Just bought Song of the South on DVD!

[raven]

I was taking a road trip yesterday and we went to a mall in Port Huron Michigan. We were walking past a video store and they had Song of the South playing in the window. So I went in and asked if they had it on DVD and they sold me a copy for $20. Obviously it's a copy but at least I have one now. They got it from overseas but it's universal to play in all DVD players.

After watching it I couldn't see what was the big deal about keeping it in the vault all these years. It's historically accurate and that's about it.

Just thought I'd share this neat find! :wave:

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Somewhat on topic: I bought a collection of Looney Tunes animation on DVD yesterday. One of the cartoons has Bugs in the "old south" and briefly shows blacks picking cotton in the field.

Watching it, I was thinking "there's no way they'd show this on TV today," but it's right there on the disc, no opening commentary to explain how it has to be put in the context of the time or anything, just...here it is.

Apparently Warner Bros. has more confidence in peoples' ability to understand things and put them in context than Disney. :shrug:

 

[HoW]

Somewhat on topic: I bought a collection of Looney Tunes animation on DVD yesterday. One of the cartoons has Bugs in the "old south" and briefly shows blacks picking cotton in the field.

Watching it, I was thinking "there's no way they'd show this on TV today," but it's right there on the disc, no opening commentary to explain how it has to be put in the context of the time or anything, just...here it is.

Apparently Warner Bros. has more confidence in peoples' ability to understand things and put them in context than Disney. :shrug:

Well, I don't know why it's taken so long for Song of the South (I mean I do, but I don't). But on the Disney Treasures of Mickey in Black and White there are several cartoons deemed inappropriate, but they're on there with some commentary about how they feel this is a great opportuinty to explain history and the like to their children. So at least they're getting out there slowly, even if it isn't how we'd prefer them packaged. Although, I for one, am glad to see Disney trying to take everyone's feeling into account before just throwing something onto the market.

 

[dolbyman]

So I went in and asked if they had it on DVD and they sold me a copy for $20. Obviously it's a copy but at least I have one now.

so you bought an illegal copy in a mall instead getting it free from the net .. mkay

 

[BarryH]

There are things from 40-50 years ago that seemed commonplace then, but inappropriate now. Images in cartoons that seem racist today were commonplace way back when. That doesn't make the images right, though, but we shouldn't forget these cartoons and other media because they contain historical value. "Birth of a Nation," for example, is reallty racist, but it was innovative in film techniques and technology.

BTW, I recently read in the paper that they were editing out images of smoking in Tom and Jerry cartoons. Smoking was commonplace and accepted, when those cartoons were released, but times have changed. I still don't think the smoking scenes should be edited out.

 

[Shaman]

Somewhat on topic: I bought a collection of Looney Tunes animation on DVD yesterday. One of the cartoons has Bugs in the "old south" and briefly shows blacks picking cotton in the field.

Watching it, I was thinking "there's no way they'd show this on TV today," but it's right there on the disc, no opening commentary to explain how it has to be put in the context of the time or anything, just...here it is.

Apparently Warner Bros. has more confidence in peoples' ability to understand things and put them in context than Disney. :shrug:

I think that because Disney is well...Disney...its more of a target for lawsuits, especially of the media content variety. I think often, Disney is held to a higher standard than its competition....if only to see the Mouse stumble. Disney is just looking out for itself.

 

[Dj Corona]

Just to touch on a few things in this thread, and not by any means trying to play moral authority:

A) Until Disney officially re-releases Song of the South, and you buy it, swiping it off the internet, or buying a ripped copy is, how shall we say, illegal.
B) This would be at least twice that Tom & Jerry have been censored/edited.....
in many of their earlier cartoons, there was a "stereotypical" black housekeeper who has either been altered out, or those episodes are no longer shown.
C) As far as Warner Bros. goes, as much as I do love some classic Bugs action, there is one episode where Bugs and Yosimite Sam go at it on the Mason-Dixon Line, ( Pennsylvania-Maryland border ). Being from Maryland, I can safely say the border looks nothing like the deep south, as portrayed in that one cartoon....which leads me to -

Let's not all forget they're just cartoons, whenever they were made, broadcast, or shown in repeats, many were from a time less PC-crazy then ours, and if your watching one of them with a little one, or anyone else young enough not in the know, feel free to explain what's going on, wether or not there's a warning or not. Just my 2 cents.