“Song of the South” – Walt Disney
by richibi
never thought I’d see it again but now for the magic
of the Internet, the boundless trove of irreducible
treasures, like those in Ali-Baba’s caves, or the
attics of our ancestors, stowed away, open again
to our poetic or otherwise imaginations, at our
very fingertips
I remembered this movie to be wonderful, moving,
but not much else, except for the “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-
Dah” theme, which is unforgettable, and a single
plot twist it would be unchivalrous to divulge
it has apparently been controversial, and is
presently banned, it would appear, in cinemas,
but it would be to my mind as racially insensitive
as “Huckleberry Finn”, “Tom Sawyer’, or even
“Gone with the Wind” have been, when they
were patently giving voice rather to a shocking
human cultural, and political, abomination,
however awkwardly, that is still powerfully,
shamefully, even manifestly, resonant
this is not a universal, note, condition, every
season for any culture has its bugbears, its
demons and monsters, and woe to the
unfortunate and inadvertent victim
in perhaps his most wonderful movie, and there
were quite a few, “Song of the South“, Walt Disney
lets us know that we’re all in this together, and
that kindness meets kindness in everyone, when
you open your heart
and that the reverse is horrible
Walt Disney is of course one of the great cultural
influences of the 20th Century, dismissed among
the titans as merely for kids
Walt Disney will be for an entire generation the
place where we learned our moral ABCs, much
more than in the dire Bible
as such he’s no less significant an artist, not at
all less significant, than Monet, Picasso, for
instance, Beethoven, Shakespeare, in shaping
our present moral and aesthetic world
you’ll need some Kleenex
you can also sing along
Richard
psst: filmed, I’m sure, right here in beautiful Stanley
Park behind my place in Vancouver, even the
animated portions
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