Whoopi wants Song of the South released

[Capang]

Any thoughts? It seems she wants to use this and the Dumbo crows as teaching tools. I understand her reasoning, however I don't see Disney letting Song out of the vault. Ever.
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/whoopi...sation-controversial-1946-film-154030256.html

 

[mom2rtk]

Not happening.

 

[Capang]

Not happening.

Agreed. I don't see them releasing anything to the general public. I could see this being discussed as a college course somewhere, if it's not already.

 

[heazer]

We have a boxed set of Tom and Jerry cartoons. It contains some of the originals that you would never seen on tv anymore, because of the stereotyping. Whoopi is actually on every disc, and gives a chat about how there are things in the episodes that aren't considered tactful anymore, and that we shouldn't purge the episodes, but rather learn from them.

 

[OKW Lover]

Hope it does happen. Apparently only those of us in the US aren't able to buy this.

 

[mom2rtk]

We have a boxed set of Tom and Jerry cartoons. It contains some of the originals that you would never seen on tv anymore, because of the stereotyping. Whoopi is actually on every disc, and gives a chat about how there are things in the episodes that aren't considered tactful anymore, and that we shouldn't purge the episodes, but rather learn from them.

That's awesome. I still think we're in too highly charged of a time to do the same with Song of the South. Even with Whoopi's blessing.

 

[Capang]

Hope it does happen. Apparently only those of us in the US aren't able to buy this.

When I was in high school I babysat for a family from Colombia. They had the VHS of Song. I watched it with their kids several times. The parents never understood why it got banned here. I think they used the same logic as Whoopi.

 

[jknezek]

I actually wonder how they will handle the crows in the LA Dumbo. Will they ignore the part, cut it, or simply make them more culturally acceptable? I think we all know the role will not be what it was, and that is a good thing in my opinion.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I think the idea that you can't handle a piece of fiction that was written in a different time is ridiculous...people need to grow up.

 

[Dfan79]

Sorry Whoopster, you're no Oprah.

I agree with her though, I think it should be released. There's plenty of movies that are even more racist floating around. The original "Birth of a Nation" aka the "Klansman" is about the creation of the KKK. The worst part of this overly long boring film is that they portray the KKK as heroes. In the climax they save a white woman decked out in white sheets from a sex-crazed black militia.

What amazes me is this racist piece of poop made the AFI 100 list.

 

[Geoff_M]

I think the idea that you can't handle a piece of fiction that was written in a different time is ridiculous...people need to grow up.

Agreed... but for the relatively small amount of sales that a SoTS release would garner, Disney isn't going to try and promote such a notion. It'd be a headache with little reward for them.

 

[Lvsdisney]

I actually wonder how they will handle the crows in the LA Dumbo. Will they ignore the part, cut it, or simply make them more culturally acceptable? I think we all know the role will not be what it was, and that is a good thing in my opinion.

I hope they don't take them out, because I do love them and their song. But, hopefully, the lyrics will change a bit to make them less stereotypical, no "I be done seen about everything", maybe ""I thought I've seen almost everything"

 

[TomServo27]

I tried watching it on kodi a while back the live action parts were unwatchable I made about 15 minutes that's all I could take.

 

[Dfan79]

Agreed... but for the relatively small amount of sales that a SoTS release would garner, Disney isn't going to try and promote such a notion. It'd be a headache with little reward for them.

That's true, kids nowadays won't even watch "Wizard of Oz". So "Song of the South" has little to no chance of keeping their interests.

If Whoopi wants to teach kids so badly just give them "The Color Purple", "Roots" or "7 Years a Slave". Or one of the slew of other African American movies that are actually watchable, and actually great.

Just keep them away from most of her movies like "Eddie", "The Little Rascals" and "Monkeybone". They're horrible... just horrible.

 

[Stankypoo]

I hope they don't take them out, because I do love them and their song. But, hopefully, the lyrics will change a bit to make them less stereotypical, no "I be done seen about everything", maybe ""I thought I've seen almost everything"

I believe what Whoopi wants people to realize is that while you may call the lyrics stereotypical, it is historically accurate. Why hide from the past when you can learn from its mistakes?

 

[kbmartin]

I swear I watched at least part of it on YouTube once, if anyone is really curious.

 

[whiporee]

Here's one more thing about SotS -- it's terrible. Far and away the worst Disney movie ever made. Not even close. The Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stuff is racist in an unintentionally racist awful but sort of amusing way, but the human stuff on the movie is just awful. Forget about the racism or the pseudo-glorification of the Reconstruction South, or just the awful, horrible storyline -- it's a badly made, poorly acted and not-well-constructed movie. It belongs in the vault because of aesthetics if nothing else.

My kids love Splash, so I found a bootleg copy. It's just a bad, bad movie, for a bunch of reasons, but one of them is because it's bad.

 

[Capang]

Here's one more thing about SotS -- it's terrible. Far and away the worst Disney movie ever made. Not even close. The Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stuff is racist in an unintentionally racist awful but sort of amusing way, but the human stuff on the movie is just awful. Forget about the racism or the pseudo-glorification of the Reconstruction South, or just the awful, horrible storyline -- it's a badly made, poorly acted and not-well-constructed movie. It belongs in the vault because of aesthetics if nothing else.

My kids love Splash, so I found a bootleg copy. It's just a bad, bad movie, for a bunch of reasons, but one of them is because it's bad.

Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stories originated in African-American folktales that were passed down long before Disney got hold of them. Netflix had a collection of Brer Rabbit stories on not that long ago.

 

[adelaster]

Any thoughts? It seems she wants to use this and the Dumbo crows as teaching tools. I understand her reasoning, however I don't see Disney letting Song out of the vault. Ever.
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/whoopi...sation-controversial-1946-film-154030256.html

I admire her candor in directly addressing something people tend to overlook, hide, ignore, and forget. Education and honest discussion/connection is the only way we can move past some of the less palatable portions of history- the aftershocks of which still play out today. It could work out really well, or it could be a disaster. Interested to see what she does with the remainder of her "platform" now that she's working with the company so closely.

 

[OSUZorba]

This is a perfect example of why copyrights should end. If we still had reasonable copyright laws, Song of the South would be in the public domain and people who were interested could see it.

Edit: To clarify, I mean copyrights should have a real and reasonable end date, like was the case for most of the country's history. Imagine if one person still owned all of Shakespeare and put them all in a "vault." Look at all the stories Disney has produced based off literature in the open domain, as well. 50 years is plenty of time to make money off of a work of art.