Song of the South

[GeorgeC]

Forget about Classic Disney Channel coming back.

They make so much money off Miley and those constant repeats of tween programming that they can afford to leave the classic animation and live action on other channels.

I'm surprised people under 40 at Disney are aware they actually made animation there!

At least some of the better-known Disney live-action shows up on TCM and Hallmark Channel from time to time.

It's too bad the animated classics are stuck in the ghetto known as Disney XD.

There'll never be another Ink-and-Paint Club, Mousterpiece Theater, or other series to put the classic animation in a better context. It's just not shown on TV anymore. Much as I like the Disney Treasures releases their appeal is limited to the nostalgia crowd (anybody over 35); kids and potential new animators just don't see this stuff anymore.


Disney XD has to be the worst hodge-podge of "action" kids shows (stuff that makes mid-1980s kids shows look classic) and licensed animation from other companies. I've been really surprised to see WB Animation on a Disney-owned cable network. No faith in your own product, Bob (Iger)?



EDITED under duress...

Please don't beat me, Ben!

[Whippet Angel]

I really wish they'd just create an alternate channel for all that classic programming ( a la "boomerang" ).

The Disney channel was wonderful back in the late 80's/ early 90's, although the teenybopper stuff isn't entirely new to them. When I was a kid I remember the day we first got the Disney channel in our house. The very first program I ever saw on that channel? A "New Kids on the Block" concert.

[Ben]

Michael Iger?

[GeorgeC]

You know what I meant!

No canings, please!

[Whippet Angel]

Hehe... I noticed that too, but I wasn't gonna say anything.

[GeorgeC]

He might as well be "Michael" Iger.

Has anything really changed at Disney under this guy????

[gaastra]

Don't get your hopes up for a release however. Cartoon brew did a story on song of the south and one of the guys who work at disney said this--

"Disney is remastering Song of the South from the original negatives in 4K resolution. It’s not in the immediate pipeline for a Snow White or Bambi level restoration, but they’ll have complete digital files by the end of next year. "

So it's getting restorded and blu-ray ready but they still might not release it!

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/song- ... -1499.html

[GeorgeC]

Song of the South is a very old film now... It's nearly 70 years old. Any film that's over 10 years old has to go through a periodic renewal otherwise it turns to mush. The situation gets aggravated if it's a very popular film. Constant dipping back onto the negatives and masters for theatrical re-releases and home video editions wears out those materials that much quicker.

Star Wars, which is not the oldest film by any stretch, has had at least 3-4 known restorations for home video and theatrical release. Between the original theatrical airings and the last major re-release of the theatrical cuts in 1992, the original negatives picked up scratches, pin-pricks and other signs of wear. It had to go through massive restoration work to keep the film intact and available for re-release.

Other films have not had the same care and are gone for all time or exist in severely degraded states. The vast bulk of silent films have vanished forever... what we have is probably less than 25% of what was shot. Perhaps 50% of the films shot before 1950 still exist. There are still quite a few post-1950 films that don't exist anymore or are in really bad shape because they weren't very popular or gained notorious (in most cases undeserved) reputations after they debuted.

A fair portion of the films that get shown on TCM display varying degrees of wear. As bad as visual deterioration is -- and some of it you can't do much about because it's related to specific film stock issues and the crystals on the film that hold the visual information --, audio wear can be far worse. Audio wear is initially determined by the equipment used to capture sound. You ever wonder why Disney films generally sound better than their contemporaries? It's because Walt Disney insisted on using the best equipment available for his films and because of that the masters for those films have generally be in better shape than contemporary studio masters. I've seen many, many films with noticeable audio issues that began with what they were recorded with. If you skimp on audio equipment, your film will begin to far worse over time than if good equipment and experienced sound engineers had been used.

It also helps if the company that produced the films bothered to keep all the original film elements intact and safely stored. Disney has a better than average record there due to policies put in place by Walt himself. The chairman set up a fairly good studio vault and knew the value of keeping film in decent shape. Until recent cost-cutting measures (instituted by the last, most infamous Disney chairman), Disney probably had the best film and archival department of any major studio in Hollywood.

What Disney is doing with SOTS is the same thing most of the major studios are doing with their most significant ($$$$) properties.

The only problem with digital video is that it's proprietary like any other video standard which creates headaches for future archivists and historians. You have to be aware of software and hardware used. Different companies have proprietary equipment/software and they evolve over time. You literally have to keep a pieces of all the hardware used and in shape to use over time. They're generally not cross-compatible; nor do earlier captured film files necessarily work with later versions of the "same" software. (Happens all the time with common software like PhotoShop unless you're careful to use generic software files that are still supported in later versions of the software.)

I once read in an issue of The Hollywood Reporter that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences maintained any archive of well over 100 different video cameras/projectors for films because of the proprietary issue.

Disney is hedging its bets with SOTS by doing high-rez capture onto HD video. The original 35mm elements will not survive indefinitely. Many, many other films including King Kong (1933) have had their original masters degrade to goo already. King Kong was saved in time by scouring the world for the best surviving prints and creating new masters (which are technically inferior to the original negatives since they are now generations removed from the negative and like photocopies start to lose detail). Other films haven't been so lucky...

[Ben]

I should say though, George, that often this talk of a "restoration" is very much now a marketing term.

Used to be a time when film restoration actually meant that, but nowadays its banded around much too much, especially in cases like Star Wars, where the film hasn't really been degraded or restored but just very well remastered. All of that talk of how the original Star Wars had degraded over time is baloney: Lucasfilm has a very good inventory and preservation system in place and you can bet the original negs or interpositives are in the best shape ever.

What these companies often do (and I know, since I've put together a few "before and after" comparisons for various presentations) is show a print of an old film and then compare that to their "new" restoration.

Now, imagine Star Wars comes out in '77. The prints get a lot of wear and tear and, not being show prints and only being distribution prints, are not produced on the best stock. The idea is to show 'em and bin 'em. Over time and many special one-off screenings, those prints degrade, but note that the negs are never touched.

When it comes to putting them out again, the same old worn print is wheeled out as an example of how bad Star Wars has degraded. Of course it has: it's a regular distribution print, run a million times and then some over 30 years!

Now, compare that to the original neg, safetly kept nice and safe for 30 years. Yep...looks almost brand new! With good video mastering and better quality transfer tools, that neg or interpoz will come out like a movie made last week. Each time something like Star Wars comes out again, they pull this off, but there is no comparison: it's just an excuse to say there's a new, better version, but really it's just good remastering.

Then they say "hey, look how great it looks now!", but really it's always looked that great: it's just better transfer tools bringing the best out of the imahe and home video formats allowing us to see more detail than before.


As for Song Of The South, Disney has routinely kept this film preserved and remastered. In the 1990s, while working on another project with Disney, I was able to get a copy of their 1995 video restoration of SOTS, made for a possible LaserDisc issue and international television syndication. While not as good as going back to the neg (it was a show print, I believe, given a paintbox dustbuster touch-up like the 1993 Snow White) it has good colors and a solid image.

Obviously now, they're going through the library and making sure everything is updated and preserved in digital HD. I expect many more titles than we're aware of have already been "restored" in HD video, but it's not real restoration, it's just going back to the original elements (for real this time) and creating new, hi-def video masters, usually in 4K or 8K.

It doesn't mean that any of these will be released, but they're there for if and when they could be. It's just forward thinking on Disney's part, since they don't want their past works to be lost forever due to a lack of foresight, and a supposed appraisal of a film now may change in a few years. They can easily release SOTS to a big audience if handled in the right way anyway...but at least this news gives hope that it hasn't been left forgotten to fade away forever.

[ShyViolet]

I have to say it does make me a bit sad that SOTS won’t be showing on D+. . From the brief clips I’ve seen as well as the songs/music that has always been available, it seemed at the very least creative/polished as well as an interesting look at a different era. (Plus the animated characters were cute.). I do realize that this is a very sensitive topic, but as Leonard Martin said, not making these admittedly dated works available is just as irresponsible as saying stereotypes like this were never a part of American society. How can we get a greater understanding of past eras when important media like this is basically banned? Wouldn’t a film like SOTS be a valuable tool in high school/college courses to expand young people’s knowledge and encourage greater sensitivity?

Also from what I’ve read, despite his somewhat stereotypical appearance, Uncle Remus was not only a very kind and positive character in this film, but also went much deeper than a “racial caricature”; he was indisputably presented as a father figure to the child Johnny. In addition, Remus was warm and sensitive in contrast to Johnny’s, cold, distant parents, who were White.

Also, the film did not take place during the slavery era in America, but rather Reconstruction, which was post-slavery. (That period also had many challenges for African-Americans such as denial of voting rights, KKK lynchings, and no land compensation as promised by the US government. But it’s still important to at least get the details of the film’s setting right before expressing one’s criticisms of it, especially since its slavery setting is such a common misconception.)

[Ben]

SOTS is awesome. I’ve spoken to people on both sides of the racial aspect, and all are agreed that there’s no reason the film remains hidden. One of my schooldays friends, who was black, loved Remus and viewed him as a hero. The film has less to object to than the actually very similar Gone With The Wind, and yet that continues to be lauded, even if it hasn’t gone completely unnoticed that even this didn’t get the big 80th anniversary treatment that Oz did just before Christmas, so one wonders if GWTW will also, slowly, be blown away by the winds of time...? How silly.

[Randall]

Silly, foolish, and maddening. I am glad to have my own ways to view SOTS, but it is a real shame that others cannot. Peter Pan is way more racist than SOTS, but it seems no one in the US is afraid of negative, stereotyped portrayals of indigenous Americans. (Not that I want Pan banned either.) By contrast, blacks in SOTS are actually portrayed quite positively (and they are not slaves in the film, as mentioned). I just don't understand it.

[ShyViolet]

Yeah, it is pretty weird, especially (as mentioned by Ben) the Oscar-winning Gone With the Wind not only always having been available, but considered a timeless classic by many critics. Also wasn’t Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress, portraying a maid named “Mamie” or something? Ugh.

Even still, I wouldn’t ever support banning GWTW, since not only is it valuable as historical media from another era, (and has positive narrative/technical qualities) but technically WAS a stepping stone for greater recognition in Hollywood for African-Americans. (Dorothy Dandridge, who was nominated for Best Actress via her performance as Carmen in the 1950s opera/musical Carmen Jones, similarly paved the way for future Oscar-Winning Black stars like Hallie Berry, who won Best Actress for Monster’s Ball in 2002.)

Oh, and this is hardly EVER mentioned, but James Baskett himself (Uncle Remus) won a special award for his SOTS performance as part of the 1946 Oscars. So his portrayal was also recognized by the Academy and helped pave the way for people like Hattie McDaniel (who actually also co-starred with Baskett in SOTS).

[Dacey]

The only reason SOTS isn't available is because of the family-friendly Disney name. Any other studio would've been able to release it by now (and what a shame that people were "complaining" about Disney not censoring Dumbo for Disney+ after all).

The bottom line is...the current climate is nuts. And I'm hoping GWTW won't end up becoming an "unmentionable" film (though I think it's too beloved and popular for that ever to happen), especially given that there are some very "loud" people out there who are calling for it to stop being shown entirely.

[droosan]

I have to say it does make me a bit sad that SOTS won’t be showing on D+. .

Today's Cartoon Research blog entry features several 'behind the scenes' anecdotes on Song of the South.