So Doug Walker is bringing back Disneycember at thatguywiththeglasses.com and this time is going over the live-action movies from Disney this time. His first one is on Song of the South, and this is a movie that I've been wanting to see for a while. On one hand I've had a book-on-tape when I was a kid about one of Br'er Rabbit's adventures, and have gone on Slash Mountain at both Disney Land and Disney World so I've been interested to see it. But on the other hand, it seems like whenever people get the chance, they ramble about this film declaring it one of the most racist films ever and that makes it such a huge embarrassment for the Walt Disney Company. So before watching Doug's review for it, I found it online and took a look for myself.
Plot: Johnny is a young white boy who is sent to live in the country with his mother and grandmother while his father is working at his controversial newspaper. Johnny is upset about his father's absence but he then befriends an old African American man named Uncle Remus who tells him these stories about Br'er Rabbit and his encounters with Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear whenever Johnny is going through some problems.
So is this move worth being considered the most racist thing Disney has ever produced? Well...not really. In fact I had to look up what exactly was considered racist about it, and a lot of it seems to come from Disney failing to make certain things clear about certain things. The best example is how the stories that this is based on were during the end of the Civil War where the African Americans where no longer slaves and so the white and black people weren't really divided in that way. But for whatever reason, Disney didn't say any of that for the audience, so despite how the majority of the film did have most of the white people being good friends with the black people, people didn't know that they were no longer slaves and so took offense to it as how it was making the whole slavery thing look so happy and light. Now this isn't the only reason this move is considered racist. There's a lot of other reasons such as how the black people in the film were being very stereotypical throughout the film and things like that. But honestly - coming from a 23 year old white man mind you - none of it was done in a way where it was being especially insulting. I mean focusing on stereotypes is bad, but none of it was done in a way where it was done worse then what we've seen in other things like Gone with the Wind or Family Guy. So maybe it was more racist then it looks now back in it's time, but by today's standards, it's not really anything special (so to speak) with whatever racism it had. But even with that said, not even the movie as a whole was something special. Where it really falls flat is where it was live-action and it focused on Johnny and Jenny and their families and things like that. None of them were interesting, and apparently their all around story was really bland and cliched even by the standard of when the movie came out. But at the same time, it does have some very enjoyable moments. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" is of coarse one of the most infamous Disney songs that also won an Oscar for Best Original Score, the animated characters were very fun to watch - I would sometimes play back some of the really funny moments with Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear, and then you have James Baskett as Uncle Remus was very delightful in his performance. I was especially impressed with his performances whenever he was in the animated world. Just how he moved, expressed and interacted with the cartoon characters, just even by today's standards of how actors interact with what isn't really there, it's really impressive. Maybe that's going a little too far, but at the same time, I feel that exaggeration is a little justified based on well he interacts with the animation world and characters.
And that's my review for Song of the South. It does have some little problems with racism, but I think most of it has to do with its time and from some misunderstandings of what was happening with the black people back during its time, and containing some stereotypes. So honestly, anyone who keeps pointing at it as a reason to hate Disney really calm down and consider how there are more terribly racial films out there then this one really is. But even if you take that away, Song of the South is best when it's giving us that Disney animation with funny animated characters and just Uncle Remus in general, but weakest when it uses most of the movie focusing on Johnny and Jenny and anyone else in the life action scenes that's not Remus. Altogether, it's really just a meh kind of film that is worth checking out to enjoy what little is good about it and how exaggerated everyone's take on the film is.
Rating:50%
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