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Snowflake · 04-09-2007, 08:05 AM

Interesting weekend for movies, I was invited over to the Mousepod's to watch Song of the South and saw a few good minutes of The Thief and the Cobbler for good measure.

Now, I was a SotS virgin, never having seen it, except for the bits that showed up on The Wonderful World of Disney while I was growing up. So, with all the talk on various board (and a thread I contributed to LoT) about the film coming or not coming out on DVD, a date was planned for a screening.

Now, the mousepods have a humongous television, so seeing the detail would be no problem. We had some previews before starting the feature, a short from the current Disney Channel offering The House of Mouse which was amazing to me. Nothing like I've ever seen in a Disney cartoon, potty humor! Violence, as violent as a Warner's cartoon. Jesse showed it to me, in view of his recent episode of the mousepod discussing Make Mine Music and the subsequent release without the Martins & Coys short. Boy, let's talk a world of difference! PC? There was nothing PC in that, it would have been enough to rile West Virginians, the implication of hicks with outhouses and home stilled liquor!

Anyway, Jesse also showed me some incredible hand drawn animation from the lost masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler. I loved what I saw of the restoration and am anxious to sit and enjoy the whole thing.

So, on to Song of the South. As Alex (I think) had mentioned, it's not a great film. I'd never seen it, but from what I had heard, I could not imagine that any of the portayals of the former slaves and share croppers would be any more offensive than GWTW. SotS is not a great film, not in the pantheon of Disney classics. As Jesse explained, it was the first real live action film produced by Disney (feature I am assuming, since Reluctant Dragon precedes it). In any case, I found it to be very static and choppy in the live action. Not a particularly great script, not particularly good performances (even with a good cast of regulars like Lucille Watson, Hattie McDaniell and Ruth Warrick) Bobby Driscoll was annoying, but James Baskett was a star in the S-T-A-R category. The screen lit up when he was present. The animation was good, the characters were great and I enjoyed the stories. We were watching what I thought would have been a 3rd generation print, so it was a little dark and Gregg Toland's camerawork was hard to detect.

I'm glad to have finally seen it, and am now on the fence about Disney releasing it. There is a lot more I'd rather see in advance of this, but if they do it, I hope they do a full restoration with a good featurette about the film.

04-09-2007, 08:05 AM	#1940
Snowflake lost in the fog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 7,831	Song of the South Interesting weekend for movies, I was invited over to the Mousepod's to watch Song of the South and saw a few good minutes of The Thief and the Cobbler for good measure. Now, I was a SotS virgin, never having seen it, except for the bits that showed up on The Wonderful World of Disney while I was growing up. So, with all the talk on various board (and a thread I contributed to LoT) about the film coming or not coming out on DVD, a date was planned for a screening. Now, the mousepods have a humongous television, so seeing the detail would be no problem. We had some previews before starting the feature, a short from the current Disney Channel offering The House of Mouse which was amazing to me. Nothing like I've ever seen in a Disney cartoon, potty humor! Violence, as violent as a Warner's cartoon. Jesse showed it to me, in view of his recent episode of the mousepod discussing Make Mine Music and the subsequent release without the Martins & Coys short. Boy, let's talk a world of difference! PC? There was nothing PC in that, it would have been enough to rile West Virginians, the implication of hicks with outhouses and home stilled liquor! Anyway, Jesse also showed me some incredible hand drawn animation from the lost masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler. I loved what I saw of the restoration and am anxious to sit and enjoy the whole thing. So, on to Song of the South. As Alex (I think) had mentioned, it's not a great film. I'd never seen it, but from what I had heard, I could not imagine that any of the portayals of the former slaves and share croppers would be any more offensive than GWTW. SotS is not a great film, not in the pantheon of Disney classics. As Jesse explained, it was the first real live action film produced by Disney (feature I am assuming, since Reluctant Dragon precedes it). In any case, I found it to be very static and choppy in the live action. Not a particularly great script, not particularly good performances (even with a good cast of regulars like Lucille Watson, Hattie McDaniell and Ruth Warrick) Bobby Driscoll was annoying, but James Baskett was a star in the S-T-A-R category. The screen lit up when he was present. The animation was good, the characters were great and I enjoyed the stories. We were watching what I thought would have been a 3rd generation print, so it was a little dark and Gregg Toland's camerawork was hard to detect. I'm glad to have finally seen it, and am now on the fence about Disney releasing it. There is a lot more I'd rather see in advance of this, but if they do it, I hope they do a full restoration with a good featurette about the film.
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