Even Walt was deeply frustrated by the effort to start up his Studio again - with almost no cash in the bank and a staff that had been largely diverted to training films during the war. "It seemed like a hopeless thing to begin to pick up again. And my brother and I - I mean we had always been very close and things - but we had many disagreements. . . It seemed like quite a chore to get the ball rolling . . I knew I must diversify. I knew the diversification of the business would be the salvation of it."

The first postwar film was called "Make Mine Music," a series of animated pieces. Some were top- notch, like "Opera Pathetique," which featured singer Nelson Eddy as the voice of a whale who had the voice of an opera singer. Others were far more forgettable, like "Two Sillhouettes," which has been described by critic, historian and author Leonard Maltin as ""disaster for most viewers before the sequence was even under way."

But the next feature to be released was something entirely different. Based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, which Walt had long admired, it was called "Song of the South." It was to be the first genuine feature-length film the Studio had made since 1941.

As Disney archivist Dave Smith writes in his book "Disney A to Z," the story is about "a boy learning about life through the stories of Uncle Remus, which are shown in animated segments. Little Johnny is taken to his grandmother's plantation where he meets Uncle Remus and is guided by his stories… about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear. Johnny finds friendship with a local girl, Ginny Favers, but is bullied by her cruel brothers. When he is accidentally gored by a bull, it takes more than Uncle Remus to save him. His parents must reunite, creating a happy family once more."

Song of the South combined about 70% live-action and 30% animation. You might assume that would be easy as pie for Walt and his staff. Hadn't he started out with just that kind of combination, in his Alice Comedies? Maybe so, but the state of the art had changed dramatically in the years that passed, and pulling off this effort wasn't easy.

Recalled artist Ken Anderson, "Walt kept trying to explain to the cameraman that he had to leave enough space for the cartoon figures in front of the live-action cast. Walt would peer through the view-finder and yell. 'No. That's not right.' And he would hop up on a log and act out the part of the rabbit, and he would be the rabbit."

Challenges aside, Walt's animators had a wonderful time on the effort. As one master of the craft, Marc Davis, said, "I think almost all the animators who worked on it would have to say that they never did anything that was more fun than that. I think it was because of the great voices they had to work with. We, as a group, never, never liked the live-action film particularly. But maybe we're jealous, too."

The film starred African-American actor James Baskett as Uncle Remus. He received a special Academy Award in 1948 for the role -- a remarkable accomplishment for a Black man in America at that time. It also featured Walt's first two contract performers, Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten.

At its premiere in Atlanta, the film went over very well. Joel Chandler Harris was very much appreciated in that part of the country and according to historian Bob Thomas, "the film drew almost as warm a response as 'Gone With the Wind.'" It turned a small profit, which wasn't so bad for a film this expensive -- production costs had gone over $2 million.

But the story doesn't quite end there. A number of critics claimed the film had racist overtones.

As Leonard Maltin writes, "A Disney spokesman noted that the film did not depict slavery, since it took place after the Civil War, and that Disney 'was not trying to put across any message, but was making a sincere effort to depict American folklore, to put the Uncle Remus stories into pictures.' The Disney spokesman also pointed to a review written by Herman Hill in a black newspaper, the "Pittsburgh Courier," which said: 'The truly sympathetic handling of the entire production from a racial standpoint is calculated. . . to prove of inestimable good in the furthering of interracial relations'."