In light of the overwhelming responses from my last post, I figure I'd do some research on this new movie, featuring an African American princess, set to release on December 11th. Princess Tiana will star in The Princess and the Frog, which follows the basic premise of any classical Disney fairy tale--she kisses a frog, he is transformed into a magical prince who sweeps her off her feet and they live happily ever after. Mulan, Pocahontas and Jasmine are certainly odes to racial diversity across the board--generally speaking, before their appearance the lead characters were overwhelmingly white. I suppose the question we must ask ourselves is, will Disney be able to break away from their humiliating racial controversies of the past? Will Princess Tiana fill the void of a black heroine, imitated by thousands of young girls across the country?
Very interesting! Is this really Disney's first animated black leading lady? If so, I cant believe it has taken them this long. We don't give children nearly enough credit in their ability to pick up on things like racial cues, stereotypes or the lack of racial diversity. These movies are the beginning of children's world views and we should be giving them a more accurate and accepting depiction.
ReplyDeletesince the election of Obama, there has been more ecceptance of people who are of a different ethnicity. Maybe it is just me, but I have seen more actors who are of different nationalities. I think that there is a growing acceptance of race.
ReplyDeleteare we counting any of the characters in the lion king as black? they were voiced by black people. the crows in dumbo were certainly black, but i think thats the type of stereotyping disney was trying to stay away from with this new project.
ReplyDeleteperhaps unsucessfully...
i read this article about the frog princess being criticized for being racist: http://hollywood-animated-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/frog_princess_damage_control
i guess we will see! i heard they had to redo some of the voices, but i'll have to do more research. may blog about this one myself, so interesting!