Jim Hill : Rewriting Uncle Remus

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Jim Hill

Rewriting Uncle Remus

As Buena Vista Home Entertainment reportedly readies "Song of the South" for release on DVD in 2006, many film fans wonder if Disney will actually have the guts to release this somewhat controversial movie uncut. Should we be concerned? Jim Hill reveals the various ways that the Mouse has reworked published versions of the Uncle Remus stories over the past 40+ years.

As Disneyana fans continue to hope that recent reports that Buena Vista Home Entertainment is readying to release "Song of the South" on DVD in 2006 will ultimately prove to be true, some film buffs are raising some rather serious questions about this somewhat controversial motion picture.

As in: Will Mickey actually dare to put up for sale a DVD that presents this 1946 Walt Disney Productions release in its original form? Or will the Mouse ultimately opt to chicken out and make a few judicious trims to this movie?

Does that sound like a somewhat ridiculous concern to you? Well -- before you say anything -- maybe you should first take a look at some of the not-so-subtle changes that the Walt Disney Company has made to books based on this 1946 film over the past 40+ years.

But -- before you look at those changes -- let's first familiarize you with the way Disney originally let the "Song of the South" characters been seen by the book-buying public. The images below are scans from the 1958 Golden Press version of "Uncle Remus Stories."

As you can see by the above imagery, at this point in the film's history (I.E. Mid-to-late 1950s), the folks at Walt Disney Productions had absolutely no problem with showing Uncle Remus himself and/or the tar baby.

Hell, the Mouse was evidently so unconcerned about the possible social ramifications of the "Song of the South" characters that Disney actually allowed Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear to star in a car commercial about this same time.

Below, you'll find frame grabs for an American Motors commercial circa 1955.

As you can see, Brer Fox and Brer Bear have Brer Rabbit cornered inside a brand new Nash.

These two figure that all they'll have to do now is wait Brer Rabbit out. But what Brer Fox & Bear Bear don't realize is that this American Motors automobile is climate controlled.

So, while they're outside sweltering ...

... Brer Rabbit is seated inside the Nash, relaxing in air-conditioned comfort. And -- later -- when the snow flies ...

... Brer Fox & Brer Bear stand outside the car, freezing ...

... while Brer Rabbit is warm & cozy inside of his brand new "Laughing Place," a new 1955 Nash.

So you see what I'm saying here, folks? Back in the 1950s, these weren't characters that the Mouse felt that it had to hide and/or make excuses for. As this point in the company's history, Walt Disney Productions was still rather proud of "Song of the South." Which is why it allowed book versions of the film to be published without any significant changes to the Joel Chandler Harris stories as well as lending Brer Fox, Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit out to Madison Avenue.

Now flash forward 15-20 years. And it's suddenly a very different story. On the heels of the civic rights movement of the 1960s, Disney's feeling somewhat queasy about the "Song of the South" characters.

Don't believe me? Then let's take a look at the illustrations from "Brer Rabbit and his Friends." A book that was published as part of the "Disney's Wonderful World of Reading" series in 1973.

Notice anything different about the tar baby?

Yep. He's white now.

"Why is he white?," you ask. Because evidently some executive on the publishing side of Disney decided that tar (or -- rather -- tar's black color) had some unfortunate racial connotations.

Which was why -- in this revised version of the story -- Brer Rabbit found himself tangling with a glue baby.

Now some folks will tell you that the Imagineers did this same exact thing while they were designing "Splash Mountain" back in the 1980s. Going the politically correct route by leaving the tar baby out of this thrill ride entirely and opting to have Brer Rabbit get caught by Brer Fox because -- in the attraction -- the bunny gets stuck in some honey.

Photo by Jeff Lange

Well, I'm here to tell you that this just isn't so. Sure, WDI did opt to go the PC route by not showing Brer Rabbit getting stuck in the tar baby's tar. But -- as it turns out -- there actually was an Uncle Remus story where the usually bright bunny got himself stuck in a mess of honey. Joel Chandler Harris called this tale "De Wuller-De-Wust."

And while Walt Disney opted not to fold this particular yarn into "Song of the South," the folks at Golden Press did decide to include "De Wuller-De-Wust" as one of the tales in their "Disney's Uncle Remus Stories" book.

So were the folks at Disney publishing over-reacting back in the 1970s by changing Brer Rabbit's nemesis from a tar baby to a glue baby? Is the image that I've posted below really all that disturbing?

You wanna know what I think is really disturbing?

The thought that Brer Bear actually had a wife and kids.

Seriously, though, folks: What are your thoughts on Disney's "Song of the South"? Should Buena Vista Home Entertainment release this film unedited? Or should the Mouse -- bowing to political correctness again -- make trims to some of the more racially insensitive portions of this motion picture? Like (perhaps) the movie's somewhat infamous tar baby sequence?

Your thoughts?

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