I know that it’s been a really rough winter so far. But
who would have thought that Hell was gonna to freeze over?
“What do I mean by that?,” you ask. Well, I just
got word that Buena Vista Home Entertainment will be releasing “Song
of the South” on DVD in the Fall of 2006.
That’s right. “Song of the South.” The Academy
Award winning film that former Disney Feature Animation head Thomas Schumacher
once told Roger Ebert was on “permanent moratorium” has reportedly
been greenlit for release late next year. A special 60th anniversary edition
that — thanks to a plethora of extra features — will try & put this
somewhat controversial motion picture in historial context.
“Why — after all these years — did Disney finally
give in?,” you query. It’s simple, really. “Song of the South”
‘s 60th anniversary was simply too good a promotional hook for the Mouse’s
marketing staff to pass up. More to the point, Buena Vista Home Entertainment
could really use a hit right about now.
Don’t believe me? Then go check out Disney’s financial
reports for the first quarter of 2005. Where you’ll discover that
the Mouse’s accountants actually blame the 20% drop in revenue that the
company’s Studio Entertainment division recently experienced on lower
DVD sales of current-year films.
Given that Disneyana fans have been clamoring for a “Song
of the South” DVD for nearly a decade now, BVHE execs are hoping
that all of this pent-up demand will eventually translate in really big
sales for this disc. Disney is hoping to sell at least 10-12 million units
of this particular motion picture.
“But aren’t Disney Company execs concerned about how the African
American community may response to ‘Song of the South’ ‘s release of DVD?,”
you continue. Yep. I won’t lie to you folks. There’s a lot of people in
the Team Disney Burbank building who are very concerned that —
by releasing this much maligned motion picture on home video & DVD
— that the Mouse House is potentially opening itself up to a ton of bad
publicity.
With the hope of avoiding that, BVHE reportedly plans to really pile
on the extra features with “Song of the South.” Among the ideas
currently being knocked around is producing a special documentary that
— through use of clips from that TV movie version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
“Cinderella” that Disney produced back in 1997 as well as sequences
from “The Proud Family” & “That’s So Raven” —
would demonstrate that a person’s color really doesn’t matter at the modern
Walt Disney Company. There’s also talk of including Walt Disney Feature
Animation’s seldom-seen short, “John Henry,” as one of the disc’s
special features.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment is also supoosedly toying with approaching
a prominent African-American performer to serve as the MC on the DVD version
of “Song of the South.” You know, someone who could then introduce
the film, explain its historical significance as well as re-enforcing
the idea that “SOTS” was a product of a much less enlightened
time in Hollywood’s history. I’m told that — up until recently — Bill
Cosby was actually at the top of Disney’s wish list. But now that Dr.
Cosby has been accused of inappropriate behavior with several ladies …
Well, let’s just say that Bill is no longer Mickey’s top choice for this
position.
Anywho … There’s one other aspect of this “Song-of-the-South”-soon-on-on-DVD
saga that I guess I should mention. Which is why Buena Vista Home Entertainment
is low-balling its predictions of the number of units that “SOTS”
might sell (I.E. 10-12 million versus “Finding Nemo” ‘s 39 million+
units). Why is that, do you suppose? Mind you, it’s not because “Song
of the South” is decidedly old fashioned (Well, what do you expect
from a 60 year-old motion picture?), but rather …. Here, why don’t I
let my source inside BVHE explain:
“This movie isn’t nearly as good as people seem to remember
it being. Sure, the animated sequences are charming. But the pace of
the rest of the picture is so damned pokey.
Which is why I seriously doubt that we’ll get all that many letters
about “Song of the South” ‘s racial content. The way I figure
it, most kids & adults will be nodding off 30 minutes into the thing.
And people who are sleeping can’t write letters of complaint.”
Well, I don’t know about that. But what I can tell you folks is to stop
bidding NOW on those black market “SOTS” DVDs that keep
popping up on eBay. For — if you can just wait another 17-18 months —
you can actually purchase a really-for-real authorized version of Disney’s
“Song of the South” of your very own.
Your thoughts?