Song of the South

Worth a watch for the animated segments, but everything else is pretty boring, and the child actors are awful. Not nearly as racist as I'd been led to expect.

I don't get why people get so worked up over slavery, they had cartoon animal friends, and whimsy and magic and no one said the n word ever.

Zippity doo dah, zippity aye/ My oh my what a wonderful day/ Here in the south whites give me no pay/ Zippity doo dah, zippity aye.

Hey, it's offensive and incredibly boring, what a winning combination. I think the animated parts may have been decent, but I've tried to block as much of this film as possible from my memory.

Given the reputation, I expected this to be racist by depicting black people with offensive stereotypes. Instead, the racism is in presenting recently emancipated slaves as content with a life of third class servitude. In any event, the live-action story and scenes are horribly boring, but the animated sequences are cute and enjoyable.

This is a film with a real troubled legacy, but the end result for me is more of a bored shrug than moral outrage or scandal. It's not overly racist, I don't think (its heart is in the right place), but it's just so full of quaint, old-timey southern cliches that it's kind of a boring experience. The animated scenes don't even offer much in terms of inventiveness or humour. James Baskett's performance is steeped in cliche but he's an appropriately pleasant and genial presence for a kids' film.

Remus is the hero of this film which nicely mixes animation with live action. He is the most interesting and complex character, and in spite of the over-the-top down home feel to the African-American characters, they are all more sympathetic than any of the white characters save the child. In terms of narrative, it's definitely simplistic, but the animated sequences are inventive and the film contains numerous moments that kids will love. A solid Disney classic.

Entertaining, love the songs.

The film Disney wants you to forget, the racism is actually more creeping and insidious than you expect. Stereotypes build on each other, black characters are robbed of agency, throwaway lines reinforce the idea of subservience. It's deeply engrained into the film's point of view and it's presented as almost aggressively normal, as though nobody should question how people throughout the film are presented as lesser than and content to be so.

It's troublesome, though given its reputation I had expected much worse. The issue lays in the stereotypes and portrayal of post Civil War plantation life as idyllic for black people, which is difficult to get past. The songs are catchy and James Baskett is pretty fantastically cast as the deeply problematic but charmingly played Uncle Remus. The racism is not as overt as many other movies, which might make it more insidiously dangerous, but also makes it easier to enjoy on a surface level.

SotS wasn't part of my childhood, existing as a cultural curiosity that I'm finally experiencing in my 30's. It's a mediocre story about a boy with daddy issue as he builds friendships with residents on his grandmother's plantation. Released between Gone with the Wind & the US Civil Rights Movement, the film presents a pleasant view of the Jim Crow South & advises kids to go to their happy place when faced with trauma. Incredibly dated, naïve to a fault & marred by unnecessary controversy.

We always used to watch this at my grandparents. It's pretty messed up now that I am older yikes.

The animated parts are pretty okay, but the movie as a whole (including the live action sections) is weak.

I'm impressed with it as an exercise in blending live action and animation, and really unimpressed with it as a children's film. The movie looks great, but it's shrill and unpleasant and the lessons are overly simplistic. Bobby Driscoll, who I love in films like "Treasure Island", is pretty awful here. While I am always on the side of making cultural artifacts available to people who can appreciate the context, I don't think this is a film most people will get anything from.

Disney's big release of 1946. Their first live-action feature. Almost. It's a combo. Something Walt Disney has experimented with ever since he started producing animated films, dating back to his Alice shorts. Here they focus their stuff around James Baskett and some children while they insert animated short stories of a bad fox & bear and a poor unsuspecting rabbit. You definitely feel that classic Disney feeling in this one. The wholesome warmth shines through.

Uncleremushelpinboyreconsiderrunningaway+oneofthemzippidydoodadays+brerrabbit+lilgirlgivesboyherdogherbrossaidthey'ddrownlmaohegiveshertheladycollarthing+remuskeepsit-broswantitback+reversepsychesthebroslikebrerrabbit+somomagainststories-madegivedogback+brospushherdownsoboyfights+almostmakesupownbrerstorytocheerherup+remusleavecuzboymom-boychase-bullchaseloolhit+happyend-seebreretcirl

Mostly boring as the stakes were that a kid was getting bullied by two other scrubs and his mom thought an old guy telling him stories was the root of his problems. The controversy around it makes sense but it feels like inadvertent tone-deafness than malicious racism. Since I had to watch a dookie quality version on youtube I didn't get to enjoy the alleged great animation. The ride sucks too by the way. Who wants to be wet all day and walk around?

How can something be so boring and offensive at the same time?

The song Zip-a-Doo-Dah and James Basket's performance as Uncle Remus are the highlights of this lower tier film from Disney's Golden Age.

The animated sequences and the relationship between Driscoll's Johnny and Baskett's Uncle Remus are the strong points in a film of pure brilliance.

Good story, but the only three things I really praise are the animation, James Baskket's performance, and the main song.

Harsh

Definitely a child-oriented film; not being in the target demographic, I was predictably unimpressed. However, Remus's soothing voice got me through as I watched out for racism. White characters' words are accepted like orders, but Remus is such a clear hero that the message seemed to even out.

The live-action/animation combo scenes are unbelievable, with Baskett's phenomenal acting carrys the film's suspension of disbelief. While I do admit the Tar-Baby scene is racist, I don't think the rest of it is. Remus becomes a father figure to the young boy, and so is treated positively (to be honest, it's the same basic plot structure as Mary Poppins). My personal caveat: if Gone With the Wind can be loved and appreciated and sold in the US, this should be too. It's probably even less racist.

Racism aside, this isn't amusing or entertaining in the slightest. Thumbs down.

The cartoons are as much fun as any classic Disney, but the amount of racist content in the film is unbelievable, from the tar baby to the depiction of Uncle Remus, and right on into the overarching "moral." The child actors are also far from appealing. The best thing about this film was the "Aunt Jemima's Mash Liquor" parody on SNL a few years ago.

The film's fatal flaw is that it's boring (excepting the animated sequences). It's not half as awful as its infamous reputation implies - its rosy viewpoints of Reconstruction-era Georgia are pretty cringeworthy, but not outright racist. (The Tar Baby thing is from African-American folklore, it's not exactly a racial slur) James Baskett is very, very good at what he does though.

Maybe I'm too old to enjoy it, but I found it pretty boring. The mix of live-action and animation was well done. A good theme song. That's about it.