Yay! Song of the South is on British TV. Now. As I type!

[pinkrenata]

These screencaps from SOTS greatly offend me!

[Escapay]

These screencaps from SOTS greatly offend me!

But it's not as offensive as this!

A lace collar!!!



Escapay

[Tony]

I am interested to hear the thoughts of the people in the U.K. who watched this movie on Sunday.

Was it worth the wait and anticipation ?

[Enchantress]

I am interested to hear the thoughts of the people in the U.K. who watched this movie on Sunday.

Was it worth the wait and anticipation ?

It was I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I got to see it, I can tell my grandchildren I saw a banned movie on BBC2 . I wonder if anyone wrote to BBC2 and complained, if they did, I'm gonna hunt 'em down!

[2099net]

I am interested to hear the thoughts of the people in the U.K. who watched this movie on Sunday.

Was it worth the wait and anticipation ?

Well, from an entertainment point-of-view the live action segments do drag, and the acting style does make them seem very dated. However, I wasn't expecting anything different really. The animated sequences are as entertaining as ever. I would place them above many of the earlier Animated Classics.

From a poliltically-correct point-of-view I have two observations:

1] Black people living happily with white people after slavery. While I'm not exactly in the demographic of potential objectors to this aspect of the production, I really don't see a problem with it. It is not, in my opinion, rewriting history. It's just a children's film and as a children's film, its made a choice to ignore showing the ugly side of that period. It's no different to British stories and films about World War II evacuees which ignore the heartache and sorrow of the children being parted from their parents, and instead choose to tell stories about the exciting adventures the children have while evacuated.

2] The "Tar Baby" in one of the Brer Rabbit segments. Ah, now, this I can easily see as being offensive, and this is probably the reason Disney are holding back on a US release. But in the context of the segment, it's not used in a racist way, and it's inclusion is logical. According to Wikipedia (which is not always right) it's inclusion in Song of the South was before any negative racial descriptions were associated with the words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_baby

The Tar-Baby was a doll made of tar and turpentine, used to entrap Bre'r Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Bre'r Rabbit fought the Tar-Baby, trying to get free, the more stuck he got.

Thus, a "tar baby" is metaphorically any "sticky situation"[1] that is only aggravated by efforts to solve it.

Over the years, the term has also acquired a negative connotation as a derogatory term for black people (such as African Americans in the United States or Maoris in New Zealand), or to an especially dark skinned black person by other lighter skinned black persons.[1]

Its a shame, because it looks like this is another example of the film being misinterperated over time.

[Loomis]

So Netty...I'll trade you a Snickers bar for a copy of...

[DISNEY HAS REMOVED THIS REQUEST DUE TO ITS QUESTIONABLE LEGALITY. LOOMIS HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM EXISTENCE DUE TO HIS QUESTIONABLE LACK OF PANTS...SERIOUSLY, I FORGOT TO BRING PANTS TO WORK TODAY...LONG STORY].

Black people living happily with white people after slavery. While I'm not exactly in the demographic of potential objectors to this aspect of the production, I really don't see a problem with it. It is not, in my opinion, rewriting history. It's just a children's film and as a children's film, its made a choice to ignore showing the ugly side of that period. It's no different to British stories and films about World War II evacuees which ignore the heartache and sorrow of the children being parted from their parents, and instead choose to tell stories about the exciting adventures the children have while evacuated.

As I said once before, and was critically acclaimed for, SotS is one of the few films that has been 'self banned' for something bad NOT happening to a character. I seriously doubt that if Disney had made a true to life, right down to the language and behaviour of the time, version of the stories it would remain unedited either.

[Owlzindabarn]

Look, if they were whipping Uncle Remus with a switch and calling him names, I'd understand the terror Disney feels when they realize this film is part of their heritage. However, tain't so. Nothing like that happens in this film. Instead, Uncle Remus is inside de white folks' home, tendin' to de poor injured white boy. That's what the white people in this film really thought of Uncle Remus...they wanted him in their home. And it has a happy ending of racial equality, too. I truly don't understand the controversy over this flick. Gone With The Wind has been on home video since Day One, and nobody says a thing about it. And that movie is far more uncomfortable.

[Enchantress]

This thread just reminded me of something I saw today! I was walking to work, and right infront of my eyes was a woman with a little girl, about 8 years old I guess. That's all very normal I hear you say! But no!, this little girl had a SOTS t-shirt on. I kid you not! I only managed to glance at it, but it had Brer Rabbit and Fox on it, and the back of the shirt was just blank.


Where did she get it from?

[brotherbear]

Where did she get it from?

Some one could have possibly made it for her. Especially if there was some one in her family who is a Disney fanatic like most on this board.

Or, it also might have been purchased outside the country, where SotS is a little more well known.

And (yet another possibility, though i'm not totally sure about it), it could have been purchased at a little gift stand around Splash Mountain...?? I'm not really sure on the last one considering I have never ridden Splash Mt. (I only passed it at Disney World for like 10 seconds...)

-BB

[Enchantress]

Ah maybe you're right. I wanted to ask her, but I thought that if I did I'd either A) scare the child, B) get strange looks or C) just annoy them.

So I carried on walking . It was just strange that the first SOTS shirt I've ever seen was about a week after it being on BBC2.

[Wonderlicious]

This thread just reminded me of something I saw today! I was walking to work, and right infront of my eyes was a woman with a little girl, about 8 years old I guess. That's all very normal I hear you say! But no!, this little girl had a SOTS t-shirt on. I kid you not! I only managed to glance at it, but it had Brer Rabbit and Fox on it, and the back of the shirt was just blank.


Where did she get it from?

Perhaps it was a T-shirt from the "Splash Mountain" ride at Disneyland/Magic Kingdom at WDW, which, as you may know, is based on the animated segments in this film.

[Enchantress]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONG-OF-THE-SOUTH ... dZViewItem This speaks for itself!

[thatartguy]

It's an Asian bootleg. Coal Black was a Warner Bros. cartoon.