carmelhp
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2012
I was the same way. I remember it clearly, but hadn't been able to see it. It's an odd movie. I bought a bootleg after my kids rode Splash Mountain so many times without a frame of reference. They really dug the Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox stuff, but thought the human acting stuff was pretty silly.
It's certainly got a level of racial insensitivity to it, but more than that, the plot doesn't work. Ruth Warrick's character makes no sense, either, and it's hard topical it in time -- is it reconstruction Georgia? That would bet my best bet.
But it did give us Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da, so it can't be all bad. But there's not enough there to want it unevaluated, though.
James Baskett, the actor who portrayed Uncle Remus, is buried a short distance from where I'm sitting in Indianapolis. After his death in 1948, his wife wrote Walt Disney to thank him for being "a friend indeed" when they were in need. Walt advocated for Baskett's Oscar and he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1947, the first black male actor to be awarded an Oscar (Hattie McDaniel was the first black female for her role in GWTW, another movie criticized for racial depictions). Movies are products of their time, and should be seen as such. I don't think we should try to bury history, or throw out the good with the bad. It is set in Reconstruction period Georgia, but I really don't remember enough of the plot to say whether or not it is a deserving work. I would like the chance to see it again.