I Discuss Song Of The South

Yep, about time this happened. Circumstances were that it was best I do it last night: 

Splash Mountain trending on Twitter yesterday gave me the impetus to finally talk about this movie. It's been seen by me before despite the little detail that at least in the United States, it's never received an official home video release and it ever appearing on Disney + is about as likely as me one day becoming CEO of the company. Since it was re-released on the big screen in 1986, Disney has been petrified of the movie due to all its racial issues. Yet they used the story elements and characters of the animated segments for the Splash Mountain log flume ride, which has always been amazing to me. As it is 2020, they decided to make a big change and now the ride will be themed around The Princess and the Frog; someday in the future that will have to be viewed.

As for Song of the South itself, even at the time it was controversial due to a litany of reasons, including the black characters speaking in a certain dialect, the setting that appeared to be a plantation staffed by slaves (it wasn't; it was after the slaves were freed. They just worked there and got paid... the fact that it wasn't made clear is a big problem) and various stereotypes that are just awkward at best when viewed today. I am a dumb white person so it'd be best if someone who was black were to discuss this movie's racial politics; I'll just speak about the enjoyment level I got out of this.

The animated segments-along with animation combined w/ live-action-were entertaining; the live lessons learned were not the most complicated but they are fine for kids. When it is just live-action and it is crude pigeonholed characters and many of the white people just act rude or stupid or irritating... it makes me beg for more of the animation; at least then there would also be more catchy tunes to hear. The acting isn't always good and I was never too terribly interested in seeing a rich kid's issues with white trash boys around his same age. To be honest, many of the white people look kind of bad also, just not as harshly of course.The only character I gave a darn there was Uncle Remus; Hattie McDaniel's role wasn't anything more than a crude stereotype.

This movie will have some appeal as it is Forbidden Fruit and in the United States it has to be streamed or purchased illegally; online it is rather easy to stream, to be honest. Personally, much of this is best left forgotten. As for Splash Mountain, I've always enjoyed the ride yet I am OK with Disney banishing content that is part of something rather problematic as 2020 has been the year of wide-sweeping changes and there are several “improvements” done or will be done to Walt Disney World alone that I find to be more objectionable, such as most of the modifications they are doing in Epcot alone.