Disney Still Has No Plans to Release Song of the South, Not Even with Disclaimer

Disney Still Has No Plans to Release Song of the South, Not Even with Disclaimer

Share. Give it 23 years and it will be public domain. Give it 23 years and it will be public domain.

Song of the South will not be released on Disney+.

Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger answered an audience question at an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday about whether all Disney movies, including Song of the South, will eventually be on the service. Iger says they still plan to release older content to Disney+, but Song of the South will stay out.

Iger said the film is "not appropriate in today’s world,” according to Deadline.

Song of the South is set on a plantation in Georgia after the Civil War. Despite featuring the iconic "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" song and influencing the popular Splash Mountain ride at Disney's theme parks, the film has never been officially released for home use in North America. The film has been released unedited on VHS, Laserdisc and other formats in various European and Asian countries. Copies of those releases are widely available online.

Exit Theatre Mode

Controversial Disney movies like Dumbo (1941) have appeared on Disney+ with a disclaimer placed at the end of the film or TV show's summary. It reads, "This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions."

People have complained that the disclaimer is not enough. Mashable cites a tweet that praises Warner Bros.' policy with their older cartoons, and how the different wording can go a long way.

Every Disney theatrical short pre-60s, including ones that don't have any "outdated cultural depictions", have this message. There are even some cases where the disclaimer is posted on edited films. Fantasia, Three Little Pigs, and Santa's Workshop have had controversial content edited out but still feature the disclaimer that says "This program is presented as originally created."

Then there are cases like Aladdin, a movie that has faced criticism from Arab-American groups since its release, according to The New York Times article It's Racist, But Hey, It's Disney. A song lyric was edited out of the opening scene of Aladdin after its blockbuster run in theaters. The lyric, "Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home" was changed to "Where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home." Aladdin does not feature the disclaimer in its Disney+ summary.

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The disclaimer hasn't changed since Disney+ launched in November 2019. Actress Whoopi Goldberg was inducted into Disney's "Legends" club and expressed a desire for Song of the South to be released.

Goldberg said at the time, "I’m trying to find a way to get people to start having conversations about bringing Song of the South back, so we can talk about what it was and where it came from and why it came out."

Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who wants to mention that if you Google "song of the south" then the full, unedited movie is available to legally watch for free on the first page of Google results.