dig311dug
Well-Known Member
@LittleBuford : PatF romanticized the Jim Crow era south... would you have a 10 year old avoid that as well?
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Splash Mountain re-theme announced
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
- Status
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
Influenced for sure. But not in the way of how they view human relations. More in the way of “Wow, that Rabbit was cute, funny, and smart. I’ll jump around and be just like him.”
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I agree it’s overly romanticised. It does, however, convey the fact that Tiana has to work doubly hard to succeed, a point underscored by the Fenner brothers’ disparaging reference to her background. It’s Disneyfied, but nowhere near as idealised as Song of the South.
To put it another way, would I feel comfortable having my young niece and nephew watch The Princess and a Frog with a black friend? Absolutely. And Song of the South? Absolutely not.
dig311dug
Well-Known Member
"You can't watch this because of the skin color of your friend."
Last edited by a moderator:
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
If I ever have kids, I’ll show it to them. To me, it’s a movie about Brer Rabbit, the things he would do to get out of a jam, and how it can influence and help a small child learning to adapt to their surroundings.
Like I said previously, I wish I had something like this growing up instead of just thinking of myself as a weak pathetic loser all the time.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I refuse to engage with people who don’t debate in good faith. Have a good day.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I’m going off my perspective as someone who was a kid not that long ago.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I respect that. My perspective is based on memories of my own childhood (which admittedly is less recent than yours) and my interactions with my niece and nephew, who’ve more than once surprised me with the kinds of questions they ask when we’re watching things together. I’m not looking to change your mind or anyone else’s.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I’m going to have to agree with you right here, although I don’t agree with anything else you’re saying (despite the good intentions).
@dig311dug It’s just not fair to compare the apparent racism in PatF to the apparent racism in SotS. They aren’t even close to the same movie. I think PatF has tons of issues with stereotypes, and like most Disney movies in the past 30 years, is an incredibly shallow experience, but none of these issues have anything to do with race. It isn’t fair to call him racist for being okay with showing a kid PatF but not SotS.
Here’s the deal. It’s been so hammered into the public conscious that SotS is racist, that there’s absolutely no turning back. People will be offended solely based on the fact that they’ve been told it’s racist, and there’s surface level stuff like the out of date dialect that will verify that perception for them. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that someone could be offended by the film.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
That we never talked about as this was before the re theme was proposed
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
Perhaps. But there are children films with issues from that era (including Dumbo) that also have problems. The point is SotS isn't any better or worse than any of the films from that era when it comes to racial stereotypes. By making it a very public exception made it seem worse than it really is.
Are you referring to this thread: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads...n-discussion-only.965899/page-62#post-9361618 ?
No, that's just another of multiple threads about the same topic that have started to veer off the track into the P&SI/Covid territory. It's been dragged back on track - others are in the other forum.
Yeah, that's why I got a little confused
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I’m just going to answer this question to save everyone the trouble.
SotS is racist because people want it to be. No, seriously.
It has just enough surface level stuff (dialect and a few neutral stereotypes) to make it feel dated. People run with that and it becomes Disney’s poster child for how disgusting and racist the company and old Hollywood used to be. And Disney benefits from it too because all of the racially insensitive jokes in their more popular films and franchise can now slide under the radar.
As a society, we love to trash our distant past to put ourselves on a pedestal because the people who would fight back against us are now dead. Sometimes we’re right. Sometimes we’re just as bad if not worse.
TL;DR SotS isn’t racist, but few people care about it and it has just enough dated stuff needed for it to be the sacrificial lamb for the Disney Company to make their modern self look better. By calling it racist, we think we are holding Disney accountable for their “racist” past, but we’re really just ignorant clowns who have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about.
Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
I think "problematic" is a better word for Song of the South. I can see why people are offended by it, but you're right that it's not the most racist thing ever like everyone makes it out to be.
- Status