Hattie McDaniel plays a "Mammy" in each picture if for no other reason than that such roles for people did once exist. In "Gone With the Wind," she embodies grotesque mannerisms that imply an acceptance of her inferior social status to the Anglo characters.
But in "Song of the South," McDaniel breaks free of any stereotypes to create a unique human being. More important, she carries the film's narrative, along with James Baskett as Remus - he a symbol of goodness and, in truth, Walt Disney's own alter ego. How ironic, then, that Hattie McDaniel won a best supporting Oscar for the former, not the latter.
The Disney brand has been unfairly savaged by critics ever since Richard Schickel penned "The Disney Version" back in the mid-1960s. This anti-Disney diatribe became not merely an interpretation but set-in-cement truth in many academic circles. The Schickel view set the pace for an intellectual rejection of anything Disney as automatically insensitive to minorities.
Yet a close examination of Disney's work proves otherwise. Back in the late-1950s, when the Western dominated dramatic TV, you could have hardly guessed that one of every six cowboys in the historical West had been black. None of the dozens of "oaters" contained a black character - with one notable exception. James Edwards played "Batt," a real-life black cowboy, in Disney's "Texas John Slaughter" series. Batt emerged as an all-around cowhand superior in skills even to the white hero, played by Tom Tryon.
Such anti-racism in our modern media and its positive influence on audiences began with Walt Disney. Thanks to his influence, racially enlightened thinking spread.
This, of course, brings us to all the criticism of "Princess and the Frog" by so-called critics who spew their opinions even BEFORE seeing the movie, including the woman who I encountered at the DMV. One often wonders if these people had the insight to actually realized the facts that were written in this article.
Zz.
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