Song of the South returns?
Roy E. Disney wants to bring controversial movie to DVD
Apr 12, 2007 Dominic von Riedemann
(Source: www.filmbuffonline.com)
Song of the South fans, hoping to see their favourite movie eventually come out on DVD, got a major boost from none other than Roy E. Disney.
The senior Walt Disney Company executive, and nephew of founder Walt Disney, was speaking at the 16th annual Philadelphia Film Festival when he said a DVD release for the controversial film was overdue.
“I’ve got a bunch of cohorts working with me to convince the powers that be that it’s the smart thing to do,” Disney told the crowd at Philadelphia's Prince Music Theatre on April 7th. He was receiving the festival's Inspiration award.
Disney's statement comes on the heels of similar comments by current Disney CEO Robert Iger.
Speaking at Disney's annual shareholder's meeting on March 8th, Iger said, "we've decided to take a look at it again because we've had numerous requests about bringing it out (writer's note: Iger was responding to a shareholder's question on whether they would release the movie on DVD). Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context."
The fact that Song of the South fans have Roy E. Disney in their corner means a lot. Disney is the son of Roy Oliver Disney, who founded the company alongside his better-known brother, Walt Disney. Roy E. Disney, as a long-time member of the company's board of directors, still wields a great deal of influence, even though he is now a non-voting Director Emeritus.
In his many years with the company (Disney first started working for the Mouse House in 1954, and joined the board of directors in 1967), he has gained a reputation for protecting The Walt Disney Company's legacy. Disney is a huge fan of maintaining the Mouse House's animated roots, and was largely responsible for spearheading WDFA's "animation renaissance" in the early 1990's.
Disney also has a very good reputation with many employees of the animation department, since he's known for giving plenty of creative freedom.
He was also responsible for two separate "Save Disney" campaigns that resulted in ousting the company's then-CEO: Ron Miller in 1984 and Michael Eisner in 2005. Each time, Disney's choice of replacement CEO was the one Roy E. Disney picked.
Song of the South has never been officially released on home video in North America. The movie first hit theatres in 1946, and was based on some of Walt Disney's favourite folktales. It was also the first Disney movie to use live actors. It won two Academy awards: one for the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" and another honorary Oscar for actor James Baskett, who portrayed the kindly Uncle Remus.
During the 1960's, Song of the South was criticized for its racist depiction of black Southern plantation workers, characterizing them as happily living under white oppression.
The Walt Disney Company announced in a 1970 Variety article that it was "retiring" the movie. However, it did bring the flick back into theatres 3 times since then: in 1972, 1981 and 1986. Song of the South was also released on LaserDisc in a Japan-only release; many bootlegs of the movie currently circulating on the Internet are from this pressing.
“(Song Of The South) is a wonderful film that deserves to be back out in the public,” says Disney. “All it needs is context. Some of that animation is stunning, even by today’s standards.”
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