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I agree with HTH's assesment of SOTS. There is only one brief scene that struck me as being a tad condescending - Uncle Remus at one point is seen gathering firewood and singing a cute little ditty that basically says he'd rather sleep than have to work. This plays on a very common "lazy negro" stereotype. (The movie came out around the same time that Willie Best was making movies as "Sleep N' Eat.") It's kind of a charming song, but it certainly plays off of a long-discarded image. (Of course, James Baskett is completely disarming at all times in the film, which makes it hard to criticize. He's just amazing.)
Actually, I don't think most of the voices speaking against the movie see it as overtly racist. I get the feeling that they mostly find it's portrayal of poor but happy sharecroppers as being condescending and over-romanticized, selling the notion that the social order we see in the film is "mighty satisfactual."
I read a piece by Alice Walker in which she described seeing the movie as a child, and feeling angry that her own people's folklore had been appropriated by the white establishment. She seemed to feel that Brer Rabbit stories should have stayed in the oral tradition among African-Americans, not become fodder for mass entertainment made by whites for whites.
I would be interested to see how much of this discussion makes it's way onto any eventual DVD. It will certainly have to provide lots of context, but I imagine that the vast majority of people will have no trouble responding to the warm emotional core of the story, and will regard the other issues as secondary.
For what it's worth, I have had plenty of African American guests at the parks ask me if Song of the South is ever going to be released on video, and telling me that it was one of their favorite movies.
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