Treasure Island (1951)

I watched this recently with a group and enjoyed it for the most part; it's notable for being Walt Disney's first full-length live-action film without any animation (not even the Long John Silver's parrot). Robert Newton was very good as Silver. Bobby Driscoll was OK; he was probably the most famous child actor at the time, hence his casting. The last five or ten minutes of the film seemed very "rushed" to me for some reason. Another thing that's noticeable by today's standards is that it is pretty violent. I wasn't expecting to see so much blood for early 1950s - a guy gets shot in the face, and several others stabbed and shot. After all, pirates are pirates but for a Disney film it seemed to push the envelope; apparently the censors didn't object to the scene when the young boy shoots a pirate in self defense. But overall I enjoyed watching this version, especially Newton's performance.

Song of the South (1946)

Producer Walt Disney had a dream project of bringing the American folklore of "Uncle Remus" to the big screen. He wanted animated sequences of his tall tales featuring the mischievous and cunning "Brer Rabbit" character. This movie is the result, but due to its offensive racial stereotypes it has not been showed in theaters since 1986 (when I first saw it as a kid).

The setting is the deep South. Little Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) is traveling from Atlanta to a plantation mansion (he thinks it's a vacation --- his parents have ulterior motives)...he travels along with his mother (Ruth Warrick from "Citizen Kane") and father, as well as their maid played by Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel.

There are a few nice scenes in the movie with McDaniel & Uncle Remus talking together, but not many. The entire movie is told from little Johnny's point of view---he hates having to stay in this big house, owned by his mean old grandmother (Lucille Watson, from "Watch on the Rhine"). He's also suspicious of why his father has to move back to Atlanta without him and mom (he writes un-explained controversial articles for a local newspaper). Further explanation of the father's actions may be too "adult" in nature for a kid's film, though. The parents later reunite.

Johnny runs away first chance he can get (can you blame him?), but meets up with the famous Uncle Remus, who tells him a tale of Brer Rabbit running away from his briar patch but finds nothing but trouble. Basically Uncle Remus is teaching him a lesson in "staying put".

Johnny then meets up with a little girl named Ginny; she gives him a little puppy and then her two mean brothers pick on him.

Remus then tells Johnny a few stories about bullies Brer Fox and Brer Bear. All these stories eventually teaches Johnny valuable life lessons.

The mean white adults don't appreciate Remus, and scold him for keeping Johnny after curfue with his tall tales.

Movie turns very sentimental when Remus, feeling unappreciated, decides to move out and away to Atlanta. Little Johnny races after Remus begging him to come back, but in the process, he gets trampled by a bull and almost dies. Remus tells another tale of Brer Rabbit.

I remember seeing this movie in the the theaters in 1986 when I was 10 years old. All the racist stuff flew over my head, and I was bored with all the drama and scenes with the humans - I just wanted to see more of the cartoon sequences with Brer Rabbit - which are just about 20 minutes in the 90 minute film. Seeing the film again in its entirety again as an adult I am able to appreciate the moral of the story and what Disney was trying to express on the screen. He meant it to be an inspiring film with alot of toe tapping and hummable tunes. A film like this is most definitely a product of it's time.

Read more about this film and its sources from the blog Voyages Extraordinaires (from Jan 2019)

Trivia:
"Zip A Dee Doo Dah" won the Oscar for Best Song of the year.