Song of the South

Harve Foster / Wilfred Jackson (Walt Disney)
1946

Its a shame that the only way to get your hands on a copy of this movie is to buy a Japanese laserdisc version on Ebay. Its an even bigger shame that this movie will probably never be re-released.

Despite a more positive depiction of African Americans than any film to appear pre-1960 the implicit fact that the black characters are slaves makes it as untouchable as a snake covered in thorns that spits out scorpions that spit out plague carrying fleas.

Little Bobby Driscoll is taken away from the city to live with his mother on Grandma's plantation. Daddy takes off, in an effort to support his family, leaving Bobby D fatherless. This is a kid at a tender age who is left with no playmates, save for a couple slack-jawed hick children who are more concerned with tearing his fancy-boy collar than to make nice. Things start looking up however when he meets elderly Uncle Remus, possibly Disney's most lovable character ever. Fuck Samuel L. Jackson in the "Shaft" remake, I want a black role model who reminds me of Santa Clause and uses his superior intellect to teach me life lessons. I dare Denzel Washington try a role where he has to be half as charismatic as Remus. Mom provides a great G-rated villain in her cluelessness at what is best for an 8 year old boy, favoring the Southern Belle school of mothering which is more concerned with dressing children in red velvet sailor suits than concerning themselves with emotional well being. Its not that she's a bad guy by any means, but WIll Smith put it best when he said "parents just don't understand."

The animated sequences are a bit weak. The aesthetic seems way more Warner Bros than Disney, and watching a wholesome Brer Rabbit use his wits to evade various predicaments instead of Bugs Bunny's madcap lunacy doesn't seem to gel. The film's real triumph is its live action performances. Driscoll and Ginny (Luana Patten) are possibly the most adorable kids to grace the screen, and James Baskett's Uncle Remus is one for the ages. First black Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel also appears in a memorable role.

I'm as liberal as the next guy, but when political correctness prevents people from looking at questionable material with an open mind, knee-jerk politics have gone too far.

Review by Brett A. Scieszka