Song Of The South (1946)

James Baskett as Uncle Remus telling stories to the children.

We now present a review of Song of the South. We broke into the Disney Vault and found this unforgotten-but-hard-to-come-by film. It is not rated, but would probably be rated G as there is no foul language and the violence is in cartoon form and done for laughs.

Mark -
First things first... no we can’t tell you how we were able to get a copy of this film. I still don’t understand the debate of what makes this film so prejudicial, but I’m certainly glad that I have had the opportunity to view a masterpiece which so few are able to enjoy. If anything I would say that the camaraderie and friendship of the different characters should be commended for their interactions, especially considering this film takes place in the South long before the civil rights movements took place. Having said such, I understand that the complete version of this film has never been released in the United States, and it makes me wonder what parts have been cut out, which may or may not change my opinion.

The storyline of this film deals with Johnny who has just moved to his grandmother’s plantation with his mother, while his father returns to Atlanta to continue his job responsibilities. While Johnny is less than thrilled to have his family broken up, he soon makes new friends with two children on the plantation, Toby and Ginny, and is introduced to the renowned story teller Uncle Remus. The tales of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear are told, bringing to life some of the most vibrant and fun characters in any of Disney’s films.

The animation and music in this film are true gems. It was awarded an academy award for best music and original song for Zip A Dee Doo Dah. In the same year, James Baskett, who plays Uncle Remus and the voice of Br’er Fox, was awarded an honorary academy award for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, making his the first African-American to receive an academy award. Sadly Baskett passed away 4 months after receiving such reward, he was only 44.

If you are able to get as lucky as we were, and are able to view this film, I would certainly encourage anyone to do so. I hope that someday Disney will release this film again, as it deserves to be enjoyed by anyone who chooses to do so. To anyone whom this film may have offended I am sorry, but as was Walt Disney’s motto in life to "keep moving forward", I believe that Disney had a hope for segregation and racism to subside. As a last note it is somewhat ironic to think that the African-American stars of this film were not allowed to attend its premiere in Atlanta, again due to the segregation laws at that time. 4 ½ *’s out of 5.

My Random Thought For Song of the South: I am so happy that Disney came up with the splash mountain ride at their theme parks, allowing all who go on the ride the opportunity to enjoy the music and characters of Song of the South. I can’t help but wonder how many people truly understand the background for that ride though.

Dan -
I'm sure some of you did a double take when you saw the title of this blog post. I nearly did one myself when I found out we would be watching it. I seem to remember parts of this movie from when I was really little as I think we had a copy of a copy of a VHS tape, but it only had the animated parts. I did not remember any important details, and was only familiar with the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah song that I had heard many times. It was something about a fox, a rabbit, and a fake animal made out of tar. And for anyone who thinks that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the first movie to blend animation with live action (which included me up until this point), this movie exists to prove you wrong. And Disney did it more than 40 years before Roger Rabbit!

Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed with this movie. I loved the animated sequences more than the live action ones, and the songs are really catchy and I was humming a few of them throughout the rest of the day. The live action stuff took a lot more time to get in to than the animation. It wasn't until Uncle Remus started telling his morality tales about Br'er Rabbit to the kids that I got sucked in. Uncle Remus really is the heart and soul of the movie and makes you care about what happens with each of the characters. He is warm, kind, compassionate, and it doesn't hurt that he's good with the kids.

So on to the controversy. Mark talked about it a little already, so I hope this doesn't sound repetitive. Just to be clear I am a white male, so my perspective is exactly that and I could never understand all of the racist undertones throughout the movie. This movie appears to take place after the abolition of slavery. I am no historian, but for a movie that takes place in the South after the Civil War everyone sure seemed to get along much better than they likely did in real life. Johnny's mom is the one who is the horrible person with her treatment of Uncle Remus. The white family lives in the fancy house on the plantation while in stark contrast Uncle Remus and the other black characters live in poor accommodations. The movie just glosses over everything by making it look like everyone is happy exactly the way things are. It's a large fault that is hard to overlook with today's standards and sensibilities.

Now to discuss other things. I don't know why I found the dynamic of the three animated characters so appealing. Maybe it's because Br'er Bear is portrayed as a big dumb oaf. His voice just made me laugh. And so did hearing the motormouthed Br'er Fox try to explain logic to Br'er Bear about how Br'er Rabbit is trying to fool them both all the time. They just struck me as funny, as if they were all brothers who don't know how to get along with each other and get manipulated and fooled constantly. Br'er Rabbit reminded me a bit of Bugs Bunny and how he always had to use his wits to get out of any trouble. I also grew up watching Looney Toons as well as the old Disney animation when I was a kid, and this took me right back to those memories.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. The animation is fun, and the songs are delightful and catchy.