Speaking of the Forbidden Disney Vault

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Flashy-Share8186@reddit

does anyone else remember Disney clip shows on Sunday nights? I remember Halloween clip compilations and also shows that showed bits of this.

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brocbolo@reddit

That Halloween compilation show was great. Hosted by the Magic Mirror. I wish they’d put it on Disney Plus.

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I remember the Wonderful World of Disney, or whatever they were calling it in the 80s, and I remember seeing clips of this movie, the guy singing the song with cartoon animals around him on that bright backdrop. All I knew was that it was a black guy singing that song. Enough to burn the song in my memory.

At this point I can't remember if the two memories are related or not.

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keepcalmscrollon@reddit

Oh heck ya. Halloween Hall o' Fame on The Wonderful World of Disney. Looking this up I learned it aired for Halloween 1977. Year before I was born. So, like a lot of my childhood, it's actually a rerun from the 70s. But it was awesome. I don't remember clips from Song of the South but I doubt I'd have recognized them and I don't remember much overall. I have seen clips of the song but that's about it.

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BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit

The song was so huge in the 70s through mid-80s. You'd hear people humming it walking around stores and stuff.

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PMMEBITCOINPLZ@reddit

Tom Hanks sings a few bars of it to show how happy he is after meeting Daryl Hannah in Splash.

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JettandTheo@reddit

Honestly not bad, even very progressive for the time with the black kid playing equally with the poor and rich white kids.

Was expecting it to be a lot worse.

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PMMEBITCOINPLZ@reddit

The plot of the film is that trying to mediate a petty conflict between those children costs a grown man his life and livelihood. He’s literally exiled from his home and is only allowed to come back because he seems to be able to magically heal through main white boy with his presence after that boy walks into a bullpen and is mauled.

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choochooocharlie@reddit

Progressive?? It romanticizes the reconstruction period entirely. The main character is a former slave created by a reporter. This character was just oh so happy because he was owned by such “good” slave owners that he stayed on to continue to merrily serve said former enslavers. That is completely insulting.

That the rich white folk went out and not only BOUGHT Remus, but then forced him into hard labor on a plantation is ignored completely. Mostly in an attempt gloss over history by the original author of these stories.

I wouldn’t call that progressive. An absolute completely fabrication and distortion of reality, yes. Progressive, no.

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JettandTheo@reddit

Progressive for the time.

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choochooocharlie@reddit

Progressive NEVER. You can NEVER make enslavement palpable or put a happy twist to it. Disney should have never touched it.

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JettandTheo@reddit

So just ignore their culture and let it die?

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choochooocharlie@reddit

That was not their culture. Their culture was stolen from them once they were forced onto slave ships. These were not not preserved oral histories taken down by historians. It was a white reporter who amalgamated stories then contextualized them to assuage white guilt over slavery.

This movie extremely sugar coats the very real horrors that faced Black people right after slavery ended. They didn’t just go from property to that nice old Black man we used to own just down the street who tells such great stories!

As I said Disney should have never touched the topic.

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TheFabulousMolar@reddit

Agreed. Many disney films come with disclaimers on the app now (peter pan for example), because they were "of their time". Context and time periods make an enormous difference, there are shows I've rewatched from even 10 years ago which make me cringe a little. It's fantastic that views are evolving, but we shouldn't pretend the old stuff didn't happen, that's how history repeats.

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CaptPotter47@reddit

We have a copy on VHS.

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Mueryk@reddit

I have a DVD that I think we had imported from Korea I think way back in the day.

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Jdojcmm@reddit

Was it a burned copy with full art? If so I was given the same one as a gift from a cinephile friend back in about 09.

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CaptChron80@reddit

Did it have the weird snow black racist cartoon as an option to watch? Mine did and it only played once and i could never find it again on the dvd options

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Jdojcmm@reddit

I'll have to dig it out of wherever it is and see. I got thousands of discs and I'm only just now considering alphabetizing them.

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Zildjianchick@reddit

Yeah, we had a bootleg copy on VHS. Copy of a copy kind of thing. Thought it was boring as a kid so we didn’t watch it more than once

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HeyKayRenee@reddit

Not in my African-American household.

I hate when this comes up in this sub. It reminds me that I’m on Reddit, which is rare for this group.

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phydaux4242@reddit

When I was in 2nd grade my teacher used to read this to the class and do the voices.

Our entire city school district was lily white. Lol

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bivo979@reddit

I remember watching it at the movie theater during its 40 year anniversary in 1986

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WhimsicalPonies@reddit

I did too. I also used to have the Little Golden Book: Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby.

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BrucetheFerrisWheel@reddit

So did I! I can't remember the story though

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WhimsicalPonies@reddit

Iirc…Brer Fox and Brer Bear made a baby looking doll from a nearby tar pit, sat it on a log. Brer Rabbit came by and tried to say how do you do?. The tar baby didn’t respond and Rabbit got offend and punched it, getting stuck in the tar. Then The rest I forget.

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cyberllama@reddit

I can't remember either but I imagine Brer Fox and Brer Bear caught Brer Rabbit since he was stuck and ate him. Kids' stories used to be fully brutal 😂

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-NigheanDonn@reddit

All I remember is “don’t throw me in the briar patch” but that’s actually what he wanted them to do because he liked it in there? And the racist crows of course

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TransCapybara@reddit

Yeah, he lived there IIRC

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redlikedirt@reddit

I had several little golden books that also came with records and I wanna say this was one of them

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

It did, I had that one.

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bitsy88@reddit

Lol I have that book. I found it in an antique store and the owner was super offended when I said something about how it's racist. Apparently, it was his book from childhood 😬😅

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

I had it in my childhood too. Qnd it's super obviously racist. It's so on the nose one would have to be either blind or a biggot to ignore it.

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Adventurous-Ice6109@reddit

I had that one on the Disney read-along with the cassette tape 😬

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forsovngardeII@reddit

I did also. I had the version that came with a read-along cassette tape.

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idkidc9876@reddit

Oh good lord☹️

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RedditsCoxswain@reddit

Me too!

Also remember my parents talking about the controversy after we came home and my older sister talking shit to my Dad for taking me to it.

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poindxtrwv@reddit

I came here to say the same thing. My stepdad (at the time, he was my mom's boyfriend) took me to see it. I remember writing a review of it in a little notebook. I would love to find that.

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Slydiad-Ross@reddit

First movie I ever saw in a theater. I was five.

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johnnloki@reddit

I remember that this was when there was a "Uh... guys? This is a little troubling looking..." conversations started during that time.

I remember a few years later, Disney immortalized the characters in a popular theme park ride...... in the south....

Was happy to ride Tiana's Bayou adventure last August. Part way through the week, Peter Pan's flight opened up- I was curious to see the Natives in that ride, and was a bit shocked that it wasn't at all offensive- turned out that was literally why it was closed for a few weeks and only just opened back up August.... 15th? It was to clean up the troubling imagery.

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canray2042@reddit

Same. Enjoyed watching it with my dad. Didn’t realize how racist it was.

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Taanistat@reddit

Same. My grandmother took me to see it. I remember very little, but it might be my first memory of seeing a movie in a theatre.

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BoboliBurt@reddit

Same. My parents just didnt get why it was so bad. They were too young to know it got flamed in 1950s. Thought since the Uncle was an amiable hero it was all good. Inthink Zippity Doo Dah came out on 45 as some 1970s release we already had as well.

I think they get it now. My dad is actually quite progressive and sharp but being born in 1940s and growing up in an exclusively Polish neighborhood creates some old country blind spots. He didnt really want to concede that this movie is considered irredeemably racist.

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MittlerPfalz@reddit

One of the first movie going experiences I remember!

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PrincessSarahHippo@reddit

Same here. People look at me like I am full of it or delusional when I say I saw it in a theater.

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Sonoma_Cyclist@reddit

Me too!

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bassman314@reddit

Same. I thought it was a fever dream!

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akobie@reddit

Thats when my mom took me.

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Impossible-Leek-2830@reddit

We still have a copy on VHS at my parents’ house.

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Wonder_Weenis@reddit

I have it on VHS still

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ShirazGypsy@reddit

I knew a guy who picked up a bootleg DVD of this? And then he tried to convince me he just didn’t understand why it was so reviled. He didn’t see the problem with it.

He was a racist, asshole and I’m glad he’s now an ex friend

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jfischer5175@reddit

Yeah, once, never again. Definitely one of the worse creations by Disney.

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ScreenTricky4257@reddit

I've seen it, and it's neither as offensive nor as interesting as people purport it to be.

Actually, Disney had an odd period where everything was in oversaturated colors and the movies were completely forgettable. Three Lives of Thomasina, anyone?

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cellrdoor2@reddit

I remember Thomasina! I raise you Greta the Misfit Greyhound.

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EmmalouEsq@reddit

Remember the 5 Chinese brothers? There were a lot of questionable or straight out racist stories and movies we were shown

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Nonametousehere1@reddit

"Born and bred in the briar patch!" This was my dad's favorite movie! He loved it.

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StillhasaWiiU@reddit

The internet archives has the laser disc rip available for "research"

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Ok_Alps4323@reddit

Not at all. I went to Disneyland annually as a kid, and it never even registered that I didn’t know what movie those songs were from. I just assumed it was some old movie before my time and enjoyed the ride. 🤷🏾‍♀️

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Alone_Break7627@reddit

I've never seen it, but disney used to do sing a longs during ad time, so I know zip a dee exclusively because of those. It also made me fall in love with Dedicated to the One I Love.

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Calculusshitteru@reddit

I think I had maybe heard that Disney made a racist movie, but I had never seen it. I am just now learning through this post that Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and Splash Mountain are from this movie.

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MadameLeota604@reddit

My daughter just watched the clip where he sings zip a de doo da and sings with the animals. She loved it and said it was like Mary Poppins singing jolly holiday.

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Jackobats_Wine_Jug@reddit

I have it on MP4. It's a good movie. Very wholesome.

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toondoggie@reddit

"Mr Bluebird's on my shoulder..."

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FergalCadogan@reddit

Underrated song

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schoolpsych2005@reddit

My high school marching band’s go-to song for parades.

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lunajmagroir@reddit

I had a Disney sing-along vhs tape that included "Zip a Dee Doo Dah". Even at the time I was aware that the full movie was no longer available because of the racism so I always thought it was weird they included that on my tape.

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BrattyTwilis@reddit

I had the Brer Rabbit storybook with the tape. Certainly did not age well

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Bulky_Yak_8626@reddit

Honestly, even in its day it was kind of problematic. The NAACP showed up at the premier back in the 40s to protest its release. I still don’t know what Disney was thinking making a theme park ride out of this in the late 80s.

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BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit

The Cosby Kids all sang the theme song to advertise Disneyworld in the 80s.

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ValancyNeverReadsit@reddit

Those stories probably originated with the slaves, or earlier, in Africa. I’m actually grateful that they were written down, albeit by someone rather biased [he wrote them in ‘dialect.’]

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Shigglyboo@reddit

And what’s wrong with that? He documented something that would have otherwise been lost. I think it’s racist for society to shun the Brer Rabbit literature.

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Sonoma_Cyclist@reddit

I had that too. Listened to it so many times can still remember all the pics and the story.

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thodges314@reddit

I remember knowing of this, but we never had it on vhs. I can't remember if I ever saw it.

At one point I pirated it, just to watch it, but I don't think I ever got around to watching it and that hard drive eventually crashed. I think I started watching it but then I got bored and wandered off.

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Brick_Mason_@reddit

If you grew up in America it was never released on video. It's been available in Europe and Japan for many years.

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thodges314@reddit

I had a Disney sing-along cassette tape with one of the songs I think. And I saw clips from it in various contexts. I think I recall the one about the rabbit being afraid to be thrown into the thorn bushes, somehow seeing that as a kid. But I didn't actually see the whole movie start to finish.

I did find a copy of the book it was based on though. It was written in sort of an attempt at the vernacular. I had my Dad read it to me as a bedtime story one night, and he was clearly struggling with reading the words because of the way they were written.

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Mooseandagoose@reddit

There was a Disney sing along VHS that had zip-a-Dee-doo-dah on it. I think it had a light blue cover? I also had the brier rabbit & the tar baby on read along cassette in 1985/86. 🥴 I did not like that story but bc of the tar baby, not bc I understood it.

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thodges314@reddit

I would have had an audio cassette. I had lots of tapes and my Fisher Price tape recorder. Mainly the read along ones, like you had. Little Critter were generally my favorite.

When my family got a vcr, the first tape I got was the 1989 Batman. I watched the hell out of that. My younger brother had a lot of the sing-along tapes like wee-sing and all that. Where I had audio tapes, he had videotapes. He had a couple Disney ones as well. I feel like zippity Doo dah was on one of them.

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Mooseandagoose@reddit

The read along setup was kind of extra, IIRC. it was a white lap table with the cassette player with colorful buttons on the right and the table part held the book & opened to store the books. It also had an accompanying cassette organizer carry case.

My mom used to cut up the vhs sleeves and insert the face and spine into into hard cases so I might be wrong about what the original song a long case looked like. It was definitely distributed by Disney though - it had Alice and wonderland songs, lady & the tramp and some toners.

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thodges314@reddit

Oh I didn't have that. I just had those books that came with a cassette. So I would play the cassette in my Fisher Price tape recorder, and they would intro by saying what sound you should listen for to turn the page. For the Little Critter books it was supposed to be a hopping grasshopper, and it was just a strange sound. That's the only one I remember. And then a narrator would read the book and there would be sound effects in the background.

I especially like the Christmas books because the Christmas sound effects in the background got me excited for christmas. There was one where they said something about going to sleep on Christmas night, and then there was a long pause, and in the background you heard bells and Santa calling "ho ho ho", it had a whole vibe.

At the end they always had a couple musical numbers where someone would sing about what happened in the story.

I actually found a complete version here of one I had:

https://youtu.be/bgQS1P9mcjw

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Mooseandagoose@reddit

I love how these books on tape memories are still so vivid for us!! I would opt for my read along books / Teddy ruxpin/alphie over tv. 80s learning toys were awesome!

But also - grandparents bought me all kinds of things they shouldn’t have and I don’t condone it because they weren’t sensible

My grandma justified it as me being the first girl born in 53 years and just ran with it. She threw elbows at Child World during the cabbage patch kid madness of 84. 😅

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thodges314@reddit

At the end of the video that I sent, he does two Christmas songs. On the second one he sings about the list of presents he wants really fast (or it seems really fast as a kid). When that started I was instantly able to recite his list along with him. I remember that all these years later.

Now I know what to use the next time I see one of those, "what's the most useless thing you still have memorized" memes.

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Brick_Mason_@reddit

In the 80s I had Disney's "Tales of Uncle Remus" (soundtrack) album. Got it at K-Mart along with AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. First two records I ever bought with my own money. I may have been ten years old. I was very familiar with the songs in the movie years before I ever saw the movie. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah is a damn fine song.

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adchick@reddit

I want this remade. Not as a white washing of slavery, but as a celebration of African American story telling.

An all black cast have amazing stewardship of the African “fairytale” characters.

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pixienightingale@reddit

I saw a song as part of something with my brother's video collection but I don't want this advertised in any way.

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BrooklynRobot@reddit

I had it on VHS, someone gave it to me for my 6th birthday. The previous owner of the house was a Daughter of the Confederacy too.

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blondeviking64@reddit

I do remember some parts but not the whole thing. I for sure had seen the brier rabbit cartoon portions at least. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is still a jam honestly. I cannot remember the rest of it though.

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Fantastic_Honey_7425@reddit

If you like podcasts, You Must Remember This had an excellent season on the history of this shitshow, maybe five years ago?

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Zargoza1@reddit

We watched that shit in school

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I think I saw it in school as well.

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Spear_Ritual@reddit

Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth

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kanekong@reddit

They also had a WWII propaganda full feature film called 'Victory Through Airpower'. That one's even harder to find. Lots of racism and made up American weaponry to fool the Axis. I enjoyed getting a chance to see it in college. Some cool effects animation.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I found it here:

https://archive.org/details/VictoryThroughAirPower

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Brick_Mason_@reddit

It was released on a 2-DVD set along with all of the other WWII cartoons and short movies made for the U.S. Gov't. Very eye opening for those who don't know their history.

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kanekong@reddit

Really?! Is that still available anywhere? I'd love a copy.

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Brick_Mason_@reddit

Here's an Amazon link

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kanekong@reddit

Thanks! Added to my wishlist 🙂

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Starbreiz@reddit

I did a project on animated wwii propaganda I was in school! It's fascinating.

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kanekong@reddit

Nice! My local community college offered a 3 term animation history course. It was awesome. European animation, Japanese and North American (which included a ton of Canadian beauties and early studio work from the U.S.). The teacher was a producer for that old Liquid Television show and had amassed quite a collection of fantastic shorts and features from around the globe. That was a great year of content for me. Came in handy when I got my bachelor's in digital visual media.

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CuteFluffyGuy@reddit

I remember seeing it in the theater when it was rereleased in the 80s

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I did as well.

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SpaceAdventures3D@reddit

Never saw the movie. Didn't even know there was a movie. I had the Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby read-along book and tape. Had no context of where the story came from. Didn't know there was an Uncle Remus character.

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wharpua@reddit

When we went to Disney in like 1991 we got little porcelain statuettes of B’rer Rabbit, B’rer Fox, and B’rer Bear.

A few years back I told my dad how this movie has basically been canceled and he was very displeased. We definitely read a storybook of the Uncle Remus stories with Disney illustrations, and were fans of the “Zip A Dee Doo Dah” and “Everybody’s Go A Laughing Place” songs, way back when.

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forsovngardeII@reddit

I love the animated characters from this. Like pretty much every Disney movie that contains both live action and animation, I was always bored and didn't pay attention until the animated parts. I have a Brer Fox plushie from the 90s but my book got lost.

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HookersForJebus@reddit

My little brother had this movie on VHS, but it had Korean subtitles. Haha

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ravage214@reddit

Apparently this movie is like racist as shit?

It just seems like a regular shitty old movie to me I didn't really see anything overtly racist about it.

If anything it's just outdated and boring

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jjj666jjj666jjj@reddit

It’s more so that’s romanticizing a version of the south that white people wanted to portray vs. what it was really like. Which people consider problematic. It’s not outwardly racist as shit per se, takes some research to really understand the context.

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Alternative_Smile528@reddit

No, to see the REALLY racist Disney stuff, you gotta go to the 1950s and 1960s

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iamleeg@reddit

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Candid-Culture3956@reddit

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Alternative_Smile528@reddit

Remember when Italians were so foreign- looking they could play Native Americans?

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Alternative_Smile528@reddit

Hell, this one has a god-damn minstrel show in the middle.

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funnyguy349@reddit

Same with

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975)

It's a fun movie

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Tommy_Riordan@reddit

I loved Uncle Remus uncritically as a five year old, but I always found the Tar Baby to be nightmare fuel. My kids will never see it unless we have a LONG talk about racism and racist tropes ahead of time.

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Splizmaster@reddit

I mean until 10 years ago it was the running theme of splash mountain in Disney world.

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the-great-crocodile@reddit

My great aunt was married to Joel Chandler Harris‘s grandson.

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Candid-Culture3956@reddit

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80cartoonyall@reddit

https://i.redd.it/beev20ubdcaf1.gif

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Candid-Culture3956@reddit

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NoOccasion4759@reddit

I think Disney plus has this? Iirc Disney basically puts a disclaimer about how this kind of thing is offensive but they're keeping it available for an archival, historical purpose, which i can respect over sweeping it under the rug and pretending it never happened.

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