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This piece was originally published in November 2019. It has been updated since and is most current as of June 12, 2024.

“Song of the South” remains the most controversial film in the history of Walt Disney motion pictures, live action or animated. But you’ll never see directors Harve Foster (handling the live action) and Wilfred Jackson’s (behind the animation) 1946 Uncle Remus adaptation on the Disney+ streaming service even as the company continues to roll out its vast library of legacy titles on the home-viewing platform. And not even with a disclaimer. Disney CEO Bob Iger made that clear back in 2020, even before the dated racial politics of classic movies returned heavily to discussion around the Black Lives Matter movement’s impact on entertainment later that year.

Set in a Reconstruction-era American south just as the Civil War has concluded and slavery has ended, “Song of the South” is most famous...

Disney is focused on remaking classic movies, but Song of the South is controversial and won't be included. Song of the South is criticized for its racist portrayal of Black characters, especially Uncle Remus. Disney won't include Song of the South on Disney+ or new boxsets due to its deeply ingrained problematic content.

Warning: This article discusses racist depictions of Black people.

Disney is riding a wave of nostalgia by remaking many of its classic movies however, Song of the South is one movie that's guaranteed not to receive the same treatment. The movie studio is keen to keep many of its older animated movies alive as live-action remakes, with classic cartoons such as The Lion King finding new generations of fans, and Snow White, the studio's first feature-length animation, next in the live-action pipeline. However, not only is Disney not planning to re-release or remake Song of the South,...

Disney’s Song of the South is one of the most controversial Disney movies out there. If you have never heard of it, there’s a good reason. Disney has gone to great lengths to pretend that the movie doesn’t even exist. That’s why, despite Disney+ making most of their old and new movies available for everyone to watch, Song of the South will never be on the service.

Recently, it has come back into the public eye as Disney has now closed Splash Mountain in its Florida and California locations. This ride was one of the only ties left to Song of the South, as it was based on the movie’s animated segments/ The ride is now being converted into a Princess and the Frog theme. This has brought the company a lot of backlash, but it still leaves a lot of people wondering why they...

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Beloved actor and Parkinson’s disease activist Michael J. Fox will be celebrated with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award while 13-time songwriting Oscar bridesmaid Diane Warren, six-time directing-writing Oscar runner-up Peter Weir and trailblazing Black director Euzhan Palcy will collect honorary Oscars at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 13th Governors Awards on Nov. 19, the Academy announced Tuesday.

“The Academy’s board of governors is honored to recognize four individuals who have made indelible contributions to cinema and the world at large,” outgoing Academy president David Rubin said in a statement. “Michael J. Fox’s tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson’s disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions. Euzhan Palcy is a pioneering filmmaker whose groundbreaking significance in international cinema is cemented in film history. Diane Warren’s music and...

This commentary on the life and legacy of Sidney Poitier was first published in the 2006 BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards, as part of the organization’s lifetime achievement award tribute to the trailblazing star, who died Jan. 6 at the age of 94.

Is Sidney Poitier the most important actor in American history?

One could quickly defend that question affirmatively simply with a newsreel of clips showing heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., from Birmingham to the March on Washington, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks; Olympians Tommy Smith and John Carlos with their fists in the 1968 Mexico City air; rabid segregationists Bull Connor, Lester Maddox and George Wallace; the sit-ins and the accompanying firehoses and attacking police dogs; the segregated public spaces, the high-profile Ku Klux Klan marches and their low-profile lynchings.

To any American film fan who lived through the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and ’60s,...

In 2020, the Covid pandemic caused the motion picture academy to cancel the Governors Awards, which has been a stand-alone event since 2009. Instead, it presented the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to both Tyler Perry and the Motion Picture & Television Fund during the Oscars. This morale booster was a bright spot in the ceremony.

The Governors Awards are set to return on January 15, 2022. Honorary Oscars will be presented to multi-hyphenate Elaine May as well as actors Samuel L. Jackson and Liv Ullmann. Another actor, Danny Glover, will be feted with the Hersholt for his work on behalf of Unicef.

There have been four honorees at the Governors Awards every year but two since 2009. As detailed below, all but one of the academy’s 17 branches — Visual Effects — are represented among the roster of 138 winners of honorary Oscars. In the case of Visual Effects, the academy has presented special achievement awards to a host...

In a sign of Disney changing with the times, if ever so slowly, The Walt Disney Company announced Thursday that the iconic Splash Mountain theme park ride at both Disneyland and Disney World is about to get an update and be re-themed to represent the overlooked The Princess and the Frog (2009) animated feature.

This decision reverses the image of a ride that has come under increasing scrutiny for decades due to its theming around Song of the South and the racist caricatures represented by Walt Disney and Joel Chandler Harris’ interpretations of Br’er Rabbit. As a consequence, the new Splash Mountain will feature songs from Princess and the Frog and follow the story of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen’s adventures through Mardi Gras in New Orleans as frogs, culminating in their final kiss.

According to Disney this redesign has been in the works since 2019 and the company has held off announcing further details,...

Legendary animator Floyd Norman talks about his all time favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016)

Vertigo (1958)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Rope (1948)

The Trouble With Harry (1955)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Song of the South (1946)

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

The Third Man (1950)

The Jungle Book (1967)

The Jungle Book (2016)

The Lion King (2019)

Pinocchio (1940)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The Old Mill (1937)

Casablanca (1942)

Cinderella (1950)

Singin’ In The Rain (1953)

Paths of Glory (1957)

1917 (2019)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Star Wars (1977)

American Graffiti (1973)

Sorcerer (1977)

Other Notable Items

Michael Fiore

The Watts riots

The LAPD’s cruel mistreatment of Rodney King

The George Floyd protests

Move in Philadelphia

Walt Disney Pictures

Tfh Guru Roger Corman

Erik Sharkey

The Three Stooges

I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali TV series (1977)

Muhammad Ali

Fred Calvert

Alfred Hitchcock

Bernard Herrman’s Vertigo score

Robert Burks

The latest...

This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find our spoiler-free review here.

It’s a beautiful fantasy. On Oscar night 1948, the same evening that in real-life Walt Disney’s troubling Song of the South received an honorary Oscar for James Baskett’s performance, Rock Hudson came out of the closet in front of the entire world. Standing on the red carpet with his hand in Archie Coleman’s, a black man who was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Rock announces his love to the world and says he is not afraid. But like many sparkling things in Ryan Murphy shows, it’s still only a fantasy. In real life, there was no Archie Coleman, no Meg to catapult Rock Hudson’s career into liberal advocacy, and no coming out of the closet.

In recent years, Rock Hudson is likely most remembered, whether he would’ve liked it or not,...

On Sunday, four film folk — actress Geena Davis, director David Lynch, actor Wes Studi and director Lina Wertmuller — were feted by the motion picture academy at the Governors Awards. This non-televised event has been around since 2009 when the academy moved these de facto lifetime achievement awards off of the Oscars.

By not being part of the televised Academy Awards, this has meant more people could be honored each year as there were no time constraints to consider. To that end there have been four honorees every year but two since 2009. And this change has allowed for a wider range of talents to be tapped.

As detailed below, all but one of the academy’s 17 branches — Visual Effects — are now represented among the roster of 135 winners of honorary Oscars. In the case of Visual Effects, the academy has presented special achievement awards to a host of films in years in which there was no competitive category.

In recent years, corporate entities with long histories like the Walt Disney Company have had to come to terms with the fact that some aspects of their classic content are no longer acceptable to audiences.

In some cases, especially ones pertaining to the upcoming launch of Disney Plus, the Walt Disney Company has been relatively up front about changes it’s making to historical content. The Jim Crow character from the original “Dumbo” will be edited out for Disney Plus; a post-credits scene from “Toy Story 2” that included a casting couch joke got the ax; and Janelle Monae’s Wondaland collective will “reinvent” “The Siamese Cat Song” for the upcoming Disney Plus-only remake of “Lady and the Tramp.”

But there’s one property — a prominent part of the Disney canon, though some may not realize it — that Disney has yet to fully account for: the 1946 animated and live-action musical “Song of the South,...

When the lineup for Disney’s new streaming service, was released last week, there were so many obscure titles on the list that even the most diehard fan was left wondering whether they really existed, or were just an elaborate prank conceived of by Disney CEO Bob Iger. (If anyone in the history of human existence seen a single frame of Fuzzbucket, Mr. Boogedy, or Sammy the Way-Out Seal, first of all, how, and second of all, why?) There was one relatively well-known film, however, that didn’t make the list,...

Song of the South is an animated/live-action hybrid film from Walt Disney Pictures directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson which follows an innocent young boy from Atlanta named Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) who moves with his mother to his grandmother’s plantation where he learns a series of life lessons from Uncle Remus (James Baskett) in […]

The post Disney’s Controversial ‘Song of the South’ is the Subject of ‘You Must Remember This’ Podcast’s New Season appeared first on /Film.

On Wednesday, five film folk — producing team Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, publicist Marvin Levy, composer Lalo Schifrin and actress Cicely Tyson — were singled out by the motion picture academy to be feted at the Governors Awards in November. This non-televised event has been around since 2009 when the academy moved these de facto lifetime achievement awards off of the Oscars.

By not being part of the televised Academy Awards, this has meant more people could be honored each year as there were no time constraints to consider. To that end there have been four honorees every year but two (2011, 2015) since 2009; this is the first year that there will be five. And this change has allowed for a wider range of talents to be tapped. Levy is the first publicist to be honored.

As detailed below, all but one of the academy’s 17 branches — Visual Effects — are now represented among the...

This article marks Part 4 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1946 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” from “Blue Skies”

“Ole Buttermilk Sky” from “Canyon Passage”

“All Through the Day” from “Centennial Summer”

“I Can’t Begin to Tell You” from “The Dolly Sisters”

“On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”

Won and should’ve won: “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”

1946 marks a very obscure and awfully modest year in Best Original Song. There’s not really a rotten apple in the bunch, but there’s also nothing to get terribly head over heels about.

I’d love to know the backstory behind the news today that Warner Bros. Animation Group is going to be making a Speedy Gonzales film. Warner Bros. has been much better about embracing their animation legacy than Disney has because they’ve never hidden from their own past. One of the smartest things Warner has done when releasing collections of their older animation is including cartoons that have uncomfortable racial or sexual material, pointing out that they are the product of their time rather than pretending they never happened. It bothers me that Disney is willing to continually exploit the characters from Song Of The South at the Splash Mountain attraction and in merchandising, but they keep the film locked up in a way that only makes it seem more dangerous or offensive. Instead of putting together a release that would honor the work of James Baskett and the innovations...

Way back in July of last year, Disney announced that it is bringing the 1941 classic animated adventure Dumbo back to theaters with a new live-action take on the story. Today it was announced that Tim Burton will direct that movie. This is the second time Tim Burton has taken one of Disney's animated classics and given it a human-spin, following the box office success of 2010's Alice in Wonderland.

Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey announced the director earlier this morning. Dumbo is still in development and does not yet have a release date. It is just one of a number of animated movies-turned-live action for the studio, with Cinderella in theaters this week. Disney is also currently in production on a live-action/CGI take on The Jungle Book directed by Jon Favreau, which will be in theaters April of next year. This will be followed by Alice...

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

Abduction - Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina

Dolphin Tale 3D - Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr.

Killer Elite - Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro

Moneyball - Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill

Movie of the Week

Moneyball

The Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill

The Plot: The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

The Buzz: Correct me if I’m wrong, but has there ever been a really great baseball movie? Yes, there have been a few, like Major League, Bull Durham, and A League of Their Own. Those are comedies though, so let me rephrase the question: has there ever been a really great baseball drama? Hmm, The Natural was decent, albeit dated and a consequently a bit cheesy.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the animated classic Dumbo with brand new Blu-ray and DVD editions hitting the shelves today, September 20. We have a new contest running and we're giving away copies of this Blu-ray edition to our readers. You know these prizes will go fast, so enter this contest today.

Winners Receive:

Dumbo 70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray

Here's How To Win!

Just "Like" (fan) the MovieWeb Facebook page (below) and then leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

If you already "Like" MovieWeb, just leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

In celebration of this landmark film's 70th anniversary, experience the daring adventures of the world's only flying elephant with a dazzling all-new digital restoration and brilliant Disney Enhanced High Definition Theatre Mix Sound. The inspirational tale of Dumbo, the courageous baby elephant...

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just announced the 1941 classic Dumbo will be re-released in an all new 70th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray and DVD on September 20. The studio has also released a new trailer for this Bd release, which you can watch below. You can also read the full press release with details on pricing, special features, and the restoration process of this animated classic below the trailer.

Click to watch Dumbo Trailer!

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment invites audiences to let their spirits soar with the release of the beloved animated classic Dumbo, for the first time ever in high definition as a 70th Anniversary Edition, coming on September 20, 2011. The Academy Award-winning (1942, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture) favorite will take flight for the first time with a premium restoration in stunning Blu-ray highdefinition featuring pristine 7.1 Digital Theater System High-Def Surround Sound, allowing fans to see more,...