English Class

For my English class, we've been focusing on topics in cinema. One of the girls in my classroom had her presentation today and she decided to focus on racism and societal roles in Disney movies. One of the movies that my classmate focused on was Songs of the South. I have never heard about this movie, and several of my classmates had not either. Songs of the South is about a plantation farm, although it never mentions the era or the roles of the characters. Disney has refused to re-release this movie because they feel that "young children are very impressionable" and that the messages of the movie are no longer appropriate for the time period. In her presentation, the girl mentioned that Disney holds all copyrights to the movie and that they will only release it to film study students who are working on a serious report about the movie.

Another movie that the presentation focused on was Peter Pan and the "What makes the REd man red?" song. These lyrics go:

What Made the Red Man Red?
Why does he ask you, "How?"
Why does he ask you, "How?"
Once the Injun didn't know
All the things that he know now
But the Injun, he sure learn a lot
And it's all from asking, "How?"

Hana Mana Ganda
Hana Mana Ganda
We translate for you
Hana means what mana means
And ganda means that too

When did he first say, "Ugh!"
When did he first say, "Ugh!"
In the Injun book it say
When the first brave married squaw
He gave out with a big ugh
When he saw his Mother-in-Law

What made the red man red?
What made the red man red?
Let's go back a million years
To the very first Injun prince
He kissed a maid and start to blush
And we've all been blushin' since

You've got it from the headman
The real true story of the red man
No matter what's been written or said
Now you know why the red man's red!

Although these lyrics are no longer appropriate, Peter Pan is a widely seen movie and has been re-released several times. I found this presentation to be very interesting and it made me relate several aspects of 448 class to it.