Watch Song of the South For Free

Excellent but underrated film

Beautiful, moving film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

So sad that the child actor Bobby Driscoll lies in a paupers grave. Come on Disney do the right thing! He was also Peters voice in Peter Pan.

Only one thing in this film disturbs me: the implications of violence towards Brer Rabbit from Brer Bear and Brer Fox. First, they want to cook him alive, then Brer Bear with his big club wants to bash his head in. They stupidly forget their initial intentions of eating him by tossing him into a briar patch to supposedly bleed to death from the sharp thickets. I did not recall this from my only viewing of this back in an early 1970's rerelease but I think that part as an 8 year old would have disturbed me. I however was extremely touched by the affectionate friendship between young Bobby Driscoll and the sweet character of Uncle Remus played with great heart by James Remus. Obviously a former slave, Uncle Remus was either too tired to fight his battles, more concerned with helping young Driscoll learn about humanity by teaching him about dealing with real life rather than the racial tensions and hatred between adult whites towards blacks, now free if not completely liberated.I recall as a youngster having my own Uncle Remus with my preschool teacher, an elderly black woman, whom my parents would hire as a baby sitter. Like Uncle Remus, she told my siblings and I stories, played games with us, and embedded herself into my memory with her loving nature and humanity, subtly teaching us about the evils of racism without preaching or lecturing. She reminded me of a combination of Louise Beavers and Hattie McDaniel with her gregarious nature, and seeing the gentle but no nonsense performance of McDaniel here, confirmed my memory. Unlike her mammy in "Gone With the Wind", her character here isn't overly cynical, quite gentle and closer to Louise Beavers' character in the Bobby Breen folklore "Way Down South". While the bear and fox are the official villains, it's Driscoll's mother (Ruth Warrick) who is the human antagonist, ordering Bassett to stop telling Driscoll the same stories he had told her as a child. Warrick against the will of her own mother (Lucille Watson), as gentle a plantation owner that you can imagine, and a character greatly white washed, especially when she sweetly tells Bassett that she could never be mad at him. Warrick quickly realizes her mistake, setting up an emotional vigil when Driscoll is injured. The look on the face of Driscoll's young black friend Toby during this ordeal expresses the innocence of children who sometimes have more wisdom and sense than adults.Certainly, this film has its questionable moments, but there are so many timeless values to learn from this. Audiences today are smart enough to realize that life in the post-civil war South was not all singing and fun for the former slaves who were trying to make their own lives after decades of slavery. If you are not touched by the special relationship between Driscoll and Bassett, then try to open your heart to the final reprise of the Oscar-winning Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah when everything comes together and truly is satisfactual.

A young boy (Bobby Driscoll) goes with his mother to live on his grandmother's plantation in Reconstruction-Era Georgia. There he is befriended by a warmhearted old man named Uncle Remus (James Baskett), who teaches the boy life lessons through stories about a wily rabbit that gets in (and out of) trouble with a fox and a bear.The most controversial Disney movie ever made. It's never been released on home video in the US due to Disney's cowardice. When you actually see it, you'll probably wonder what all the fuss is about. There are no racial slurs, no violence against blacks, no hate anywhere to be found. The racism charges are mainly due to the black people in the film speaking with a dialect that is offensive to some and the lie that the film portrays "happy slaves." The film actually takes place after slavery has been abolished. The people in the film working as servants and laborers are allowed to come & go as they please and are treated respectfully. Most definitely not slaves. Uncle Remus in particular is shown great respect by all the white people in the movie, excepting for the two little kids who are villains and the main boy's mother who wrongly worries Remus' stories are having a bad influence on her son. I'm not saying that there is nothing a modern viewer might find offensive. I'm sure some will be offended; some always are. Rather than release the movie and allow people to make up their own minds, Disney is withholding it and allowing rumor and hearsay to distort the film's reputation as something on the level of Birth of a Nation depicting the KKK as heroes. Disgusting and a real disservice to all those who worked on the film, especially James Baskett. This was the role of his career (he died just two years later) and he deservedly received a special Oscar for his wonderful performance.Controversies aside, it's a simple, warm family film with an upbeat tone and positive message. The songs are fun and the animated segments nice. It's not currently easy to find this if you live in the US but maybe someday soon Disney will pull its head from its rear and release it. But considering this is the company that still removes cigarettes and guns from its old cartoons, I wouldn't hold my breath. If that day ever comes, it will be mighty satisfactual.

I just watched it for the first time two days ago. This has been on my to-see list for a long time, but it's almost impossible to locate. How did I obtain a copy? I moved into a new neighborhood not long ago, and while looking up titles housed at the local library, I discovered that SONG OF THE SOUTH was in the county system and I could request it from a nearby branch. It took two months to get it, because I was fifth on the list requesting it. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see it. But then I received an email last weekend that it had arrived and I went on Monday to pick it up. The minute I got home I put it in the DVD player and sat down and watched it.And just so people know, this was no bootleg copy. It was a disc manufactured by Disney (just not available for sale in the U.S.). On the back of the case, I could see that it had been printed and distributed in Australia under a division of Disney based in London.The disc had bonus features which helped me understand some of the film's screening history. It was originally released in 1946 and advertised heavily on radio and in newspapers. It eventually aired on television in the early 1970s as part of The Wonderful World of Disney. Then, as evidenced by a trailer included on the disc, it was re-released to theatres in 1986 throughout the United States. I guess the mid-to-late 1980s (the Reagan era) were the last days before political correctness took hold of the country.Anyway, as I pressed play and started watching the film, I was expecting it to be totally offensive and cringe-worthy. It is not. In fact, it is very integrated the way the black and white children get along (it seems very progressive for a motion picture produced in 1946). I thought it admirable the way the white boy played by Bobby Driscoll looks up to Uncle Remus (James Baskett) and Aunt Tempy (Hattie McDaniel). It's a beautiful film, told in the usual heart-warming classic Disney way.The Uncle Remus character does not seem like a negative stereotype at all. He has extraordinary value the way he entertains (enthralls) the children with his delightful stories of Br'er Rabbit, and in the way he helps Driscoll's character deal with having an absent father. In fact, when the boy is injured near the end of the film, it is the plantation-owning grandmother (brilliantly played by character actress Lucile Watson) who brings Uncle Remus inside the house to see her grandson. She seems to think very highly of this man at the end of the film. She sees him as much more than a slave. If she can look past the limitations of her close-minded society, then why can't we? Why can't we enjoy this lovely and heartwarming film the way Walt Disney intended it to be enjoyed?