Posts Tagged ‘Disney’

Glee Season Finale — Sue Sylvester and the Briar Patch

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Last night’s episode of Glee got off on the right foot with a snarky nod to Song of the South. Sue Sylvester, the deliciously evil cheerleading coach, takes a shot at Will Schuster, the dopey glee coach:

“Your hair looks like a briar patch. I keep expecting racist, animated Disney characters to pop up and start singing about living on the bayou.”

Gosh, I’m not sure whether to buy Sue a drank or punch her in the throat.

I’m thankful that the writers at Fox (a) finally made a fresh joke about Will’s hair; (b) specified that the racist characters are Disney’s; and (c) had Sue Sylvester deliver the line on the season finale.

Yet as much as I like getting folks to think about the Uncle Remus stories, I can’t say that I’m thrilled that this dimension of Song of the South is being perpetuated in prime time. Sue Sylvester is always over the top, and this is no exception. But given the film’s, uh, reputation I don’t think people will take it as such.

And seriously, how many people watch Glee? Millions!

How many people have watched this video of Akbar telling the story of Brer Rabbit and the Briar Patch? Like, 4. And half of them can’t tie their shoes.

It’s awesome that Glee provided such a great reference to Brer Rabbit, but it’s a shame that it further brands him as something so negative.

Also, can we talk about how it’s at least a little ironic that a show so reliant on stereotypes is calling out other stereotypes?

1946 Promotional Program for Song of the South

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Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the release of Song of the South.

Weirdly enough, Disney first chose to market the film as an “Old South Romance.”  Here’s the cover from its 1946 program:

Bizarre, right?  It’s less Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and much more Gone with the Wind.

The program — 16 pages in all — gets a lot more relevant once you get past the cover. I’ve included it in its entirety below.  You’re welcome.

I dig this illustration that’s on the inside of the cover.  With this one exception, I’ve tried not to crop much out (as much as our almost-large-enough scanner allowed).

Remember, you can click on the pictures to zoom in and read the (quite lucid and informative, though sometimes not so factually accurate) text.  Enjoy!

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Writing (and Righting) History on Wikipedia

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A few weeks ago I was inspired to start editing the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page when I read an article based on erroneous facts about Harris quite obviously culled from Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite encyclopedic punching bag.

Wren’s Nest Blog Original Gangstas might recall this is not our first encounter with the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page.  Way back in 2007, one ambitious editor included some, uh, fan fiction –

Harris’ page hasn’t been vandalized again, but it has remained far from complete.  The criticism and praise of Harris were irrelevant, and the actual information on his life was minimal.

So, I decided to edit and expand the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page as judiciously as possible, drawing from diverse, respected sources.

For a long time I felt uncomfortable editing Wikipedia on a topic where I have such an inherent, genetic bias.  But, I realized a few things once I started editing:

• Editing Wikipedia is a lot of fun.
• No matter how many times we link to the New Georgia Encyclopedia article and no matter how questionable the source, folks are going to use the Wikipedia page.
• Short of a Disney release of Song of the South and my subsequent interview on Oprah, this is probably the broadest way for us to execute our mission effectively.
• My work is only the start!

Please take a look at the article and let me know what you think.  If you’re feeling limber, I encourage you to help edit the article where you see fit.

I’m not quite done — particularly with the journalism section — but it’s a start at least.

Muppets Sing Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah with Alan Arkin

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David sends along this oddly violent clip of Alan Arkin on the Muppet Show.  The Muppets sing Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah, and Alan Arkin goes bonkers, terrorizing the animals.

Maybe we can reenact this when the Center for Puppetry Arts builds their Jim Henson wing.

Disney Buys Marvel, Crossover Speculation Ensues

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Yesterday Disney announced that it will buy Marvel Entertainment, famous for its comic book superheroes, for $4 billion.

Immediately folks began hypothesizing the potential crossovers between the worlds of Marvel and Disney.  Two of the most compelling Song of the South-related suggestions came from the Woot Blog:

Br’er Rabbit vs. Cyclops: Two brilliant tactical minds, fighting for the future of their outcast friends! They’re ready for anything – are you?

Power Man vs. Uncle Remus: The righteous fists of Luke Cage stand ready to drop a slaveship’s worth of pain on The Man’s favorite sharecropper – until a wise bluebird reminds him that we’re all brothers under the skin.

Luke Cage (a.k.a Power Man), a vestige of early 70s blaxploitation, is kind of a jive-talkin’ hero for hire.   He’s also one of the first African-American characters in the Marvel universe.  According to IMDB,  John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, Shaft (2000)) is set to direct the film version, now being scripted.

Sounds familiar!

When the Uncle Remus stories debuted in 1880, Brer Rabbit revolutionized children’s literature.  Not only did the characters introduce children to animals that walked and talked with sass, but Harris created a fictional universe along the Big Road, where the critters co-existed in an often violent and amoral world.

Uncle Remus became one of the first fully-realized black characters in American fiction, unique in a subversive portrayal that bucked the minstrel tradition and gave a voice to the African-American oral tradition.

For the next 60 years, the Uncle Remus stories captured the imaginations of children around the world.  By 1939 Walt Disney, who had long dreamed to bring the stories to the big screen, bought the rights to the Brer Rabbit franchise for a whopping $10,000.

The rest is history.  Song of the South debuted in 1946 with great commercial success and ambivalent critical reviews.  The film has been perceived as more and more racist with each passing year, and Disney has neglected to release the film for home consumption in the United States.

The Disney Brer Rabbit and the Brer Rabbit of the African-American oral tradition are continually conflated.  And by “conflated,” I mean that “the Disney film is so iconic that many folks assume that the Disney version is the same as the stories written 60 years earlier, for better or worse.”  Usually worse.

It’s a shame, since Brer Rabbit serves as such a tremendous building block in our popular culture.  I’d hate to see Marvel’s characters suffer a similar fate if Disney ever deems them too controversial.

Previously:

• (500) Days of Summer and Happy Blue Birds
• Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’ Pre-Controversy Controversy Fun
• Disney to Release Song of the South on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2009

Brer Rabbit and Dialect in Early Educational Film Strips

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In 1965 the students of Mercer Elementary in Shaker Heights, Ohio served as guinea pigs for use of educational film strips in the classroom — the wave of the future!

The experiment, Project Discovery, sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of audio/visual learning in school.  It’s credited with jump starting the academic film industry and toppling a few textbook publishers along the way.

Brer Rabbit is featured prominently in this film about Project Discovery, and the kids from Shaker Heights have a few things to say about the southern accent.

The entire film is 30 minutes and excellent.  Near the end they let Philip talk for a few minutes, and goodness gracious it is hilarious.  If this hadn’t been the greatest challenge of my life to date, I would have embedded the whole thing here.

(h/t Gregg.  Thanks!)

1955 Brer Rabbit Car Commercial for American Motors

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Before Brer Buick, there was the Nash Rambler by American Motors.  It was the lowest-priced air-conditioned car in America!

According to Disney historian Jim Korkis, Disney produced commercials when budgets were tight in the 1950s.  It was unthinkable at the time for a motion picture studio to aid the cause of television, but hey — Disneyland wasn’t going to build itself.

The accents the characters use are fascinating — sort of a cross between Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel and the jive-talkin’ caricatures in Coonskin.

You might have noticed that Brer Rabbit looks nothing like he did in Song of the South.  Lainey* explains that legendary character stylist Tom Oreb probably designed the commercial. 

* No relation.

Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’ Pre-Controversy Controversy Fun

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Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article about Disney’s upcoming movie, The Princess and the Frog.  It will be Disney’s first ever animated film to feature an African American princess.  A big deal, to say the least.

Walt Disney Pictures

Naturally, the film is being viewed under a social microscope, and not necessarily for the better.

Everything from the film’s locale (New Orleans) to its characters’ screen-time percentage as frogs has been called out as racially problematic.  Hoo boy.

Critics have used examples from Dumbo and The Jungle Book (both available on DVD) to fuel racism charges.  According to Disney in the article:

The company responds that criticism of such well-worn examples — particularly of films from the ’60s and earlier — applies a 21st-century morality to movies made in sharply different times.

Yes, I thought that was worthy of bolding.  Probably because it sounds exactly like the logic we apply to Song of the South. Disney, don’t play favorites!

I haven’t seen The Princess and the Frog though I sure do plan to when it comes out.  I am awfully interested in how all of this develops, and not just as a casual observer.

What do y’all think of the criticsm?  Can Disney do right with ethnic characters?  Does criticism just come with the territory?  Is a cooling of the jets called for?  Do tell!

Update (9/18/09): Here’s an excellent article on, essentially, the trouble Disney may be getting itself into in trying to please too many critics with The Princess and the Frog and how that mirrors the path of Song of the South.  Enjoy!