SONG OF THE SOUTH 1946 - Had not seen this before and was curious to see what all the fuss was about given that it has never had a North American video release. The animation is really good--I was impressed how elaborate they were with the live action-animation mixing. The songs were of course very memorable. The plantation scenes are hokey and obviously dated and the marital problems between the parents was confusing to me---why did the father have to leave? What was he writing in his newspaper? It picked up when James Baskett came in as Uncle Remus-- a captivating performance. The film is notable for giving a major role to a child, I imagine not common at the time, but the importance of the Remus character had to have been most groundbreaking for a major release film. This was a sincere effort at multicultural outreach in 1946 and unlike other films where black characters were reduced to not exactly flattering supporting roles (in Casablanca and others)--here the most pivotal character in the story is black. I think the fixation on the plantation scenes--it does feel a little artificial that the residents are so musically oriented--but if you are doing a story on Uncle Remus you need a framing device, and this was the most logical mainstream way to get a white child to be sitting down with an older black man for 1946 audiences. And the interactions with the poor white family down the lane was also intended to broaden one's thinking.
The real message of the story which comes out in the final scene with the children is rather touching if not looking naive by a glance at today's headlines- there's a common heritage between everyone, regardless of creed, economic status, or age as participants in the pageantry of Nature. Whether that message comes through is up to the individual viewer. It's ironic and fitting that someone decided to preserve the film since Disney was not going to--someone who was in a shack down the road from the big house or big mouse.
The real message of the story which comes out in the final scene with the children is rather touching if not looking naive by a glance at today's headlines- there's a common heritage between everyone, regardless of creed, economic status, or age as participants in the pageantry of Nature. Whether that message comes through is up to the individual viewer. It's ironic and fitting that someone decided to preserve the film since Disney was not going to--someone who was in a shack down the road from the big house or big mouse.