Song of the South
(1946)THE CONTROVERSY A pioneering mix of live-action and animation, Disney's musical was inspired by Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus fables. Here, Uncle Remus (James Baskett, center) is one of several happy, singing black sharecroppers on a Southern, post-Civil War plantation, a man who still lives to please his white bosses and their children.
THE FIRESTORM The NAACP recognized the artistry of the film, especially the animated sequences, but lambasted the movie's caricatured and patronizing portrayal of African Americans.
THE AFTERMATH The film won two Academy Awards: Best Song for ''Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah'' and an honorary Oscar for Baskett. Disney rereleased it in theaters a few more times during the next 40 years but withdrew it from circulation in 1986 and has never released it on home video in the United States.
