Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Disney's South

The Walt Disney Company rereleases its classic movies all the time; on VHS, then DVD, then special edition DVD. Only a few titles have never been released on home video. One of those is "Song of the South", which has been criticized as racist for its depiction of black characters on a southern plantation.

A story on washingtonpost.com today says Disney may finally be considering releasing this 1946 movie. Disney CEO Bob Iger made the following comments at a recent shareholders meeting...

"The question of 'Song of the South' comes up periodically, in fact it was raised at last year's annual meeting. And since that time, we've decided to take a look at it again because we've had numerous requests about bringing it out. Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032702315.html

While the concerns are legitimate, Disney should find a way to let "Song of the South" be seen. It is an outrage that it has been hidden for so long.

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