Song of the South.net News - Song of the South Newsletter

Song of the South Newsletter, Issue 12

In This Issue:
- Introduction
- Song of the South Fan Art Contest Results
- More Hope for a DVD Release?
- Guess! What's Amazon's 2nd Most Requested DVD?
- Splash Mountain's 15th Anniversary
- Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Makes AFI's Top 100 Songs
- Honoring SongoftheSouth.net Donators

Introduction

Happy New Year to everyone! I apologize it's been so long since the last issue; one of my New Year's Resolutions is to stay on top of updates more, which I will admit has been slipping as of late. To help get me back into the swing of things, I recently hosted my first Song of the South Fan Art Contest, which turned out to be a great success! Read the next article below for more details.

Song of the South Fan Art Contest Results

In honor of Song of the South's 58th birthday on November 12, 2004, I hosted a Song of the South Fan Art Contest, in which I encouraged fans of all ages to send in drawings of one or more of the Brer characters. I encouraged them to draw the Brers in new and creative scenes. There ended up being 11 submissions from 6 participants: Heather Little, age 17; Robert Bergman, Age 9; Kat Garcia, Age 23; Kyle Binette, Age 12; Evan Garrett, Age 20; and Patric Gaudino, Age 12. While I was impressed by all of the submissions, I felt the most original and creative submissions was Heather Little's "Bring Back the Briar Patch." The scene depicts Brer Bear, Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit on the side of the road, holding up signs in support of Song of the South's release, with a car honking in support as it drives by.

Originally, I was only going to give the winner a t-shirt of their choice and a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com, but afterwards I was so impressed with the participation that I decided to give everyone who participated a $10 gift certificate and raise the winner's prize to $20. Visitors to SongoftheSouth.net were especially generous this holiday season, and so I wanted to give some of that back to the fans. Thanks to everyone who participated! Be sure to check out all of the artwork here:

http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/fanartcontest04.html

More Hope for a DVD Release?

A recent thread over at the Home Theater Forum has brought out some very interesting news. Dick Cook, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, spoke at the Summer 2004 Annual Convention of the NFFC. The September/October 2004 issue of the FantasyLine Express (the club's newsletter) reported part of his talk: "After the formal part of his presentation, Cook took questions from Conventioneers. Among the issues on Conventioneers' minds: Will Song of the South ever be released on DVD?

"Yes. Cook said that the public has requested a DVD release of Song of the South more than it has requested any other film. That said, Disney also is aware that some elements of the film reflect the time in which it was made and don't reflect current attitudes. He said that the Studio has encountered similar issues with other older material. In some cases, such as some of the World War II material in the Walt Disney Treasures DVD series, they've addressed the issue through introductions that place the material in context. He said that Disney hasn't yet found the ideal solution for Song of the South, but he was confident that they would."

Coming from the Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, this sounds very hopeful. We now have confirmation that the studio recognizes it is the single most requested movie and that the studio is exploring ways that it can appropriately present this film to today's audience. We just hope they leave the original film unaltered.

Guess! What's Amazon's 2nd Most Requested DVD?

Well, it's gotta be Song of the South, or else it wouldn't be in this newsletter. :) That's right, Song of the South is the 2nd most requested DVD on Amazon.com that hasn't been released yet. Over the past year we watched it drop from 5th place overall to 2nd place. Currently it is only surpassed by "Twin Peaks - The Second Season", a TV show, which is guaranteed to be released. Be sure to go to Amazon's Song of the South DVD page and enter your email address so that you can let Amazon (and ultimately Disney) know how many people want this movie!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CX5G/songofthesout-20

Splash Mountain's 15th Anniversary

In July we celebrated Splash Mountain's 15th Anniversary. Splash Mountain first opened in Disneyland on July 17, 1989. In commemoration, Disneyland Resort released several limited edition items, including three Splash Mountain 15th Anniversary pins and a watch, all of which depict the Brer characters. These items and others can be seen in the updated Splash Mountain Collectibles section:

http://www.songofthesouth.net/memorabilia/splashmtn/index.html

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Makes AFI's Top 100 Songs

In June, the American Film Institute (AFI) revealed the top movie songs of all time in "100 Years... 100 Songs", a three-hour television special aired on CBS on June 22. 400 candidates were nominated, and jurors narrowed the list down to 100 songs. Song of the South's Academy Award-winning song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" made the charts at a strong #47. The fact that "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" made not only the top 100 movie songs of all time, but the top 50, speaks volumes! Disney has long exploited this song because of its enduring popularity.

Honoring SongoftheSouth.net Donators

And now I would like to personally thank Scott Jensen and Mickey Powner for the generous donations to SongoftheSouth.net! I greatly appreciate it! If you'd like to donate any amount (even $1!) to SongoftheSouth.net, please see my FAQ at http://songofthesouth.net/faq/index.html#15 . I will always honor those who have contributed in the following newsletter, which now has over 800 subscribers. The donations go towards my web site's hosting cost and memorabilia research.

I hope all of you have a wonderful 2005! Until the next issue...

Sincerely,
Christian Willis
SongoftheSouth.net Webmaster

Dedicated to Celebrating and Preserving This Walt Disney Classic