Disney's Song of the South

You may know the Splash Mountain ride at the Disney parks or the famous song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" but can you name the movie it comes from?

Song of the South was released in 1946 and was the first film Walt Disney attempted mixing animation with live-action. In the early 80's, they would allowed the particular song to be shown on the Disney Channel as a music video but not show the entire movie. I love seeing it, it was so beautiful but I wonder what it was.

Wikipedia: Walt Disney had long wanted to make a film based on the Uncle Remus storybook, but it wasn't until the mid-1940s that he had found a way to give the stories an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity. "I always felt that Uncle Remus should be played by a living person," Disney is quoted as saying, "as should also the young boy to whom Harris' old Negro philosopher relates his vivid stories of the Briar Patch."

The latest release on VHS was in 1986. The above picture is of the UK 2000 VHS release. It omits the other young boy from the poster we can see on the above reissue poster from 86'. Disney has avoided releasing any more releases or even on DVD. To this day, when the corporation is asked why there aren't any new release plans, they still think it is a sensitive subject... again as mentioned in the past few posts about racist cartoons in this contemporary world. The Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and Br'er Rabbit tricking Br'er Bear into the trap scenes are found in the 1950 special "One Hour in Wonderland" included on the 2004 two-disc release of Alice in Wonderland. The famous song even won an Oscar in 1947.

Also controversial was Tar Baby, which conveniently doesn't have a picture in Wikipedia. It was just tar and used to trap Br'er Rabbit and was changed to a honey pot for the Splash Mountain ride to avoid you know what.

This drawing of him for a book based on the stories has him look more and more like a person. A "tar baby" in this case was metaphorical for any "sticky situation" that can only be aggravated by efforts to solve it. The term most commonly has negative connotation as a derogatory term and in some cases refers to little African-American girls.

Tony Snow used the term ("I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program") in one of his first briefings as White House Press Secretary. Snow's use of the term which I guess is much like the firstly mentioned 'sticky situation' was much lampooned in the media.

The movie was deliciously parodied in SNL as Uncle Jemima's malt liquor with Tracy Morgan. Where it was alluded to that he only saw the animated creatures because of the liquor y queestaba casado con la tal Aunt Jemima. Ay Dios. It was sorta dark tone to it which was more haunting on late night broadcast. Only when bright bright cartoons and live-action can be a good kind of creepy nostalgia. But even though they sorta avoid it exists, it doesn't stop them making money off it from the rollercoaster rides.

The Censored Eleven

As Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Four has been released and it has Porky uttering 'son of a bitch', a boat load of Speedy Gonzales shorts, racist stereotypes and the inclusion of a Wild E. and Sylvester teamup, there are shorts that are not awfully known that are referred to as the 'censored eleven.' United Artists that owned the distribution AAA library in 1968 banned Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from syndication and video that they deemed too offensive. And these are still haven't been seen by modern audiences.

Most cartoons are censored for inclusion of 'black face' or suicide (Remember Daffy wanting to one up Bugs in a theater and drank potion and became a ghost? Well that has been cut out in recent airings.) but these particular shorts aren't seen at all in any official way. One of them 'All This And Rabbit Stew' includes with Bugs Bunny and a Elmer-sque black caricature. I was able to find it on YouTube, it is like any Bugs cartoon from the 40's and one of the gags was reused for 'fat Elmer'.

The Censored Eleven:

1. Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land (1931, directed by Rudolph Ising)
2. Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (1936, directed by Friz Freleng)
3. Clean Pastures (1937, directed by Freleng)
4. Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937, directed by Tex Avery)
5. Jungle Jitters (1938, directed by Freleng)
6. The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938, directed by Avery)
7. All This and Rabbit Stew (1941, directed by Avery)
8. Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943, directed by Robert Clampett)
9. Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943, directed by Clampett)
10. Angel Puss (1944, directed by Chuck Jones)
11. Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (1944, directed by Freleng)

One that is most interesting and most famous is Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs version of Snow White where "So White" and her friends are an example of racist dark iconography. Even with its racist controversial blaxploitation, some art historians consider it the best cartoon ever made. Some say it's Bob Clampett's ode to African-American Jazz musicians of the day, which composed and performed the music in the cartoon.

So White was unique to the other characters because she wasn't the usual stereotype but was oversexualized like most females in cartoons in those days. Tiny Toons Adventures producer Tom Ruegger denied that African-American 'normal girl' character Mary Melody was a reference to So White in a 2003 interview. I still have my mixed feelings about such content but I am curious to see what all the fuss is about.


More of these themes are to be visited in other posts.

THEM!: Wonder Woman's Lesbian Villains

As usual I am surfing either YouTube or Wikipedia, this time in Wikipedia I stumbled upon some villians Wonder Woman fought when she lost her powers in the seventies and was a strange feminist icon. Comics had a strange rule that no character could be gay or lesbian but they sure did lean to it without flat out saying it. There was a trio known simly as 'Them!' headed by a woman in a top hat known appropriately as Top Hat, a hulk of a woman named fittingly as Moose Mama and Pinto, a cowboy-garbed woman.

Wikipedia article about Them!

Anyway, their shitck was to terrorize pretty young women by tying them up and parading them around town. It has been debated if the creators meant them to be lesbians but many do say that was what they were meant. Obviously they were blatant negative stereotypes of lesbians. Negative or not, their mere existence and prescence in the comic is a true statement of the feelings of women at the time. One thing, feminism was coming through and was a tough battle and still is a constant and GLBT was barely growing but feminist trialblazers didn't want to be known as 'lesbians'. So there was a divide between straight feminists and lesbian feminists.

Their name is very poignant too and the cover artwork of their debut... the artists say they did it so the characters wouldn't appear on the cover and it would be too obvious they were gay but I think it brings a bigger statement. That Lesbians were something to be afraid of.