This article asks the eternal question, "When will the Disney people agree to put Song of the South out on DVD?" What I keep hearing from within that curious organization is that everyone who has to agree has agreed that it will cause little or no problem to put out that fine film but that they keep kicking it down the road a little farther. It's one thing to decide to do something and another to actually commit to a date and do it.
One does get the feeling that the idea is to float a few pieces in the press like this one to gauge any possible negative reaction. In the past, I'm told, there really hasn't been any. It gets into the media that Disney may soon release Song of the South and no one complains or speaks of dressing up like Tar Babies and picketing The Magic Kingdom or anything. If there are none to this latest round of rumors, they'll probably start talking seriously about a release schedule. And once they have one, they'll start talking about actually following through on it. And once they decide to actually follow through on it, they'll schedule a whole bunch of meetings to decide what kind of special treatment will be necessary. And at some point — and maybe sooner than all this suggests — they'll actually do it…and no one will be upset except for someone, somewhere who'll see it as a good opportunity to get a lot of personal publicity.
Thanks to Ray Arthur for calling my attention to this news item, and to others for which I haven't thanked him.