has merely lingered at the set for Tara, awaiting another domestically disarranged family.” 29
Song of the South
offered a mixture of the Selznick film’s romance and nostalgia for the imagined Old South with Disney’s distinctive brand of catchy musical tunes and groundbreaking animation. Not coincidentally, 1939 was also the year that Disney began negotiating the rights to the Harris stories. 30 Disney had planned to make the film then, possibly even with Paul Robeson as Uncle Remus, 31 but delayed it upon the outbreak of war. This very same war financially saved the company, but it also eventually made the final product that was
Song of the South
even more outdated.
THE DISNEY STUDIOS’ FINANCIAL STRUGGLES
By the 1940s, Disney was heavily dependent on the use of live action to cut costs. Even before World War II, it was clear that animation was not only expensive, but also failed to consistently draw large audiences. For every
Snow White
, there was also a
Fantasia
or
Pinocchio
—films that failed on first release to recoup their costs at the box office. Live action was one way to both minimize such financial risks and produce new films more quickly. The results were films that ranged from self-promotional features like
The Reluctant Dragon
(1941) to documentaries such as
Seal Island
(1948), which were all more live action than animation. This trend essentially continued until the day Walt died three decades later. Largely live action entertainment such as the
Disneyland
TV show or the film
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
(1954) were as big as any cartoons made during this time. Although it had made the company’s reputation, new animated features were very much an afterthought by the time Disney expanded its media offerings in the 1950s and 1960s.
In particular, Disney had refined its familiarity with the use of live action through a variety of World War II propaganda texts, such as
Victory Through Air Power
and the Latin America “Good Neighbor” projects,
Saludos Amigos
and
The Three Caballeros
(1945). The war shifted priorities for Disney, since government contracts kept the company afloat. The U.S. government constituted the bulk of Disney’s funding, rescuing the company from considerable creative and financial trouble, often of its own making (e.g.,
Fantasia
, 32 the strike). During the war, Disney produced everything from domestic propaganda (
Der Fuehrer’s Face
, 1943) to government instructional films. These pro-war and goodwill efforts also solidified Disney’s reputation internationally as a face of the United States.
Saludos Amigos
was intended to strengthen the United States’ image in South America more than it was designed to bring in revenue domestically. This also gave the company’s public persona a more nationalistic connotation on the eve of
Song of the South
, which was its first major project after World War II not tied to the war effort. While the company was afforded creative freedom after the war to pursue its own projects, the government no longer guaranteed these films’ financial bottom line.
At the same time, Disney’s struggles were symptomatic of larger industry woes. Hollywood had been in an economic downturn since the late 1930s—something that war-related film production only postponed. After World War II, meanwhile, “the postwar era soon proved to be the most turbulent and crisis-ridden period in industry history.” 33 Every Holly wood studio was battling additional union strikes, tightened foreign markets, antitrust lawsuits, and a suburban exodus that caused revenue from downtown theaters to dwindle. Disney was representative, but hardly unique in its postwar struggles. As Christopher Anderson writes, “Disney nearly buried his studio beneath ambitious plans for expansion. With box office disappointments like the costly animated feature
Fantasia
(1940), the closing of foreign markets because of the war, and over-investment in new studio facilities, Disney faced
Song of the South
offered a mixture of the Selznick film’s romance and nostalgia for the imagined Old South with Disney’s distinctive brand of catchy musical tunes and groundbreaking animation. Not coincidentally, 1939 was also the year that Disney began negotiating the rights to the Harris stories. 30 Disney had planned to make the film then, possibly even with Paul Robeson as Uncle Remus, 31 but delayed it upon the outbreak of war. This very same war financially saved the company, but it also eventually made the final product that was
Song of the South
even more outdated.
THE DISNEY STUDIOS’ FINANCIAL STRUGGLES
By the 1940s, Disney was heavily dependent on the use of live action to cut costs. Even before World War II, it was clear that animation was not only expensive, but also failed to consistently draw large audiences. For every
Snow White
, there was also a
Fantasia
or
Pinocchio
—films that failed on first release to recoup their costs at the box office. Live action was one way to both minimize such financial risks and produce new films more quickly. The results were films that ranged from self-promotional features like
The Reluctant Dragon
(1941) to documentaries such as
Seal Island
(1948), which were all more live action than animation. This trend essentially continued until the day Walt died three decades later. Largely live action entertainment such as the
Disneyland
TV show or the film
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
(1954) were as big as any cartoons made during this time. Although it had made the company’s reputation, new animated features were very much an afterthought by the time Disney expanded its media offerings in the 1950s and 1960s.
In particular, Disney had refined its familiarity with the use of live action through a variety of World War II propaganda texts, such as
Victory Through Air Power
and the Latin America “Good Neighbor” projects,
Saludos Amigos
and
The Three Caballeros
(1945). The war shifted priorities for Disney, since government contracts kept the company afloat. The U.S. government constituted the bulk of Disney’s funding, rescuing the company from considerable creative and financial trouble, often of its own making (e.g.,
Fantasia
, 32 the strike). During the war, Disney produced everything from domestic propaganda (
Der Fuehrer’s Face
, 1943) to government instructional films. These pro-war and goodwill efforts also solidified Disney’s reputation internationally as a face of the United States.
Saludos Amigos
was intended to strengthen the United States’ image in South America more than it was designed to bring in revenue domestically. This also gave the company’s public persona a more nationalistic connotation on the eve of
Song of the South
, which was its first major project after World War II not tied to the war effort. While the company was afforded creative freedom after the war to pursue its own projects, the government no longer guaranteed these films’ financial bottom line.
At the same time, Disney’s struggles were symptomatic of larger industry woes. Hollywood had been in an economic downturn since the late 1930s—something that war-related film production only postponed. After World War II, meanwhile, “the postwar era soon proved to be the most turbulent and crisis-ridden period in industry history.” 33 Every Holly wood studio was battling additional union strikes, tightened foreign markets, antitrust lawsuits, and a suburban exodus that caused revenue from downtown theaters to dwindle. Disney was representative, but hardly unique in its postwar struggles. As Christopher Anderson writes, “Disney nearly buried his studio beneath ambitious plans for expansion. With box office disappointments like the costly animated feature
Fantasia
(1940), the closing of foreign markets because of the war, and over-investment in new studio facilities, Disney faced
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