So for whatever reason (seriously. I have no idea), Make Mine Music wasn’t available on Disney+, so I had to find it on Youtube. And the entire video (which apparently was released on Disney Home Video at some point. I don’t know if it was or is available on DVD/Blu-Ray) wasn’t available in one video. I found a playlist that had each of the 9 segments, each in it’s own video, available though.
Make Mine Music was…OK. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. I believe that Walt was trying out another experimental type of film, like he had with Fantasia, but the segments were shorter and the music was more popular types of music, like jazz, instead of classical and each segment had a well defined story element that more or less followed the lyrics of the songs (which were sung by popular artists like Dinah Shore). It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever watched, but it wasn’t exactly enjoyable either.
Next up on the list is Song Of The South, which can ONLY be found on Youtube, since Disney has said it will never be let out of “The Vault” or available to stream on Disney+ due to the incredibly racist nature of the film. I’ve never seen it in full, only parts of it such as “Bre’r Rabbit and the Tar Baby”, but apparently it WAS available, in full, on VHS at some point. Disney’s eager to bury this movie so completely that they are remodeling the Splash Mountain ride at their parks (which has been, since it was installed, one of the most popular attractions at the parks) to fit a The Princess and The Frog theme. Which is fine, I suppose, except for one thing (at Walt Disney World, anyway)–it’s in the wrong section of the park. At Walt Disney World, Splash Mountain is located squarely in the center of Frontierland, which has a Wild West type theme. The Princess and the Frog, however, is set in 1920s era New Orleans. Therefore, in order to make it properly fit the theme, Disney would have to find a way to uproot the entire ride (which I don’t think is possible, actually) and move it to New Orleans Square, where The Haunted Mansion is. New Orleans Square doesn’t actually have a lot going on, other than a handful of shops, a restaurant and some food carts and of course, The Haunted Mansion. I don’t actually even know if there is ROOM in New Orleans Square to put the re-themed ride even if they were to uproot it. Ok..sorry. I got distracted. Rant over.
Song of the South has a lot of problems. A LOT. It was viewed as vaguely racist in its own time (the late 1940s), when it was originally produced to grab onto some of the renewed interest in the Civil War that was generated when Gone With the Wind came out a few years prior. The podcast You Must Remember This even did a six episode series called “Six Degrees of Song of the South” which dives deep into the issues with this particular movie which is hardly known outside of a handful of fans. I remember several years ago when we took my son to WDW, we were standing in line for Splash Mountain and I made the comment that pretty much everybody who rode this ride had NO idea it was based on a movie or if they did, the problematic history of that movie. My husband (who really had no idea or at least pretended to) didn’t understand so I spent the majority of the half hour or so we stood in line to explain. Then he was like, “Oh, I get it now.”
So I’ll be watching Song of the South later this afternoon and I don’t know how I’m going to feel about it. I mean, as a kid, I remember reading Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus Tales and Nights with Uncle Remus and absolutely falling in love with them. I had no IDEA that he was A) a white dude and that B)he had essentially borrowed stolen the stories from slaves of African descent. I know I’m supposed to be “woke” and despise the film and how it depicts former slaves and all that but..what if I LIKE it? Does that make me a bad person?
Like I said, I’ve never seen this film in its entirety, only bits and pieces that were included in some of the compilation videos that Disney put out in the 80s. I’m not sure how I’ll feel after I watch it, given that I love Disney films even if I don’t like some of the messages included in them. I’ll have to post a review after I watch it….maybe I’ll watch it a few times and take notes after the first viewing. I don’t know. I’ll just have to figure it out.
I’ll try to post the review tomorrow or maybe Tuesday. I don’t know. I should be farther along in my viewing than I am, but I got held up by Fantasia, which is a film I find difficult to sit through because I find it (aside from the Night on Bald Mountain, Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Dance of the Hours sequences) to be incredibly boring. I finally just was like, “I have to get through this, so I can get to Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.”, because I really do enjoy those two movies (well..short films really. They’re each about an hour long.)
Ten down—so many to go. According to one source, there are only about 60 animated films produced by Disney and Disney/Pixar but it seems like SO much more than that. Maybe there are, I don’t know. All I know is there is a LOT.
At some point, I may do a series where I compare the reboot live action movies to their animated counterpart. I don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of the live action reboots and I really, REALLY didn’t like them.
Till then…have a Disney day!