statement (Archive)
- The ‘Princess’ and Walt Disney – Responses to various criticisms, such as regarding the 1946 film Song of the South