After years and years of putting it off, I finally watched this to see if it was worth it. I'd say it was.
For starters, the production quality is pretty damn impressive for 1946. As for its social connotations, while I understand where the NAACP was coming from in criticizing this movie at its release time, I have to say that watching it decades later transported me back to that time. I guess black people in 1946 didn't want to be reminded of slavery but in 2016, we have no idea what it was like so the visual representation in the movie helped in that regard.
Was it worth it for Disney to lock the movie away for decades? Hell no. This is still a movie that kids would love. Since kids aren't born racist, this movie in its setting wouldn't affect them.
I also learned about the word 'Tar Baby' and how it's not even racist, etymologically. It was made that way via soap bar and the word 'Tar Baby' actually stems from African folklore.
Seriously, reading up on the history of this film, the author of Uncle Remus' stories and libtard media losing factual ground over it was very interesting. I grew up always thinking this film was just a cartoon with racist propaganda buried underneath (like many WW2 cartoons) but it's not. These are stories told by slaves and transcribed for everyone else to see.
However that said, the story was pretty basic and the character developments were pretty flat. Nothing special. There was heart but it was underdeveloped.
I give it a 7.5 / 10
EDIT: The real tragedy is actually the short lives of the two main actors, particularly the little boy...