My Review of "Song of the South"...

I was expecting to get this Song of the South DVD next week sometime...based on the Amazon shipping data the window of delivery was to be somewhere between July 20th and July 21st...but I got it today (July 17th)...well ahead of schedule. I've seen this movie, in bits and pieces, and screen caps on animation history documentaries for several decades. I'm writing this as the DVD is playing on a TV nearby...Uncle Remus has just began singing "Zip-a-Dee Do-Dah" and the animation has become part of the movie. There's still a lot of movie left to go but as of now the DVD is NOT skipping or freezing as a dozen or so customers have mentioned. Perhaps on a repeated play the disc may have a glitch but for now it's playing without a problem. In the beginning of the movie it's made clear, without a whole lot of dialogue, that the kid, Johnny, has apparently never been in the South...he gets wide eyed looking at all of the African-Americans walking around on his grandmother's plantation...suggesting that he'd never seen people of a different color before. Later, as Uncle Remus is telling a story, Johnny peaks out from behind a tree. This is interrupted shortly after by a couple of servants from the mansion seeking Johnny's whereabouts. The film originated in November 1946...having it's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia on November 12, 1946 and the rest of the country on November 20, 1946. 

The film takes place during the Reconstruction era, after slavery was abolished, although some of the people who call themselves historians have, for decades, mistakenly tied the movie to the American Civil War.    

There's a comical scene where Johnny and Toby, the son of one of the kids from the plantation, play with a frog and later, the next day, go frog hunting. Toby removes his hat and reveals there's a frog sitting inside it. Johnny later meets a girl named Ginny. Whenever Johnny gets into any sort of dilemma or is feeling depressed he runs to Uncle Remus and is told more stories about Brer Rabbit's misadventures which, in the end, serve as inspiration for Johnny to deal with whatever is going on in his life. 

One of the funniest animated segments is when Brer Rabbit gets into a fist fight with a phony person made of tar, a trick conceived by Brer Fox. In these animated segments the Brer Bear is portrayed as a dopey sidekick of the Fox. Elsewhere in the storyline we're introduced to Ginny's brothers, Joe and Jake, two of the most bratty boys you'll ever see, who infrequently show up to either get Johnny in trouble or taunt him into arguments and fights.

The uptight mother and grandmother eventually come between Johnny and Uncle Remus' friendship. Johnny, in their view, had been following Uncle Remus around and listening to his stories so much Johnny forgot to attend his own birthday party. There's some heavier drama later when Johnny gets injured taking a shortcut through a pasture and meets up with a bull. I've tried not to include too many spoilers or stuff like that since I know this is a movie that's rare and is one that's highly subjective.

The movie, overall, is absolutely wholesome and the animated segments are cute...the reputation that it's received for decades, in my opinion, is a deliberate assault on the movie itself...sort of like manufactured controversy. The main criticism, as far as I can tell, stems from the way in which the southern African-American characters speak...and based on that flimsy criticism the movie's been forever labeled "controversial, racist..." when the storyline nor the characters have no racist overtones at all. The animated segments are spectacular. The movie, as of this writing, is nearly over. Yes, I've spent close to 2 hours composing this review...adding in things and editing things...and I'm at the scene where Uncle Remus, who'd left at the instruction of Sally, has returned following Johnny's injury and he tells another story. The ending features Johnny and Ginny singing "Zip-a-Dee Do Dah", joined by Uncle Remus and the animated characters, skipping off into the sunset. 

Uncle Remus (James Baskett) is the co-star of the film along side Johnny (Bobby Driscoll). Hattie McDaniel is a supporting player as Aunt Tempe. Ruth Warrick co-stars as Miss Sally, Johnny's mother. Luana Patten co-stars as Ginny. James Baskett is also the voice of Brer Fox. Nick Stewart voices Brer Bear. Johnny Lee is the voice of Brer Rabbit.