Disney is thinking of releasing "Song of the South"

[Escapay]

I don't get it; where is the racism?

One of the greatest questions of the universe that no one seems to agree on for the answer. My answer: there is none. I always watch the movie in the mindset of Johnny. He doesn't know what racism is, therefore, he sees his Aunt Tempy as just the jolly old nanny of his, Toby and Ginny as friends of his, and Uncle Remus as the closest to a father figure he has since his own leaves him.

if you watch a Shirley Temple movie

Not sure which Shirley Temple movie is set on a Civil War plantation, but a similar period piece that's rather ambiguous as to time is 1936's Dimples. One of my favorite Shirley Temple movies, it's about Dimples (ST), a little orphan girl (her background isn't really explained) who sings and dances in the streets for fun, ending up at the home of a wealthy lady, and eventually in the film they have a musical based on Uncle Tom's Cabin, complete with white actors in "blackface" makeup.

James Basket won an Oscar and was the FIRST African American Actor (per IMDB.com) to have won an Academy Award, period.

Hattie McDaniel actually won earlier, as Best Supporting Actress for Gone With The Wind. But in terms of actor/actress, yeah, James Baskett was the first.

Did WB or Paramount or whatever get some bad lip for releasing Gone with the Wind on DVD/video multiple times?

GWTW was produced by Selznick International, and distrubted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. When Turner acquired the pre-1986 MGM library, he distributed it, until finally his library went to Time Warner (WB), where they distributed it on DVD and such. Anyways, I'm pretty sure none of them every had any bad lip about releasing GWTW, because the financial draw was always bigger to them than the historical draw. Far be it from a major studio to hold back a masterpiece on the grounds of its portrayal of blacks in a pre-during-and-post Civil War epic.

Escapay

[creid]

I am guessing Disney is more concerned about Song Of The South because it is meant for a family audience while Gone With The Wind is mostly an adult audience. Actually GWTW is far worse because the movie alludes to the Klu Klux Klan. (I do believe the book is more explicit on this.)

Quite honestly, I with Escapay on modern audiences, as most kids don't realize the black characters are slaves. They will just think these characters are nannies and father figures. When used to watch two shoes mammy on Tom & Jerry, I always she was the home owner of the house T&J were destroying.

CR

[MikeyMouse]

It's only a matter of time before they release this movie. NOW, let's hope they do the right thing and leave it in it's original UNEDITED form. If they have to do something for PC's sake, I'd rather have a cautionary introduction (ala Leonard Maltin on the Treasures discs or Whoopi Goldberg on the Looney Tunes discs), rather than an edited version, or worse...what they did to "Fantasia" in the scene with the black centaur maid.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Would there be any use in editing SotS? What should be cut and how much would be left...?

[MikeyMouse]

I don't really know what would be left, but Disney is infamous for tinkering with their films to remove material or references they deem "questionable" or "offensive", such as the aforementioned Fantasia edit, the digital "enhancements" to Pecos Bill & Goofy's cigarettes in Melody Time and Saludos Amigos, and the removal of an entire segment of Make Mine Music. Hopefully the WD brass have caught enough flak from collectors and know better now to just leave this one alone, disclaimer or not.

[Isidour]

I hope they don`t edit this movie, just because one guy think that`s a racist movie

[anger is pointless]

Perhaps you've all known about this all along, but if not, I just found out that if you call Disney:

1-800-DISNEY (which is consumer relations)

You can tell them what titles you want released on DVD. When you hear the recorded message, go for the last option which is to wait for an operator to ask a general question. Then they play another message about "pressing this option" to let them know what title you want released on DVD. Everyone should call and leave messages about SOTS.

Also they said you can go to a website to accomplish the same thing:

disneyvideos.com

i tryed calling that number but it wont go through are you sure the number is right