Okay, it’s not really a million dollar idea — at least, I’ll never see a million dollars from it.
I’ve watched the 1946 Disney feature Song of the South, due to the “underground railroad” of folks selling cross-region DVDs of it, since Disney will not release it in the States (and, to be sure, there are some folks in the US would have apoplexy were it to be released, albeit for reasons I think are goofy).
The fact is, it’s overall a pretty mediocre movie. The live action parts of it, at least, are objectionable not so much for their allegedly racist content (i.e., showing “contented” blacks down in the South), but for just being trite and boring.
The animated portions, though, are much fun, with the various Br’er Rabbit tales brought to life in vastly entertaining ways. They’re good enough that, despite a lack of video, they’ve been fine fodder for the vastly enjoyable Splash Mountain rides at WDW and DL.
The fact is, though, there are a ton of enjoyable Br’er stories. So why doesn’t Disney just do a Br’er Rabbit movie?
It’s that simple. Leave out the live action parts of the original SotS, make it all-animated, expand the story a bit, pick up on the “Br’er Rabbit takes to wandering to find his Laughing Place, tricks Br’er Fox, and realizes there’s no place like home” story line from the rides and make it a full length animated feature? Or draw on some of the other Harris tales, or make up one using the same characters. Heck, they’ve got the story, the characters, the rides, the merchandising just rarin’ to go — why not make use of them? Is Song of the South so laden with PC horrors that even the source stories — from African and African-American folktales — are also verboten?
Disney’s sitting on a gold mine here. A shame it doesn’t dare exploit it. It can’t do any worse than, say, Home on the Range.
(Your trivia item for today: The “Br’er” prefix on the names of all these Uncle Remus tales characters has nothing to do with the “briar” patch. Instead, it’s short for “Brother.”)
>Your trivia item for today
That’s not common knowledge? I always thought everybody knew what that meant!
Well, *I* didn’t know until I read it recently. So, just like, “I’m cold, dear, so wear your sweater,” it’s “I didn’t know this, so you don’t, either.”
Color me shocked that you didn’t know this Dave.
Hey, what I knew about the Br’ers before reading the books to Katherine you could fit in a very short paragraph. Given the conjunction of “Br’er” and “Briar Patch,” it all sort of made sense to me.
*Sigh* Why am I always the last one to know?