Song of the South

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
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Post by Randall » March 15th, 2007, 11:39 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
Of course, if you have The Three Little Pigs LD that came out around 10 years ago it's no problem as far as uncensored animation goes...
Why was it censored?


(Um....this isn't that rumor about the original Big Bad Wolf looking like a Jewish peddler is it?)
Not a rumor. The footage is even included in the Teasures set seperately; but to watch the full original version, you need the LD or VHS from several years ago.

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Post by Jeroen » April 9th, 2007, 8:02 pm

Disney has apparently released Song of the south in France, in English, and was selling it at Disneyland Paris!

http://www.parisdvds.com/

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Post by droosan » April 9th, 2007, 9:11 pm

NTSC ..? In France? :?

I'm gonna sayyyyy .. bootleg. :evil:


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Addendum: "Paris Importers," eh? And Song of the South is the only DVD product they carry (how conveeeeenient) .. a DVD 'release' which no other retailer on the planet seems to have information on (including, most notably, the Disneyland Paris official website).

The packaging looks professional enough .. but it's a relatively simple matter to create such packaging, even with consumer-level printers, these days; all one really needs is a good sense of package design. UPC codes are also easy to fake .. and 'shrinkwrap' machines are readily available, too.

That "Disney Store" sticker does seem somewhat 'suspect', though; why is the Disney curlicue logo 'squashed' vertically? That's actually a pretty big 'red flag,' by itself.

-----------

Addendum 2: I just saw that Cartoon Brew mentioned this DVD today, as well .. and several 'commenters' below the story did a pretty thorough job of 'debunking' it as a bootleg.

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Post by Jeroen » April 10th, 2007, 2:03 am

You're right droosan, bootleg. A man can dream can't he? :)

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Post by Ben » April 10th, 2007, 12:25 pm

Bootleg.

C'mon, does <I>any</I>thing on that package look authentic?

The design follows the path of every good-looking bootleg out there, which all base themselves on the UK VHS release cover. The "special features/tech specs" box actually only covers up the "U Certificate" rating on the back of the sleeve!

And that disc art sucks - can't believe even Disney would put something out so lacklustre in design and awfully centered on the platter itself.

As I say, I can't believe that anyone - Jerry Beck included - would even think this was real for a <I>second</I>!

:)

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Post by GeorgeC » April 10th, 2007, 10:39 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
Of course, if you have The Three Little Pigs LD that came out around 10 years ago it's no problem as far as uncensored animation goes...
Why was it censored?


(Um....this isn't that rumor about the original Big Bad Wolf looking like a Jewish peddler is it?)

Yep, indeed-ey!

After an outcry by Jewish groups about the stereotype in the cartoon, Walt Disney had the scene reworked and its dialogue redubbed as well.

In additional to the visual stereotype, the wolf spoke with a Jewish (Yiddish?) accent.

The LD I have accidentally uses the ORIGINAL animation footage with the "corrected" dialogue track.

This is one of those stories that Disney detractors like Robert Schickel use over and over again to excoriate the company and its DEAD co-founders.

A shame, really.

Walt Disney was something of a hero of mine and I've TALKED to people who KNEW him and he didn't seem to have anything above average prejudice (for his time) in him. Walt DIDN'T have it in for Blacks or Jews like the worst gossip snobs would have you believe.

Some of the top artists and right-hand men for Disney were Jews! Walt was perfectly aware of that fact and those men worked for the company through and after the time Walt died.

Really, the worst anti-Semitic/anti-Jewish junk from Hollywood by far was commissioned by Jewish producers and studio heads! These were men ashamed of their heritage and went out of their way to distance themselves from it.

Yet we have one Midwestern, Kansas-raised start his own company in the middle of a bunch of admittedly non-Gentile-run companies (let's BE HONEST, folks!) and he gets painted as a Nazi for just a few boners compared to the oil tankers of toxic stew produced by the Yancy Street Gang!

Typical Hollywood hypocrisy.

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Post by ShyViolet » April 11th, 2007, 9:48 pm

Speaking of Walt as a person, there's a new Walt bio by Michael Barrier out now:

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/ ... d-man.aspx

Jim seems to think it's better than other recent one that came out.


************************************


About SOTS, like that Three Little Pigs cartoon (not that I'm comparing the two) it might have its flaws but it's important, like any historical art/culture, for people to see and absorb....

There were also tons of Africa-American stereotypes in animation and while there were a couple here and there in Walt Disney cartoons (the crows in Dumbo and so forth) other animation studios were MUCH more guilty of this than the Walt Disney company. The SOTS issue is not even ABOUT the animation, at least as far as I know.

IMHO an animated racist/ethnic caricature is much more intense than a live-action one...and more upsetting.....just my opinion though. I don't think they should be censored however....they should be seen, the Big Bad Wolf thing as well as the anti-Japanese stuff in Bugs Bunny, the Black centaur girl in Fantasia....BUT with the proper context, explanation on the DVD, etc....I think if you try to bury things like this, they only come back much worse than they were before.....:?


But again, there was some ethnic/racial stereotyping in Disney cartoons but it was SO MUCH WORSE in other studios' animation....still Disney's the one that gets the attention. Weird how something like the Centaurs or the Chinese dance in Fantasia gets focused on; at the same time there's these horribly racist old cartoons you can watch on YouTube and no one ever talks about them....:?
Last edited by ShyViolet on April 11th, 2007, 10:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by ShyViolet » April 11th, 2007, 9:56 pm

After an outcry by Jewish groups about the stereotype in the cartoon, Walt Disney had the scene reworked and its dialogue redubbed as well.

In additional to the visual stereotype, the wolf spoke with a Jewish (Yiddish?) accent

For some reason, Wik said this:



Censorship

One sequence in the cartoon, which showed the Big Bad Wolf dressing up as a caricature of a Jewish peddler, was excised from the film after its release and replaced with a less offensive sequence, with the Wolf pretending to be the Fuller Brush man instead, but still had a Yiddish voice.

I've never seen either version of the cartoon, but i do have the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" on one of my Disney CDs....he didn't sound particularly Yiddish to me, but I could kinda see how someone might think that.....

I'll have to listen to it again! :)

Not a rumor. The footage is even included in the Teasures set seperately; but to watch the full original version, you need the LD or VHS from several years ago.

According to a user on the IMDB forum, the British region 2 DVD version of Silly Symphonies or something has the entire uncensored cartoon......?
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by GeorgeC » April 12th, 2007, 3:01 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
According to a user on the IMDB forum, the British region 2 DVD version of Silly Symphonies or something has the entire uncensored cartoon......?

See, this is the thing that gets me about the self-censorship by American/multinational corporations.

They get into a tizzy about every racial thing and B.S. in the US but yet they DON'T seem to make a big deal if the ORIGINAL versions of these films make it into other parts of the world that have been traditionally worse to minorities!

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Post by ShyViolet » May 11th, 2007, 9:36 am

Re: Jim Hill Story


www.jimhillmedia.com


It would be quite interesting if Princess and the Frog was an extra (so I guess the SOTS release on Blu-Ray is pretty much a done deal...?) but it could also attract even more controversy, like: (not that I think this):

"Disney is obviously racist and thinks they can cover it up"


etc...etc...
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Post by ShyViolet » May 15th, 2007, 9:56 am

Does anyone know anything about when we might see a release of this yet? :)

(SOTS)
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Post by Ben » May 15th, 2007, 10:02 am

Well, you read Jim's story from last week, so your guess is as good as any.

I still reckon on something next year, perhaps as part of the Treasures with So Dear To My Heart as some kind of double bill and maybe a couple of rare DisneyLand programs...?

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » May 16th, 2007, 12:10 am

At this moment in time, I'm actually more interested in the Oswald shorts.

I've seen SOTS twice in my lifetime... I've got that Japanese LD and am prepared to port it over to DVD soon as I figure out a new DVD menu creation program I just found on the Net.

I haven't seen ANY Oswald shorts, period.

I can't even remember seeing those on TV OR VHS -- unlike Little Audrey, Heckle & Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, Herman & Katnip, Baby Huey, and a ton of other ghettoized animated shorts' characters.

That situation's sad considering Oswald is really the big Disney precursor to Mickey Mouse and arguably is what enabled Disney to go ahead with Mickey and succeed.

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Post by ShyViolet » May 16th, 2007, 2:18 am

Didn't Iger say earlier this year they were going to bring Oswald back?
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Post by Ben » May 16th, 2007, 6:30 am

Keep up Vi... George <I>is</I> talking about the upcoming set!

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