8. Song Of The South
Walt Disney PicturesSong of the South is the 1946 Disney film that follows the friendship of a former slave named Uncle Remus, and Johnny, a plantation owner's grandson. Johnny, left lonely after the departure of his father, finds respite and joy in Uncle Remus' stories of Br'er Rabbit, the main animated character in the film. If you've never heard of Song of the South, that's because, well, Disney doesn't really want you to. It has been widely agreed that this film, whether intentionally or not, is verifiably racist. When it was first released, many people criticized its naive and offensive portrayal of slavery and the master-slave relationship. However, that doesn't mean that the film is completely devoid of any cinematic or musical merit. In fact, it was Song of the South that gave us the iconic Disney song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." Although the story isn't particularly strong, the tunes are great and the ending is extremely "satisfactual." This is definitely a film worth a watch if you can understand the circumstances that surround its controversy. To draw from the disclaimer that airs before the Looney Toons Golden Collection DVD, trying to hide Song of the South from the public eye because of its inappropriate portrayals of African-Americans "would be the same as to proclaim these prejudices never existed."