Not Streaming: ‘Song of the South’ and Other Films Stay in the Past

LOS ANGELES — To augment its new streaming service, Disney reached into the far, far recesses of its movie library.

“Sammy, the Way-Out Seal” (1962), a TV movie about two boys and their groovy aquatic pet, was available on Day 1. So were “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” (1969), a comedy starring an 18-year-old Kurt Russell, and “The Castaway Cowboy” (1974), an action drama set on Kauai and originally marketed with the tagline “He tamed the wild cattle … and the WILD natives of old Hawaii.”

But not every outdated Disney movie made the cut.

It was never a question, for instance, whether Disney Plus subscribers would have access to the 1946 Disney musical “Song of the South,” in which a former slave, Uncle Remus, recounts African folk tales. “Song of the South” won an Oscar for its centerpiece song, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” and mixed live-action filmmaking and animation in a way that was groundbreaking. But Disney has not made “Song of the South” available in any form — for 33 years — because of its racist imagery. Upon the movie’s release, the N.A.A.C.P. said “Song of the South” gave “the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship.”

Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, made his stance on the film clear at a 2011 shareholder meeting. “Don’t expect to see it again for at least a while — if ever,” he said.

Every big movie studio has a skeleton or three in its film closet. Warner Bros. would prefer if everyone forgot about the racist Bugs Bunny cartoons it put out in the 1940s; “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” a James Cagney musical from 1942, includes a grandiose blackface number. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was filmed on the same Warner soundstage where WarnerMedia executives gathered last month to unveil their HBO Max streaming service.