14 Facts About Disney’s Most Controversial Movie

June 12, 202410 Mins Read

This piece was originally published in November 2019. It has been updated since and is most current as of June 12, 2024.

“Song of the South” remains the most controversial film in the history of Walt Disney motion pictures, live action or animated. But you’ll never see directors Harve Foster (handling the live action) and Wilfred Jackson’s (behind the animation) 1946 Uncle Remus adaptation on the Disney+ streaming service even as the company continues to roll out its vast library of legacy titles on the home-viewing platform. And not even with a disclaimer. Disney CEO Bob Iger made that clear back in 2020, even before the dated racial politics of classic movies returned heavily to discussion around the Black Lives Matter movement’s impact on entertainment later that year.

Set in a Reconstruction-era American south just as the Civil War has concluded and slavery has ended, “Song of the South” is most famous for inspiring the widely revered Disney theme park ride Splash Mountain. (It was last re-released in theaters, a common Disney practice for decades, in 1986, before being pulled from circulation altogether.) The Magic Kingdom version at Florida’s Walt Disney World closed officially in January 2023, while the Disneyland iteration of the once-beloved log flume ride shut down in California in May that year. Its official successor, the ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure based on the 2009 Disney film “The Princess and the Frog,” opens this summer at both locations and is already open at Walt Disney World.

Back in 2023, Disney removed the film’s Oscar-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from all parades and park festivities, including the Festival of Fantasy Parade. It’s a song we all know from our childhood, but one mired in implications we didn’t understand at that the time — and it remains a source of pain for Disney and audiences alike. In the film, James Baskett voices Uncle Remus, a character of African American folklore from the 1800s adapted into a published collection by white author Joel Chandler Harris, a journalist and Georgia native. The tales’ interpretation of Deep South African American dialect has since been reevaluated, and despite Uncle Remus’ influence on celebrated authors like Beatrix Potter, has been largely pulled from the American literary canon.

Baskett received an Honorary Oscar for his portrayal in 1948, the year he died after suffering poor health during production on the 1946 movie.

Film historian and “You Must Remember This” podcast host Karina Longworth explored the buried legacy of “Song of the South” in her 2019 edition of the audio series, bringing to light the minstrelsy on display in the picture and its troubling depiction of the lives of post-Civil War plantation workers in Georgia.

But up until recently, “Song of the South” remained a bankable commercial property and presence throughout Disney properties. Several change.org petitions since the ride’s initial temporary closure have accused Disney of capitulating to the culture wars. But those attempts have fallen on deaf mouse ears as Disney parks continue to reinvent themselves following an embattled legal dispute with Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who argued Disney had too much self-governing power; the parties reached a settlement in March 2024.

Below, read 14 things to know about “Song of the South,” which will not be coming to any streaming service any time soon or attract parkgoers at any Disney location in the United States. Splash Mountain, however, still stands at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan.

Disney World Has Transformed ‘Song’-Inspired ‘Splash Mountain’ into a New Homage

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Splash Mountain, the beloved Disney World ride inspired by the movie, has been rebranded as an homage to “The Princess and the Frog,” the first Disney animated film to be led by a Black female character. Disney Parks made the announcement back in 2021. Concept art showed the characters Tiana, Naveen, and Louis as they sail through a Mardi Gras celebration, to be recreated as part of the ride, with original music inspired by songs from the movie, set to play throughout the log-flume attraction.
Splash Mountain Makes Way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

After Splash Mountain closed throughout Disney parks in 2023, the new ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, will open at Disney World on June 28, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. The ride will also launch at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, later in the year. The new ride, inspired by the 2009 movie “The Princess and the Frog” that featured Disney’s first Black princess, is currently being previewed for employees and special guests. The attraction remains a log flume ride in the spirit of Splash Mountain, but is now centered around John Musker and Ron Clements’ animated musical “Princess and the Frog” instead.

New technology on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has been praised despite mixed reactions to the story, which picks up where the movie left off. Jack Kendall, who hosts the theme park fan podcast DSNY, said, according to CNN, that for an attraction built around a 50-foot drop, “There’s no kind of antagonist within the attraction to have that kind of push and pull of that trepidation building up the lift hill and going down the other side.” He added, “To be honest, it’s a lovely collection of scenes, of show scenes, very beautifully put together, but there’s not really much of an impetus for why we’re going on this journey now.”
The Famous Theme Song Has Been Pulled from Disney Parks

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The Oscar-winning “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” originated from “Song of the South,” and it was seemingly ubiquitous at Disney Parks and parades. Now, as Disney works to remove controversial aspects of the film from its properties, the song has been removed from the daily Magic Happens parade at its California location. Last year, Disney already removed it from the Festival of Fantasy parade, a regular attraction of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World.

The Magic Happens parade, which returned February 24, 2023, after multiple years on hiatus, now instead features a song from 1953’s “Peter Pan.”
The Film Will Never Be Available on Disney+

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Unlike some Disney titles that come with certain content warnings on the Disney+ streaming service, “Song of the South” will never be available even with an “outdated cultural depictions” disclaimer on the platform.

Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the issue back in 2020 as the streaming service started its rollout of classic titles.

During one of Disney’s annual shareholder meetings, Iger answered an audience question about what will and won’t be made available to stream from the Disney library, adding that this film is “not appropriate in today’s world” and therefore will not be re-released.
For real, It Won’t Be on Disney+

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Disney chief Bob Iger has said that “Song of the South” “wouldn’t necessarily sit right or feel right to a number of people today,” but others have called for Disney+ to host the movie as an historic artifact.

The late Hollywood historian Cari Beauchamp told The Guardian, “To not include it is to pretend it doesn’t exist. They do exist and they need to be put in context: when was it made? What world was it reflecting? Disney loves being praised for having princesses that are from diverse backgrounds, but you have to look at the whole history.”
It Earned James Baskett an Oscar

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James Baskett received an honorary Academy Award for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, dispenser of life-lessons for Bobby Driscoll’s Johnny, who moves from Atlanta to his grandmother’s plantation. The character of Uncle Remus, originated in the collected stories of Joel Chandler Harris, epitomizes the Magical Negro trope that persists in Hollywood today. Baskett won the Oscar in March 1948, but died later that year from complications from diabetes.
It’s the Origin of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”

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That infectious earworm about looking up at the sunny side of life, composed by Allie Wrubel with lyrics by Ray Gilbert, earned a Best Original Song Academy Award, and remains a Disney favorite.
The NAACP Slammed the Movie

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Through the NAACP commended the movie’s technical wizardry and its blend of animation and live action, the organization said in a statement that it “regrets, however, that in an effort neither to offend audiences in the North or South, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery … [the film] unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship, which is a distortion of the facts.”
But Yes, It was the Inspiration for Splash Mountain — Opened in the 1990s

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The characters, songs, and locations from “Song of the South” all form the basis for the beloved log flume ride featured at Disneyland and Disney World. The ride launched in 1989, and incorporates elements from the film’s animated segments, led by Br’er Rabbit, and antagonists Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.
You Won’t Find it on DVD

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“Song of the South” has never received a home video release in the United States. In 2019, Disney CEO Bob Iger said “it wouldn’t be in the best interest of our shareholders to bring it back, even though there would be some financial gain.” A VHS and LaserDisc release, however, exist overseas.
Not All Black Press Hated the Movie

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While Richard Dier of The Afro-American called the film “as vicious a piece of propaganda for white supremacy as Hollywood ever produced,” Herman Hill, who was USC’s first Black basketball player and later became a civil rights activist and journalist, wrote in The Pittsburgh Courier the the film could “prove of inestimable goodwill in the furthering of interracial relations,” and labeled criticisms of the film as “unadulterated hogwash symptomatic of the unfortunate racial neurosis that seems to be gripping so many of our humorless brethren these days.”
Disney Knew What It Was Dealing With

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During the film’s production, Disney already felt uneasy. Studio publicist Disney publicist Vern Caldwell wrote to “Song of the South” producer Perce Pearce to say “the negro situation is a dangerous one. Between the negro haters and the negro lovers there are many chances to run afoul of situations that could run the gamut all the way from the nasty to the controversial.”
The Film’s Cast Stood Behind the Movie

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“Song of the South” counts among its ensemble Hattie McDaniel, the “Gone With the Wind” star and first Black entertainer to win an Academy Award. In a 1947 interview, she told the American publication The Criterion, “If I had for one moment considered any part of the picture degrading or harmful to my people, I would not have appeared therein.” Her co-star James Baskett echoed her support of the film, saying, “I believe that certain groups are doing my race more harm in seeking to create dissension than can ever possibly come out of the ‘Song of the South.’”
The Film Was a Box-Office Success Even 40 Years Later

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When Disney began rereleasing many of its flagship animated titles in the 1980s to capitalize on nostalgia, “Song of the South” returned to theaters. Despite the negative light cast by the film in 1946, the film still resonated with audiences 40 years later in 1986 — it netted more than $17 million when it toured theaters a second time.