18 replies to this topic

[LakersGAFan]

I'm watching this cartoon for the 1st time ever. And learned all about this just today>
Its a old Disney Classic that takes place in the old south here in the Atlanta GA area. But filmed in 1946.
This cartoon has a crazy history. Most evidently that the cartoon was semi banned from stores and tv because it portrays blacks as slaves/servants in the movie. It wasnt meant to be a political movie and theres no flagrant miss treating. Actually in the movie everyone is friends and whites and blacks get along fine. The plot is an old black man telling a story to a group of young black kids and a white kid walks by and starts listening because he likes the old mans story. So they invite him over, he sits and they all listen together about this story of Brear Rabbit and all these animals. It was just telling a mans story. This is the cool part. That man, the black man....see him in the picture above. Thats Uncle Remus. Hes the true author and creator of Brear Rabbit and this movie. He was born and raised in Eatonton GA. About 15-20 minutes from where I live. His original house is set up as a museum. Its small, but its where he made history by creating Brear rabbit and the Briar Patch stories. About 50 books that sold huge numbers. But not nearly as many people visit this museum as they should. Mainly because the cartoon was banned for todays politically correct ears. So by censoring it, they ruined a mans legacy and tarnished a lifetime of collective work that people would enjoy forever. Whats ironic is most people (myself included) dont even know about the cartoon until you find out the local history of Uncle Remus. However everyone on EARTH knows his "ZIPPIDY DOO DA, ZIPPIDY YEAH" song and all the images of the characters featured in Disneys Splash Mountain.
So the movie cant be shown and enjoyed, but the ride can be. Only w/o a mention of Uncle Remus, the Author from Eatonton GA.
So if they would have let the mans legend live on, his lil museum in the small town near where I live would have major tourism and hed be a legend. Kinda sad. Maybe someday they will do a new version, to give the man his props and legacy back.

Edited by LakersGAFan, November 03, 2012 - 05:08 PM.

Wow, that was a pretty awesome read man. Thanks for sharing. Probably never would've known.

[LakersGAFan]

Thanks man, Its a great little tale. Its hard to watch for my HDTV trained eyes but the tale is ULTRA GENIUS.
This guy Uncle Remus movie was the 1st to use animated Characters with real people at the same time. So this is where movies like the following got the idea from:
Marry Poppins (Disney) 1970.
Roger Rabbit
Stuart Little
Cool World
Scooby Doo
Enchanted
Space Jam
Today someone would have patented that idea and become a billionaire leasing the idea to other movies to use.
They owe it all to this cartoon and this man for thinking of fusing cartoons into real life films. He was a visionary for sure. An epic legend nobody knows.
I might write the NAACP or ACLU to do something about this. Un ban it and get this man his credit he deserves. This man made one of the most significant contributions to animation. So big almost 70 years later Disney is still making Billions from the songs he wrote.
Theres nothing hateful about the movie either. It shows slaves walking in from the fields. Singing songs and all that. But the movie doesnt actually identify them as slaves. But hell that crap was real back then. But nothing that would preach hate or racism. The rich white lady in the elegant dress "Miss Sally" even goes to Uncle Remus's house to apologize for blaming him for her son being out late past his bed time while he told his stories. The kid loved uncle Remus.
Sad. Seriously I think I might make a webpage or something and do what I can to make this man get his proppaz.

Edited by LakersGAFan, November 03, 2012 - 05:35 PM.

[fido]

You're just watching / hearing about this for the first time?

Dude, Mary Poppins came out in '64. Scooby-Doo? That's CG animation man. This was 2-d standard hand drawn character animation, way different than any CG stuff.

And Uncle Remus was an actor (James Baskett I believe), not the guy that came up with the animation over live action. The stories were written in the 1800's when racism and terms used i nthe story were rampant and looked upon differently.

So, um, dude, are you alright over there? It's a movie made from a book with actors in it, not starring the actual author.

The animators that developed the process were the same guys that did Mary Poppins, Pete's Dragon and more.

Disney was and still is a helluvan innovative company.

And that movie was banned without actually watching it. It's a pity because it's not racist whatsoever. It's the tale within it that got people in an uproar (and rightfully so). The roos used to sucker in Br'er Rabbit by Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear is the "Tar Baby", a terrible euphamism. That's what got the attention of everyone. When I was a kid somewhere around '74 or '75 I had the 45 of the story that actually had "Tar Baby" on the 45 cover.

This film hasn't seen a domestic DVD release ever. When I was younger it was readily available on VHS, but when political correctness and all it's ridiculousness grabbed a hold of the country, it was yanked. In fact the only time its been distributed on DVD (or again) was in Japan, and that was until Disney put the kibosh on it. However, to go back and censor history, no matter how dark and insulting it may be is to lighten the lesson that can be learned from it.

Racial junk aside, it is a fantastic achievement for its time and remains so to this day.

Wikipedia page

IMDB page

[LakersGAFan]

yea but technology aside, the concept of animated characters and real actors in a movie remains the same.
Its just like we have smart phones. But Graham Bell made the concept of talking over distances through a device.

[LakersGAFan]

whats this mean man: The roos used by Brer Fox and Brer Bear is the "Tar Baby", a terrible euphamism. That's what got the attention of everyone. ??? The voices?
In his lil muesem it says the idea to merge cartoons and actors was his idea. That he wrote the scripts for it years before the movie was made. Pretty freakin awesome.

[LakersGAFan]

I looked up Tar Baby. I know its a racist term now. Atleast I think it is....lol. This is what I found.
The Tar-Baby is a fictional character in the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is a doll made of tar and turpentine used to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes. In modern usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional contact.

[fido]

It was also used to refer to black people quite often. It's a dead term now, thankfully.

He may have had the notion to do it, but he had absolutely zero input on how to do it or the actual execution of it. It was a brainstorm of his not something he achieved.

Your Alexander Graham Bell reference holds no water. Bell actually invented a device, the telephone. To just say "wouldn't it be great to have animated characters and real people in the same movie together", is not even in the same species as actually going about doing it.

That's like someone saying,"maybe we can go to the moon someday" taking or given credit for building the means to do so.

[LakersGAFan]

It was also used to refer to black people quite often. It's a dead term now, thankfully.

He may have had the notion to do it, but he had absolutely zero input on how to do it or the actual execution of it. It was a brainstorm of his not something he achieved.

Your Alexander Graham Bell reference holds no water. Bell actually invented a device, the telephone. To just say "wouldn't it be great to have animated characters and real people in the same movie together", is not even in the same species as actually going about doing it.

That's like someone saying,"maybe we can go to the moon someday" taking credit for building the means to do so.

Yea thats accurate to what the history says in his museum. It was his dream and concept, but no he didnt technologically create it. But to me thats just as great. And man the "museum" I speak of, is Uncle Remus's old house. A old shack type thing made of old school logs, like in the movie.

[LakersGAFan]

It was also used to refer to black people quite often. It's a dead term now, thankfully.

He may have had the notion to do it, but he had absolutely zero input on how to do it or the actual execution of it. It was a brainstorm of his not something he achieved.

Your Alexander Graham Bell reference holds no water. Bell actually invented a device, the telephone. To just say "wouldn't it be great to have animated characters and real people in the same movie together", is not even in the same species as actually going about doing it.

That's like someone saying,"maybe we can go to the moon someday" taking or given credit for building the means to do so.

I see what your saying...however it turned out that it was his books and characters were used. Not anothers. It makes me think he pursued that vision and got it done. And the history in the museum leads me to believe that also. I forget exactly what the signage said, but it made me think he went out in the world and made it happen. And history is full of people that didnt invent a physical object but got credit for the intellectual property. The biggest being the Automobile, Inventor Henry Ford, Intellectual Inventor: Karl Benz. But I still understand your point.

Edited by LakersGAFan, November 03, 2012 - 06:07 PM.

[fido]

Cool.

Maybe he did pursue Disney. Although Disney's classics both animated and live action are mostly based on books that they aggressively went after the rights for (i.e. - Snow White, Pinocchio, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and plenty more). Usually Disney pursued the rights to the story themselves, but who knows, maybe he did pursue it, if so, good for him.

Any way we talk around it, the movie is not rightfully banned and should be made available again.

[True Lakers Fan]

I seen this movie in my 9th grade English class

[LakersGAFan]

Any way we talk around it, the movie is not rightfully banned and should be made available again.

Exactly. But you had knowledge about it. Im 34 and have never heard of it. Its strange. I guess I have heard of brer Rabbit and the Briar patch, and the song zippidy doo dah but had never seen the cartoon or what it was. I was on Splash Mountain many times and didnt even know wtf the characters were...lol. But it was always my fav ride as a kid. So I imagine younger folks have even less knowledge than I did. So thanks for the input broski.

[True Lakers Fan]

Exactly. But you had knowledge about it. Im 34 and have never heard of it. Its strange. I guess I have heard of brer Rabbit and the Briar patch, and the song zippidy doo dah but had never seen the cartoon or what it was. I was on Splash Mountain many times and didnt even know wtf the characters were...lol. But it was always my fav ride as a kid. So I imagine younger folks have even less knowledge than I did. So thanks for the input broski.

I'm 22 and I even knew about the story and the movie

[LakersGAFan]

I'm 22 and I even knew about the story and the movie

Oh snap really man. Cool. Why dont you clue us in on what you knew and how you knew it? You knew it was the 1st animation in history to use people and cartoons at the same time? You knew about little Uncle Remus and his small 1000 sq feet house where he wrote his stories thats now a museum in Eatonton GA? You knew the movie has made over $800 million globally in mechanical royalties that never went to Uncle Remus or his kin? You knew that he pursued Disney as a possible production company for his movie while Disney was just breaking ground in Anahiem? And you knew why the movie received a ban and was extracted from circulation? Fill me in bro, Id love to know the details. You knew all the facts that fido filled us in on? Damn bro you have knowledge that aint even on the internet man. You musta went to the town of Eatonton and read the things I read because thats the only place that info is atm. Where did you stay? What did you eat while you were here? Was that before of after the fire? Or before or after the statue or brer was stolen? You got game son. Just knowing something exists doesnt mean you know anything about it. Thats what we were discussing.

Edited by LakersGAFan, November 03, 2012 - 07:20 PM.

[kfreud]

Are we in a contest to see who's the youngest to have heard of this now? I'm 17.

[JEN]

I actually never knew where that song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" came from exactly or about that movie "Song of the South" until 2 years ago when I took this Intro to American Pop Culture class (I was 20). I had def seen the characters, but just never knew what movie they were from. We simply went over how this film was/is deemed controversial due to its racial content.

Edited by JEN, November 04, 2012 - 07:30 AM.

[True Lakers Fan]

Oh snap really man. Cool. Why dont you clue us in on what you knew and how you knew it? You knew it was the 1st animation in history to use people and cartoons at the same time? You knew about little Uncle Remus and his small 1000 sq feet house where he wrote his stories thats now a museum in Eatonton GA? You knew the movie has made over $800 million globally in mechanical royalties that never went to Uncle Remus or his kin? You knew that he pursued Disney as a possible production company for his movie while Disney was just breaking ground in Anahiem? And you knew why the movie received a ban and was extracted from circulation? Fill me in bro, Id love to know the details. You knew all the facts that fido filled us in on? Damn bro you have knowledge that aint even on the internet man. You musta went to the town of Eatonton and read the things I read because thats the only place that info is atm. Where did you stay? What did you eat while you were here? Was that before of after the fire? Or before or after the statue or brer was stolen? You got game son. Just knowing something exists doesnt mean you know anything about it. Thats what we were discussing.

Don't be a pest

and yes I did knew all about that, My English teacher taught us that because we were studying " How To Kill a Mocking Bird"

Edited by True Lakers Fan, November 04, 2012 - 08:18 AM.