The Reason for Archiving Song of the South

Trigger Warning: The following article contains discussions of racism and cultural appropriation of African American culture.

Song of the South, a 1946 Disney film that combined live-action and animation, has been controversial because of its problematic racial depictions. Based on the stories of Uncle Remus, the movie portrays an idealized and sanitized version of life in the post-Civil War South. As a result, Disney has withheld it from home media release in the United States since the 1980s.

Despite the film being archived, its characters lived on through the Disney Parks ride, Splash Mountain, which operated from 1989 until 2023. The ride's popularity led to merchandise like Funko Pops, clothing, and stuffed animals, keeping the film's relevance alive despite Disney's attempts to distance itself from the controversial source material. In 2024, Splash Mountain was re-themed to Tiana's Bayou Adventure, based on the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog.

The film Song of the South, set in the Reconstruction-era American South, tells the story of a young white boy named Johnny who's sent to live on his grandparents' plantation. While there, he becomes friends with Uncle Remus, an elderly black storyteller who lives on the plantation and imparts life lessons to Johnny through a series of animated folktales featuring characters like Br’er Rabbit, Bre’Fox, and Bre’Bear. These stories help Johnny cope with his challenges.

Despite its popular song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, the film has been widely criticized for its romanticized depiction of the post-Civil War South and its reliance on racial stereotypes, which has led to its controversial nature. This essay will delve into the reasons behind the film's archiving, exploring its historical context, its cultural appropriation of black cultural practices and dialect, and the controversies surrounding it.

Historical Context and Production

Walt Disney gained the film rights to Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories in 1939, intending to adapt them into a feature film. Initially, the film was conceived as focusing solely on Br'er Rabbit and the other animal characters, removing the stories from the plantation setting. However, because of financial constraints after World War II, the Walt Disney Studios repurposed the film as a live-action/animated hybrid.

The production faced criticism from the outset. Disney hired African American and Jewish screenwriters and consultants to mitigate potential insensitivity, but objections were raised over stereotypical dialogue and demeaning portrayals. The script, primarily written by a Southern-born first-time screenwriter, focused on racial stereotypes, leading to conflict. Organizations, including the NAACP, requested to review a rough draft of the script but were denied. Historians suggest that Walt Disney himself was apprehensive about the film's potential for a white Southern bias because of its writer.

The film was produced during an era when ethnic stereotypes were prevalent in Hollywood, yet concerns were raised about the material's potential to offend racial sensitivities.

The Growing Controversy

Song of the South received criticism and protest upon its release. Critics condemned its insensitive and one-dimensional portrayal of African Americans. For example, while James Baskett's dignified performance as Uncle Remus earned him an honorary Oscar, the character remains an ethnic caricature. Uncle Remus is overly cheerful, subservient, and "magical," existing solely to entertain white children with sanitized folk tales. This portrayal reinforces harmful stereotypes by glossing over the brutality and exploitation inherent in slavery and segregation.

Furthermore, various organizations and activists objected to the film's misleading portrayal of the American South. They argued it whitewashed the horrors of racism and inequity while downplaying the struggles of African Americans by depicting a false narrative of harmonious race relations.

This illustrates a key issue with historical films: they shape our worldview, consciously or subconsciously. With Disney films like Song of the South, which appeal to young audiences, the movie reinforced a misleading idea that being Black in the post-Civil War South was not as "bad" as historians have documented. The Warner Brothers film Gone With The Wind also presented a problematic portrayal of race relations during the same era.

It should be noted that Walt Disney did not attend the film's premiere, despite conducting several interviews in Atlanta. However, he advocated for an Oscar nomination for James Baskett and hired Black employees for Walt Disney Studios.

Cultural Appropriation of Black Culture and Dialect

Song of the South has been criticized for its cultural appropriation of Black cultural practices and dialect. The film takes African American folklore and oral tradition and repackages them through a white-sanitized lens, stripping away much of their original context and meaning. For example, the Uncle Remus stories, which are rooted in genuine African American folklore, were adapted for a mid-20th century white audience and presented as light entertainment that ignores the historical struggles behind them.

The film's portrayal of Black characters speaking in a highly stylized and exaggerated version of African American Vernacular English was not only inaccurate but also reduced the complexity of Black speech to a series of cliches, reinforcing stereotypes rather than reflecting authentic linguistic diversity. This use of the contrived dialect contributed to the caricature of Black culture as overly simplistic and jovial, ignoring the depth and variance of real Black cultural expression.

Black musical and storytelling traditions are also appropriated and sanitized throughout the film. For example, iconic musical numbers like Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah (which itself bears similarities to antebellum minstrel songs that appropriated and mocked African American culture) are presented in a manner that glosses over the origins of Black musical traditions. While the song itself won accolades, its context within the film effectively divorces it from the deeper, sometimes more complex roots of African American music by reducing it to a pleasant but empty refrain for white audiences.

Because Song of the South showcases certain aspects of Black storytelling—rhythm, cadence, and narrative style—while ignoring the broader cultural and historical realities behind those traditions, the film effectively commodifies and distorts Black cultural practices for mass consumption.

Why It Was Archived

Disney has made a conscious decision to keep Song of the South out of circulation since 1986 by not re-releasing it in the United States, including on home media or streaming platforms. This is because of concerns that the film's portrayal of racial stereotypes is not appropriate in today's world and could cause racial harm. Releasing the film could normalize a flawed and whitewashed version of American history, overlooking the suffering and systemic racism experienced by Black Americans in the 1800s.

It could also harm children and young viewers, who might internalize outdated and harmful stereotypes from the film's narrative. In today's climate, with discussions about race and representation at the forefront, re-releasing the film could reignite old wounds and potentially be co-opted by extremist groups. While the film can be studied as a historical artifact in academic settings, a mass re-release as entertainment could validate its offensive content and do more harm than good.

Conclusion

The decision to archive Song of the South shows that media can shape our views of history and culture. Although the film has historical value, it's best studied in academic settings because of its harmful racial stereotypes and misrepresentation of African American culture.

Disney's decision to stop circulating the film shows that companies fix past mistakes, even though parts of the film are still remembered. The film reminds us that stories can both show and strengthen biases in society, especially in today's conversations about race and media.

Archiving the film doesn't erase history; it ensures that history is remembered accurately and responsibly.

Click here to learn why the 1995 animated Disney film Pocahontas should also be archieved for the same reason as Song of the South.