SOung of the South - A possibility?????

[clarksfan95]

Though my stance on the movie is for Disney to release it if they want and completely understand why they will not...you don't want to alienate potential customers...which with it's release might.

My dad has this movie and I hadn't seen it for a long time, so I decided to watch it the other day and must say....no child will sit through this movie. I could not sit through this movie. I was fast forwarding to the animated segments because the other parts were more boring than I could've ever imagined. I found zero interest in any of the human characters and felt that the movie dragged until the animation started. The only character that actually caught my eye was Aunt Tempy who was played by Hattie McDaniel, the same lady who played Mammy in Gone With the Wind.

I know that Disney would probably visually edit the movie, Uncle Remus and the Frog (can't recall it's name) both smoke in the movie and Disney would probably edit that out. (They edited Baby Herman in Roger Rabbit for smoking) Though I see and recognize the stereotyping, I didn't feel it was all that bad, but it is a negative stereotype of a segment of our population and I'm not sure that Disney would or will take that risk.

If I had to grade this movie out of 5 stars....it would be lucky for me to give it 2 stars. (That's what I get for wanting to re-acquaint myself with it...it was better when I didn't remember it that vividly)

 

[lilclerk]

I have to agree with everything you said, Clarksfan. Disney should release it if they want (though they probably won't) but I just... was so bored through the whole thing.
I love the music, and I do enjoy the animated stories... but the live-action story was pretty stupid, IMO.

When I brought up once that I didn't think it was all that offensive, someone said to me that oh but they think it IS offensive because they're basically making slavery look enjoyable and not like the horrible thing it was.
She said something about how horrible it is to show black people thinking that plantation life is "mighty satisfactional" and life on a plantation picking cotton was soooo not full of fun and happiness for slaves, and she went on and on about it and I just thought well.. it's a children's movie... I don't think they'd be showing the slaves being beaten or starved.
Look what they did to other stories. When I first read the Grimms version of Snow White, I was horrified because I was so used to the nicer Disney version. Which is no picnic, but is far less scary than the original.
Yes, it's different because slavery actually happened, but I mean... it's still supposed to be a fun kid's movie about a nice old man who tells the kids stories that teach them good morals.

I don't know. That argument just seemed silly to me.

Oh wait, I forgot about the tar baby...

 

[Wilt Dasney]

She said something about how horrible it is to show black people thinking that plantation life is "mighty satisfactional"

One elephant in the room I haven't seen shoved in these discussions is that many slaves likely DID sing in the fields and make the most of their lives, because they had no choice. Humans have a profound ability to adapt to circumstances. Which slaves stood the best chance of living long lives and procreating the most...the ones who were fueled by despair or rage and likely died from grief, suicide or excess abuse from being obstinate or the ones who accepted their lives and made a mental peace with being enslaved? The fact that we still HAVE black Americans tells me that many of their forebears chose to make the best of a terrible cosmic poker hand. :shrug:

 

[lilclerk]

Exactly. Eddie Izzard says something about how Christian church music is all so dreary, and yet the gospel singers are:

"...the only ones that go crazy. It's amazing, and it's borne out of kidnapping, imprisonment, slavery, murder, all of that, and they get this joyous singing."
"And the Church of England, all the Christian religions... They're the only people that can sing hallelujah without feeling that."

Anyway... I just like Eddie Izzard, I guess.

Oh also, life on that particular plantation didn't seem all that bad compared to how it could have been. It probably WAS "mighty satisfactional" to live there and not with another Southern family.