Since one's perception of beauty is largely influenced by their exposure and expectations in early childhood, the addition of Tiana to the Disney Princess line can only be seen as a move in the right direction.Tiana (from the film The Princess and the Frog - release date; December '09) joins other established princesses; Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Jasmine (Aladdin),Pocahontas, and Mulan.
Disney has already had success with Black characters like Raven (That's So Raven) and Penny Proud (The Proud Family), so the leap to the big-screen was only natural.
Tiana fills out the racial mix of Disney princesses (Jasmine - Arab, Mulan - Asian, Pocahontas - Native American, Others - European) in the year of the Obama females.
Some think that Disney is pandering to Blacks with this new release.
But animation takes a while to produce.
I doubt if they could have written, drawn, voiced, scored and edited this movie since Barack Obama had any serious chance of becoming POTUS.
But the protests will come. ("Why does she have to be a maid?")
People will hate. ("They had to have a Black one.")
And Disney will get paid.
As the father of a biracial girl who despite all her parent's hard work against it, isOBSESSED with all things princess. This princess crap is everywhere and is like crack to a 4 year old girl.
ReplyDeleteThis film has been in the works for years and parents like me have been anticipating it with a level of hope and skeptiscism. Ar ethey going to market it as prominantly as the others?
An even bigger fear for us is what should we think if this does not become her favorite? What if she still insists on having Cinderella... and the already spoken question of "why can't I have white skin and yellow hair? I want to be like CInderella."
Don't get my wife started on the story lines of theses things...
So my little girl is supposed to look up to Ariel for running away from her family and completely changing who she is for some dude? Not only that but she can't talk so all this guy even knows about her is if she looks good?
You don't have to be a real feminazi to think this is crap.
let the haters hate (they always do anyway)
ReplyDeleteA black princess is wonderful, fabulous and so so long overdue. Let us not forget that Cinderella was a maid as well.
There will always be haters because to focus on the negative is easy.
ReplyDeleteBesides, we've already had the King of Zamunda who also is known as Eddie Murphy.
@ brohammas - good question, but it requires more space (and some graphics) to answer than I have here.
ReplyDelete@ RunningMom - Oh, I know. But many others won't see it that way.
@ Rippa - Yeah... some people will always hate but they never seem to have any answers.