Best title I could come up with to tie together two similar editorials.
My own paper ran this one over the weekend, where author/professor Douglas Brode uses the opening of the Princess and the Frog to examine Song of the South and argue that the long-time ban on that film is unjustified:
http://rocnow.com/article/opinion-syndicated-columns/2009912110359
A few weeks ago, Disney biographer Neal Gabler used the film's limited opening to examine Walt Disney's personal record of portraying minority groups. He argues that Walt was ahead of his time on diversity:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-disneyrace22-2009nov22,0,978597.story
The pieces don't line up entirely, but they both conclude that Walt Disney was a progressive on these issues by the standards of the early-mid 20th century, and deserves better than history has given him on this front. SotS comes in for scrutiny in both pieces.
Obviously it's preaching to the choir a bit to post these here, but I think it's interesting to get a pseudo-historical take on this.
My own paper ran this one over the weekend, where author/professor Douglas Brode uses the opening of the Princess and the Frog to examine Song of the South and argue that the long-time ban on that film is unjustified:
http://rocnow.com/article/opinion-syndicated-columns/2009912110359
A few weeks ago, Disney biographer Neal Gabler used the film's limited opening to examine Walt Disney's personal record of portraying minority groups. He argues that Walt was ahead of his time on diversity:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-disneyrace22-2009nov22,0,978597.story
The pieces don't line up entirely, but they both conclude that Walt Disney was a progressive on these issues by the standards of the early-mid 20th century, and deserves better than history has given him on this front. SotS comes in for scrutiny in both pieces.
Obviously it's preaching to the choir a bit to post these here, but I think it's interesting to get a pseudo-historical take on this.