In 1946, RKO Radio Pictures released Song of the South, a live-action/animated film produced by Walt Disney. However, Song of the South was an adaptation of the Uncle Remus stories found in “Uncle Remus, his songs and sayings” originally created by American slaves and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris in 1880. Harris would go on to produce seven total “Uncle Remus” books. He would take the stories he had heard on the plantation from the hardships and struggle of the slaves and bring them into his books. Harris would go on to write these books in his interpretation of the African-American dialect. This creative choice has led to one of many controversies in the troubling history of the southern anthology of stories. While many of Harris’ stories centered around the life of slaves, his more popular stories centered around the adventures of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear. These three characters alongside Uncle Remus would be adapted by Disney over the course of seven years. Walt Disney had wanted to create a movie based on Uncle Remus and his Brer friends for some time. He began negotiations with the Harris family to acquire the rights to adapt Harris’ stories from almost forty years earlier. Production for Song of the South began in 1944 with a release date set in 1946.
Song of the South was released in 1946 to mixed reviews. The movie would win two Oscars, one for Best Original Song for Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and an Honorary Oscar for James Baskett as Uncle Remus because people of other races weren’t allowed in the Best Actor/Actress category. Later, it would be re-released for the final time in theaters in 1986 to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Song of the South never had a physical copy release in the US. It could only be found on the VHS for a short time in the UK. The movie would never find itself in any sort of digital release, becoming the sole Disney movie to not be viewable on their own streaming service, Disney Plus.
The plotline follows Johnny, a young white boy, as he struggles with life on a plantation. Johnny particularly struggles with his father leaving his family to join the Reconstruction following the Civil War. Throughout the movie, Johnny faces rather random obstacles in his way; he loses his dog which he traded for, and rather hilariously, in the finale of the movie, he is hit by a bull. Uncle Remus, played by James Baskett, starred in the movie. He played a friendly guide and mentor to Bobby Driscoll’s Johnny, using the power of storytelling to counsel Johnny through his problems. His stories are one of pure fiction, using the trickster and protagonist, Brer Rabbit as a metaphor for young Johnny. The stories are adapted into animated portions of the movie, the most notable being the story where Brer Rabbit is baited and stuck in a tar baby. For each Uncle Remus story, an animated portion of the movie is shown. Throughout the animated scenes, Brer Rabbit is pursued by Brer Fox and Brer Bear. In one particular scene, Brer Fox makes a tar baby in an attempt to trap Brer Rabbit. He hopes that he will think that the tar baby is a young black girl and greet her. Everything goes exactly to Brer Fox’s plan. As Brer Rabbit shakes the tar baby’s hand, he is ensnared by the goopy tar and trapped. This scene in conjunction with others, provides an uneasy feel to the movie.
While Johnny’s struggles are the focal point of the movie, one can’t help but feel haunted by the plantation setting within the false world of Song of the South. The words “slave” or “slavery” are never mentioned in this movie. The relationship between man and slave is instead treated not as equals but a relationship in contentment. Song of the South’s portrayal of the African-American slave is a far cry from the reality of the real hardship and struggles of slaves throughout history. The slaves are not shown to be punished in any form and instead, they play the role of cheery, loyal, and obedient friends to the white people who look over the plantation. Since this dynamic is persistent throughout the movie, Song of the South paints an entirely ignorant and false sense of reality. This kind of alteration of history is called revisionist history. Most recently, this kind of alteration could be found in Texas history books, stating that the Atlantic Slave trade brought "millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations." The ignorance displayed in this textbook is similar to the false reality of Song of the South. The typical playfulness and cheery attitude of the film have the potential to deceive young viewers into believing that the United States’ history of slavery was not as harsh as we know it to actually be. For such reasons, Song of the South is the standalone Disney film to be “banned” by the company themselves.
A VHS rip can be found on the Internet Archive here.