Who's Afraid of Song of the South? by Jim Korkis
As some of you my know, my wife and I get pretty geeky about Disney. I've seen and blogged about the theatrical animated releases, we collect pins and vinylmations, and we've been known to travel to Disney World as often as possible because they have the best staff and the most immersive vacation experience I've ever found. It's awesome.
I'm also not a blind idiot. I know Disney isn't perfect, and that they've been accused of some shady things over the years. That's sort of what this book is about. Jim Korkis is a Disney historian and former employee of the Disney Company and he has a wealth of knowledge about even the most mundane details of the empire. In this Book, he explores some of the more infamous stories about Walt Disney and his company, shedding some new light on old assumptions, but sticking to a neutral tone. It is this neutral approach that makes the book a little dry at times since Jim refuses to do any editorializing or deeper examination. That is left for the readers to do. It's almost like he's encouraging you to think for yourself...
The biggest section of the book is devoted to the controversial film, SONG OF THE SOUTH. This movie has been locked away in the Disney vault since 1986 and will likely never again be legally released in any context. So what's the big deal? If BIRTH OF A NATION is freely available and heralded for it's technical achievements while being almost universally accepted as disgusting racist propaganda, what horrendous imagery is being kept from us?
The plot of the movie is that of a young white boy who comes to visit relatives in the south after the Civil War. His parents are getting a divorce and he's not to happy about that. In his wanderings, he meets Uncle Reemus, a black man who befriends the little boy and helps him with his troubles by teaching him the stories of the animals, namely, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox. The stories were wildly popular in the south and were a combination of American folktales mixed with African and Native American themes and lesser animated versions can be found on Netflix. The boy makes friends with a little girl and a black boy, he hears more stories, and he runs away from home at one point and is injured by a bull. While the boy is laid up on the verge of death, the farmers in the field sing a mournful song. The boy gets better and the movies ends with his parents getting back together, I think.
What seems to be the biggest contention about the movie is that Walt failed to make it abundantly clear that the movies takes place AFTER the Civil War and that all the black characters are free people and not doting slaves. From the stories in this book, it seems that Walt let his devotion to storytelling and a naivete dissuade him from fixing this problem with the story. It also didn't help that one of the writer's hired for the script was not exactly enlightened about race relations, or much else by the sounds of it. Combine the taint of a suspect author, an unclear setting, and a number of people in the growing civil rights movement, and you have a recipe for disaster. Oh, and Paul Robeson, and amazing civil rights pioneer, turned down the role of Uncle Reemus due to concerns about the depictions of African Americans.
It should be noted that the foreword to this book is by an African American animator who knew Walt Disney personally and worked on this movie and believes it is a good and decent film with many good depictions of black people. Walt even fought for James Baskett, the actor who played Uncle Reemus, to be given an Oscar for his performance. Does this mean it's not at all racist? of course not, but it does mean that there is more than one way to view this film.
After reading this book, I was saddened that I am unable to watch this movie for myself. I think it would be very valuable for people to watch and reasses. Maybe it is just as bad as people say and, regardless of time period, Uncle Reemus is just an ugly Uncle Tom caricature. I also think the Brer Rabbit stories deserve to be told, if only so I can stop listening to dumb teenagers ask who the characters on Splash Mountain are.
Unfortunately, we will likely never see it because of the pressures placed on the studio that made it. This is a studio that, because it is the biggest fish in the sea of family entertainment, is constantly scrutinized over every move they make. The internet is filled with posts by dumb hipsters listing the terrible lessons in Disney movies. (mostly these lists focus only on the end result and come to conclusions that don't really stand up to 5 seconds of examination. Just because a man and a woman fall in love in a children's story does not make that woman less of a character. Especially Belle. She's awesome and I will fight anyone to tries to reduce her to a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. She's the smartest and most awesomest person in a world full of superficial morons, but I digress) One can only imagine what would happen if this film saw the light of day. The actually content of the film and any attempts at educational discourse would be lost in the din of knee-jerk, reactionary vitriol. And since Disney hasn't exactly been the poster child for racial sensitivity, a lot of these arguments will seem to carry real weight. But the questions are more nuanced than that. Despite what the Supreme Court would have you believe, corporations are NOT people. They are made up of people. And many of them are brilliant and complex and are honestly doing everything they can to bring some quality art and joy into the world. And some of them work in marketing and want to know if it's cool if they make your meticulously thought out Heroine into a pretty pretty princess costume for little girls to wear and idolize. Those people suck. But it's just a reminder that the story and intentions behind a piece of art and they way that art is presented is a messy and contradictory business. At the end of the day, my hunch is that Disney tried to make a delightful film showcasing some of Walt's favorite characters from his childhood, and the end product is neither wholly good or wholly evil. I believe it should be open to discussion though.
As for the rest of the book, we get a series of other urban myths and rumors about Walt Disney and his studio. We learn about how Walt became quite conservative in his later years, but also managed to ruffle the feathers of Joe McCarthy by poking fun at the FBI. We also get a fascinating tale of the moment of childhood cruelty that haunted Walt his whole life and may be the reason the Walt Disney company continues to work toward wildlife education and preservation. Some of the stories are quite interesting and other are a rather dull recitation of facts about the casting and development process, but on the whole, I would recommend this book, if only because the author offers you no neat answers or judgements about any of these stories. You just have to work it out for yourself.
8/10
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