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 forSong 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. Thanks to Lars Karlsen for the initial heads up!
This topic is also being discussed over at UltimateDisney.com, and a couple of other sites have since picked up on this story as well: ign.com’s “Will Song of the South Be Heard?” and FilmRot.com’s “Song of the South Ban Lifted?“