Whoopi Goldberg Wants Disney to Bring Back 'Song of the South' to Start Conversation About Controversial 1946 Film
Whoopi Goldberg was named the “surprise” Disney Legend Friday at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, and she had some surprising things to say about the most infamous film in the studio’s history.
Asked by Yahoo Movies what her favorite Disney movie is, the View host and EGOT winner deferred picking favorites and instead brought up Song of the South, the 1946 Walt Disney-produced live-action/animated film that has remained unreleased for decades due to its racially insensitive portrayal of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era.
“I’m trying to find a way to get people to start having conservations about bringing Song of the South back,” she said of the film, which Disney has kept locked in its vault, refusing to issue either digitally or on disc. “So we can talk about what it was and where it came from and why it came out.”
Goldberg also pointed to the controversial crows in the 1941 animated classic Dumbo, the film’s “jive-talking” birds, one of which was named Jim Crow after the racial segregation laws.
“I want people to start putting crows in the merchandise, because those crows sing the song in Dumbo everybody remembers,” she said, referencing the tune “When I See an Elephant Fly.”
“I want to highlight all the little stuff people maybe miss in movies.”
Watch Goldberg’s fellow Disney Legend honoree Mark Hamill talk about his aspirations to work at Disneyland:
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