“It wasn’t yesterday nor the day before. But it was a long time ago. Back when the critters, they were closer to the folks and the folks, they was closer to the critters. And — if you’ll excuse me for saying so — it was better all around.”
— Uncle Remus, “Song of the South”
National Wildlife Week is April 22-30. So today is smack dab in the middle of it and my first inclination was to write about Walt Disney’s love of the environment and animals. But I have already touched on those topics in a previous “Wednesdays With Wade” devoted to Epcot’s “The Land” pavilion.
I also thought about writing about the True-Life Adventures series especially since Roy E. Disney just finished recording introductions for that series for a future DVD release.
However, this week there has been a lot of speculation about some other endangered animals that were entrusted to the care of the Walt Disney Company. So I thought that I would focus on those critters. Who the Disney corporation was planning on re-releasing into the wild, but instead have locked back up in the dark vault where only illegal poachers can get their hands on them.
The fatal exchange about these critters’ fate took place at the Disney Shareholder Meeting on Friday, March 10, 2006 between a shareholder and Disney CEO Bob Iger and has been the subject for much moaning and groaning ever since:
Howard Cromer: My name is Howard Cromer. I live in Cypress, I’m a Disney shareholder. I’m actually delivering a message from my son, 10. He wants to know in recent years, in the midst of all your re-releases of your videos, why you haven’t released “Song of the South” on your Disney Classics? [Applause] And, he wonders why.
Copyright Walt Disney Productions
Frank Wells told me many years ago that it would be coming out. Well obviously Frank Wells isn’t around anymore, so we still wonder why. And by the way, Mr. Iger, he thinks it was a very good choice when they made you CEO of Disney. [Applause]
Bob Iger: “Thank you very much. You may change your mind when I answer your question, though.
Um… we’ve discussed this a lot. We believe it’s actually an opportunity from a financial perspective to put “Song of the South” out. I screened it fairly recently because I hadn’t seen it since I was a child, and I have to tell you after I watched it, even considering the context that it was made, I had some concerns about it because of what it depicted. And thought it’s quite possible that people wouldn’t consider it in the context that it was made, and there were some… [long pause] depictions that I mentioned earlier in the film that I think would be bothersome to a lot of people.
And so, owing to the sensitivity that exists in our culture, balancing it with the desire to, uh, maybe increase our earnings a bit, but never putting that in front of what we thought were our ethics and our integrity, we made the decision not to re-release it. Not a decision that is made forever, I imagine this is gonna continue to come up, but for now we simply don’t have plans to bring it back because of the sensitivities that I mentioned. Sorry.”
What would Walt think? Well, fortunately, we have Walt’s thoughts on the film from a publicity piece from the film’s release in 1946:
There is something endlessly appealing and satisfying in Joel Chandler Harris’ droll fables of animals who behave like humans, and in character who narrates them. For a long time, they have been an open challenge to motion picture showmanship. I was familiar with the Uncle Remus tales since boyhood. From the time, I began making animated features I have had them definitely in my production plans. But until now, the medium was not ready to give them an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity.
I always felt that Uncle Remus should be played by a living person, as should also the young boy to whom Harris’ old negro philosopher relates his vivid stories of the Briar Patch. Several tests in previous pictures, especially “The Three Caballeros,” were encouraging in the way living action and animation could be dovetailed. Finally, months ago, we “took our foot in hand,” in the words of Uncle Remus, and jumped into our most venturesome but also pleasurable undertaking. So while we naturally had to compact the substance of many tales into those selected for our “Song of the South,” in Technicolor, the task was not too difficult.
And, I hope, nothing of the spirit of the earthy quality of the fables was lost. It is their timeless and living appeal; their magnificent pictorial quality; their rich and tolerant humor; their homely philosophy and cheerfulness, which made the Remus legends the top choice for our first production with flesh-and-blood players.
Walt Disney bought the rights to the Uncle Remus stories from the Harris family in 1939. Disney got the rights to all the Remus characters for $10,000 (a sizeable sum in those days). The film is very loosely based on two of Joel Chandler Harris’s last Remus books: “Uncle Remus and His Friends” (1892) and “Told by Uncle Remus” (1905).
The film is important as a transitional film between Disney’s full length animated features and his live action films. Walt previously experimented with live action in “The Three Caballeros” and “The Reluctant Dragon” (not to mention the early “Alice Comedies”). But the infamous strike of 1941 as well as many of his top artists being drafted into the service during World War II made Walt realize the Disney Studio needed to become less dependent on animation and to diversify into live action in order to survive.
“I knew that I must diversify. I knew the diversifying of the business would be the salvation of it. I tried that in the beginning, because I didn’t want to be stuck with the Mouse … I wanted to go beyond the cartoon. Now I needed to diversify further. And that meant live action,” stated Walt.
The live action was photographed first. James Baskett who portrayed “Uncle Remus” sometimes performed on actual sets that were painted to seem like cartoon backgrounds. The live action footage was edited to a precise length, then given to the animators to add the cartoon figures.
In the Fall of 1944, artist Mary Blair spent a week in Atlanta and nearby rural Georgia locations doing concept art for “Song of the South.” By Spring, she would be working on concepts for “Alice in Wonderland.” Her artwork for “Song of the South” painted with what animation historian John Canemaker describes as “a low-key palette and classic water color techniques” helped set the tone for the color schemes used in the film as well as the set and costume designs that helped transform an Arizona location into post Civil War Georgia.
Yes, “Song of the South” was filmed near a drainage ditch in Phoenix, Arizona. That’s where most of the principal outdoor photography was done. Some of the interior footage like Remus talking to Johnny in his cabin was shot at the Goldwyn studio in Hollywood. On November 30, 1944, Walt Disney Productions entered a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Los Angeles, CA, to begin filming for “Uncle Remus” (one of the original working titles for “Song of the South”) on January 2, 1945.
By the way, on location in Arizona, Uncle Remus’ rocking chair was also used as Walt Disney’s “director’s chair.” Across the back of the chair was written “Uncle Walt.” Two great storytellers sharing the same chair.
Image couresty of Google Images
Animator Bill Peet who was primarily responsible for the story development of the animated fables remembered:
“Developing the characters of the rabbit, fox and the bear and working with the quaint old fables was the most fun I’d had since ‘Dumbo‘…On the Remus fables, Walt was always in a good humor, full of enthusiasm at every story session and the animators caught the playful spirit in preparing the fables for the screen.”
“Song of the South” won an Academy Award for” Best Song” for “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” by Allie Wrubel (music) and Ray Gilbert (lyrics) which remains a Disney classic song to this day, often appearing on “Sing-A-Long” videos. Although he was not nominated in the acting category, Baskett was honored in 1947 with a special Oscar by the Academy for “his able and heartwarming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and storyteller to the children of the world.” He died four months later, at the age of forty-four.
Other actors in the film included Hattie McDaniel (who played Mammy in “Gone With the Wind” and was famously quoted as saying “I much prefer playing a maid to actually being one.” She gets honored with her own commemorative postage stamp this year), child star Bobby Driscoll, Ruth Warrick and Erik Rolf (who was secretly married to Warrick at the time unbeknownst to the cast and crew and was going through a troubled marital separation that may have influenced his performance.)
Commercially, “Song of the South” was a success. Ticket sales were strong in its first run in 1946 and in the subsequent releases in 1956, 1972 (two years after Disney claimed the film would be “permanently retired”), 1980, and 1986 (Its 40th Anniversary and last official theatrical release) garnering double digit millions of dollars for the Disney Company.
From the Disney pressbook for the 1986 release:
“Song of the South is one of the best known and most widely applauded animated/live action feature film achievements of all time. Its timeless appeal spans all audiences, from children to senior citizens, with enthusiastic responses coming from both individuals as well as entire communities. It is a rare entertainment treat, offering the enrichment of educational and cultural values in art and music that are heartily endorsed by the widest segment of the moviegoing public. And that means you have an excellent promotional advantage in stimulating excitement for your own engagement.”
There are plenty more tales to tell about this Disney film. But — for now — yet another generation of young people will be denied the opportunity to view this animated classic or for parents to use it as a springboard to engage in discussions of tolerance, responsibility and how to use your brain rather than brawn to defeat bullies.
Understandably, a very cautious Bob Iger is concerned about stirring up trouble after all the controversies surrounding the Disney Company in recent years. However, if I may be so bold, I would like to share this advice from Uncle Remus that actually shaped my early years after I first saw the film:
“You can’t run away from trouble. There ain’t no place that far.”