Media reactions to the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog, the first Disney feature with a black heroine due to be released in time for Christmas 2009, have been a decidedly mixed bag. Disney’s first African-American Princess, Maddy, lives in New Orleans of the 1920s, and dreams of capturing the attention of Prince Naveen.
Some critics have lambasted the production, claiming that the movie promotes negative black stereotypes rather than challenging them. Others think we should get a grip — it’s about time Disney had a black role model for young girls, and The Princess and the Frog is no worse than other Disney releases, such as Aladdin and Mulan, which portray simplified versions of other races and cultures.
The lack of black female role models in media is a serious problem. Vogue has been repeatedly criticized for the limited diversity represented by its models , and high profile middle-aged black celebrities, such as Oprah (who was in fact a consult for Disney on the movie and voices the role of Princess Tiana’s mother) hardly appeal to a youth market.
But what about the content of the movie itself? Aside from worries about racial stereotyping, there has been little discussion of the hackneyed, traditional, and broadly anti-feminist premise of TPATF: Princess Tiana spends pretty much the whole movie focusing on winning the affection of her Prince. Few of the Disney Princesses are particularly independent, and Tiana’s representation makes no attempt to break that mold.
So what do you think? Does Disney need to rethink its heroines, or are we just getting over-animated about some harmless animation?
Comments (4)
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that make no sense. She does not try to win the affection of the prince. During the whole movie she wants to get back to be human so she can sign the papers for HER resturant.
if that is not independence i dont know what is.
I absolutely agree with Whitney. Through out the whole movie Tiana just wanted to complete her dream and it had nothing to do with love. She even told her mother that she wasn’t looking for love until she completed her dream. Technically later she though she was going to have to give up her dream to be with him (and in the very end she got her dream) but he also gave up marrying Charlotte La Bouff which would have gave him wealth. It was the Charlotte La Bouff who craved the love of Prince Naveen and Tiana almost suffered for it.
Honestly this is one of my favorite Disney movies ever (right next to Beauty and the Beast). Tiana and Naveen hated each other in the beginning but after spending time together they started notice they had feelings but they both wanted to follow their dreams. Tiana is the closest thing that Disney has come to for “self rescuing princess” (yes I know she didn’t save her self but she came darn close to not getting captured by the swamp guys) because as much as I love Mulan she’s not a princess. However the best part (in my opinion) is how even though he was going to marry Charlotte and give Tiana her dream she realized that being with him was her new dream and she was willing to compromise her life goal for him (honestly I would have loved it if she stayed a frog and made a restaurant in the swamp).
I’ve heard several things about how Disney has been racist with the non-white “heroines” (in my eyes almost none of the Disney princesses are nothing close to heroines) however personally I don’t see a difference on how Disney treats them. All of them (except for Belle) fall “in love” with their prince in such a short time; Jasmine ran away and fell automatically in love with Aladdin even after both of their lies, Ariel saved Eric because she fell in love with him by watching him from afar, Cinderalla danced with Prince Charming for one night when they fell in love and married because the shoe fitted her, Snow White fell in love with Prince when they met at a wishing well and she married him after just a kiss, Aurora met Phillip for no more than a few hours before she was suppose to marry him and they fell in love right away just by singing a song, and Pocahontas believed she fell in love with John Smith even though they spoke two different languages (of course if you’ve seen the second one you know that she realized how wrong she was). That’s if you actually count the real princess though, some people claim that Tinker Bell is a princess and she worshiped the ground Peter Pan walked on yet he never cared about her. Esmeralda fell in love with her man right away. I’m sure there are plenty of more examples.
In the end they are princesses of course they are most likely going to get their fairy tale ending. I have never heard of a princess in a fairy tale who truly worked her butt off and deserved what she got as much as Tiana.
~That is all just my opinion.
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