Well hello there B'rer Rabbit!

My brother just sent me an Ofoto gallery of his family vacation to Disney World, and two peculiar things dawned on me. First, although I know that's just some guy in a suit, the kid in me believes that when he puts on the suit, he is actually that character. (Spare me the furry comments.)

When I was about 7, my parents took me to Disney World. I remember being there for a whole week and seeing Goofy, Donald, Pluto and the lot, but not Mickey. On our last day, eating in a cafe, out of the corner of my eye, there he was, the head honcho himself, Mickey Mouse. I screamed, as any child would, and ran into his arms. While that's pretty goofy, pardon the pun, since I'm an adult who likes to consider himself not too-cool-for-school, I can admit I was envious when I looked at those pictures of my brother with his kids in tow crowding around Donald. It looked like too much damn fun.

That being said, something else in his pictures struck me...This feller right here...B'rer Rabbit. Now, I recognize this hare on sight. In fact, my brother and I went late one night in 1986 to see one of B'rer Rabbit's final theatrical performances. Since then, Disney has deemed The Song Of The South to be too taboo for the American audience. So much so that up until 2001 they were releasing this film on DVD, VHS and LaserDisc (nice.) in countries other than the U.S. Disney apparently felt that the film was too racial for Americans.

What's strange is that the target audience of Disney World today has never seen B'rer Rabbit in action, nor B'rer Fox, B'rer Bear, Uncle Remus, The Bull...none of them. All strangers in a parade in the middle of "The Happiest Place on Earth". It's too bad. The spirituals in that film are awesome; Zippity Doo Daa is a classic; and the stories of Uncle Remus are engaging. [Thanks Peter, and How do ya do?]

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