Song of the South (1946)

This a Covid-19 2020 minireview!

“You can’t run away from trouble. There ain’t no place that far.” – Uncle Remus

Number of Times Seen – A few times (Video and cable in the 70’s and 80’s and 13 Dec 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A story teller tells a group of young kids the stories of a rabbit, a bear and a fox.

Bottom Line – Strange Disney film that doesn’t work as well now as it might have when it came out. The title song is quite catchy and is the most memorable part of this film. The story itself is quite boring and was quite difficult to get through even when someone disregards the whole racist aspects of things. It’s quite amazing to watch the way that this film integrates animation and live action which was quiet innovative for its time.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – On the final day of shooting, animation director Wilfred Jackson discovered that the scene in which Uncle Remus sings the film’s signature song, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”, had not been properly blocked. According to Jackson, “We all sat there in a circle with the dollars running out, and nobody came up with anything. Then Walt suggested that they shoot Baskett in close-up, cover the lights with cardboard save for a sliver of blue sky behind his head, and then remove the cardboard from the lights when he began singing so that he would seem to be entering a bright new world of animation. Like Walt’s idea for Bambi on ice in Bambi (1942), it made for one of the most memorable scenes in the film.” (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)