DIRECTOR'S CUT: https://odysee.com/@Kraikein:6/Song_O...


God, I have been working on this for close to 2 years now. So time for some reflection. So I originally started this thing out in the funniest way possible. Told friends on Discord stories, and they liked the way I told them and I wanted to tell one based on a controversial film I've vaguely known of for a while. That being Song of the South, little did I truly realize how deep the rabbit hole went.

I realized this needed a lot more context than just a couple Discord messages at night, so made this whole documentary as a substitute. I wanted this to be a teaching tool for those who didn't really know much about Song of the South, or American History in general. Reflecting on it, Disney's lack of consistency on offensive content within their films and choosing which to acknowledge and which to ignore is as damaging as it is nonsensical. Especially with them appealing to Chinese racism for profit.

Ignoring history can only result in the repeat of these actions, and we're very much in danger of repeating the mistakes of our past over and over again unless we change and wise up. And that includes holding corporations accountable for their despicable behavior, whether it be in our country or abroad. We need to learn from human history, we don't have to be proud of it, history by its nature shouldn't be solely glamorized. There's nothing wrong with pride in history, but there is a problem when there's ONLY pride in it and not a tiny bit of shame. The same goes Vice Versa, feeling ONLY shame is just as damaging as feeling only pride.

The bottom line is, we need to observe from history, and properly learn from our mistakes. It all starts from the small things as well. If we cannot talk honestly about a movie, how on earth can we expect to talk about much more broad topics in regard to history.

This video isn't to make you feel one way or the other on Song of the South, I do praise the talent within it but also criticize the general setting and imagery in the liveaction segments. Ngl, I kind of wished they had incorporated a mix of Song of the South and Princess and the Frog in Splash Mountain instead of removing one completely. Mixing old black stories with the new, but hey I'm not a middleaged Disney exec trying to pull a PR move with current events.

I do hope that people can have a civil and calm conversation about the film within the comments section and just be able to sit down and talk. Especially from those who are black, as to be honest, a lot of the dialogue surrounding Song of the South comes from white people. So it'd be nice to hear from those who are actually supposedly affected/offended by the film.

If you find the film offensive, you're correct. If you don't, you're also correct. The only opinion I disagree with is banning the film completely and never talking about, its history, etc just because it could be seen as offensive. Not airing it on TV for children's concerns, I get, but removing it from streaming services, etc and not adding a disclaimer while doing that for other films is ridiculous.

Here are Valarie Stewart's, daughter of Nick Stewart voice of Br'er Bear, final interviews before she passed away in March of this year. May she rest in peace with both of her parents.

   • Splash Mountain: Saving Her Father's ...  
   • Saving Splash Mountain | Valarie Stew...  

And now, I have some resources that I used when making this video, I highly recommend checking them out:

Song of the South FanRestoration: https://archive.org/details/SongOfThe...

Jim Korkis' alleged plagarism:
https://jimkorkis.wordpress.com/

Mouseplanet Song of the South That Never Was:
https://www.mouseplanet.com/8584/Song...

Essay about the Tar Baby story:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/...

Song of the South.net:
https://www.songofthesouth.net/index.php

The Ebony Showcase Theatre Website:
https://www.ebonyshowcase.org/

Article about how Uyghur women are treated within China's camps:
https://apnews.com/article/aptopnew...