Censorship as bad as racism...

Without having seen the "Sunflower" scene in Fantasia, I have a hunch that many people thought that it was too offensive and portrayed a nasty stereotype of blacks. It's probably why "Song of the South" was banned, as well.

Reading about censorship, and this post, I'm reminded of when, as young pre-teens, my sister and I had a large storybook that was entitled "Stories that Never Grow Old". One of the stories in this particular book was called "Lil Hannibal", which was about a young black servant. My sister and I never got to read that story, because my mom tore that particular story out of the book. On looking back at that time, I can understand why my mom did what she did, but I don't think that it was necessarily the most sensible thing to do.

I'm sure plenty of people would say leaving it in is also idiotic and offensive, especially for a company that markets to children.

And while I do agree being against censorship of the arts, it doesn't mean the person was a moron for doing it.

Straightedge means I'm better than you.

I agree with you for old WB or Tom & Jerry cartoons, but to leave in 20 seconds that will shock everyone who watches it, for history's sake seems almost impossible. Unless they had a title card or additional narrative right before the sequence viewers who know nothing of the films history will be offended. Perhaps if they were to add it in the special features with an explanation like WB has then it would be OK. However it will never be present in a modern cut of this family friendly film, it's not racist, it's protecting what's great about the movie and preventing it from being tainted by 1940''s attitudes.

Disney films are known to stick with kids for years and years, reaching new audiences for generations. The racist caricature adds nothing and really makes the art less tasteful. This could also be really damaging to children of color. She is following a beautiful white woman around and serving her, thats awful and I would never be happy if a black child saw this because "thats the way it was". Its not okay and I wouldn't want my kids too laugh at that and not understand the implications and how other people feel. All they did was crop the centaur so you can only see her. If you really think this makes the scene so much worse, I pity you.

And this is nothing like editing nazi photos (does that even happen?). This is something contrived for entertainment, not a dictator slaughtering people and trying to take over the world. That comparison is offensive, and belittles what happened, truth be told. You think your suffering from a cartoon being edited is on the same level as the holocaust???

I understand keeping records of history and the past. I love old exploitation movies, i dont agree or condone most of what happens in them and would never want them censored. I laugh in at outdated things in gone with the wind, but dont want it censored.

But fantasia is for kids. And we need to stop normalizing racism in childrens entertainment. Disney is where many many children subliminally learn racial stereotypes, and the subtle racist characters are still intact in most disney movies so stop crying. Keeping this in is the movie is more offensive than leaving it out.

PS

Song of the south was never ever banned in the us or any country. It was released on vhs and disney decided not to have it on dvd when they were re-releasing their old films. It has never, ever, ever been banned.

I repeat: Not banned, just not worthy of being on dvd.

I'm not fond of censorship but for what it's worth most consumers do and would see Fantasia (and also Song of the South) as a kids' or family movie rather than a work of art or history and it would be hard to make a cover or other marketing that gave the idea it was more historical.

The film is intended to be enjoyed by viewers, including families, of the present as entertainment, and its historical value is also mostly about what people considered entertainment in the past so altering it is very different from altering (sanitizing) text or visuals of historical and political events that should offend people.

I'm not sure exactly what you're suggesting. Prints of the film with the Sunflower scenes continue to exist. Academics and other interested parties can watch it if they like - heck, the scenes are all easily available online. Anybody can watch it.

All that's happened is that the the Walt Disney Company, which created the film and owns rights to its distribution, has decided to remove the character from the versions of the film it releases to the consumer market. For someone who claims to be a supporter of free speech, it's odd that you're arguing that a creator should not be allowed to do whatever it wants with its own intellectual property. It's almost as if you're trying to censor Disney's efforts to promote anti-racism.

Anyone supporting censorship is revealing their fascist leanings.

Some interesting comparisons here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPFibRadto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_DSV90aJ1o