After reading that people are either upset that the prince appears “white” or happy that Disney is portraying an inter-racial coupling, and then noticing along with many others that Disney hasn’t yet shown a Hispanic princess… maybe Disney was trying to – for lack of a nicer idiom – kill two birds with one stone (seriously, this is such an awful idiom… does anyone know a saying that is bird-friendly?) by having an African American princess AND a Hispanic prince. Just maybe…
I don’t know if this image shows the actual princess of the title, or an intro of some kind with some kid being told a princess bedtime story by her parents. I just think her dolly next to the bedside lamp is sooo cute!
Hmmm, not too sure I like what this image implies… doesn’t seem like a very chivalrous prince (assuming the bigger frog is the “prince”) does he?
Images from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog website.
Oh yeah… and to the people ranting that the prince should be black because they believe that this movie is targeted to African Americans… um NO! Disney markets all their movies to as much of an universal audience as possible because that would maximise profits. Disney is a money making company as are most other commercial companies. All we (the public and consumers) can do is try to convince them to make their money in an ethical and conscientious way. Please don’t exclude other people from this discourse especially other minorities. Sharing is caring. Yes, Disney *could have* gone with a black prince and that would be just fine… but since they didn’t, it doesn’t make it ok to diss Hispanics (or even Middle Easterners or South Asians) who are thrilled that there’s a Disney character that looks like them. Share the joy! And yes I am very much aware of the history of systematic destruction to African American families and partnerships. Criticise this movie all you want but don’t go pulling other people down just so you can feel superior in some warped way.
Don’t even get me started on how wrong (historically and more) Mulan or Pocahontas is either… but the movies look pretty and I will continue to watch them. So nerrrr
Audre Lorde
okie dokie? now go be nice
Tags: disney, erasure & exclusion, princess and the frog, selfish people
The first and only Disney movie I ever saw was “Snow White” as an adult; some co-workers felt that I had been deprived by NOT seeing them. After seeing the movie, I mentally kissed both my parents for having the foresight and the mercy to have NEVER inflicted such saccharine goop on me. When I was a kid, fairy tales were gruesome stories by the Grimms Brothers or versions thereof found in the colored fairy books by Andrew Lang. So I’m not a Disney fan.
That said, I don’t see a problem having a Black princess and a non-Black prince. If the “princess” is African American Black – and that is weird there because the U.S. is NOT a monarchy; we do not have “princesses” and such titles – then regardless of the husband’s race, the child will still be “Black” by the U.S. “one drop” rule that immediately assigns any child with any known “Black” ancestors as “Black.”
Had the roles been reversed, there would probably have been less fuss. If the prince were Black and the princess non-Black – as happens with LOTS of sports figures – there’d probably be rejoicing through the system.
Since I am 95% of the time, about the doll or action figure presented, I’ll be happy to have an ethnic princess and an ethnic prince. Provided their heads aren’t too big or their eyes too cartoony. There’s room for more than one ethnicity/race at this inn ;-D
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Therese Reply:
July 27th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Oh yes, some of the original “fairy tales” were pretty gruesome, morbid and twisted… I do like the drafting style of Disney illustrators but yeah, their storylines are insanely shallow.
I just think the Princess and the Frog looks cute, I just hate it when people bicker amongst each other when they should be on the same page.
And judging by the most recent Disney princess dolls… she’d probably have a big head and cartoony eyes and wearing a low quality but very shiny dress O_o lol
Why didn’t you like Snow White? I… can’t say I remember it much to have a valid opinion…
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I couldn’t believe Snow White would be so dumb as to eat food (poisoned apple) from a stranger. I saw the movie as an adult, but even if I had seen it as a child, the child me would have been annoyed that she ate from a stranger. Trick-or-treat candy gathering in the neighborhood was still done when I was young, but it was more an official Halloween activity than a candy grab. My Mom would go over everything BEFORE we ate it. Apples and any other kind of uncovered or homemade “treat” would be tossed. We’d only get wrapped candies that had smooth, unbroken wrappers. But that’s just my emotional response to the film.
I’m not saying it was/is a bad movie; just not something I liked.
I don’t usually get the Disney princesses. I do have Mulan (um, she was on sale LOL) and Li Shang. Oh and John Smith and Kocoum ….
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Therese Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 8:49 am
oh yeah movies don’t make sense…
Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen –> if they needed to steal the sun… why couldn’t they do it from Mars where there’s no meddling life forms AND it seems nice and peaceful there unlike Venus…
Drag me to Hell –> (I didn’t watch this, I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to horror, my partner saw this with a friend) if a Gypsy is powerful enough to conjure up monsters and curse a person to hell… why couldn’t they pay off their mortgage loan?
you really need to ignore all sensibilities of reality when touching fiction or you end up really confused and annoyed at how stupid the characters are lol
older Disney dolls weren’t so bad… the really recent “princess” dolls are… ick – I have the collectors Broadway version of Belle only
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HAHA! wth! I’m just glad that the 1950′s generation has step aside and start being civilized. Regardless to what anyone says race has and always be an issue…even in something as trivial as this addition to disney. I quite enjoyed the movie and all I have to say is…FINALLY! It would be awesome if they had a Latina Princess and a Latino Prince. Don’t worry give disney time…it will happen…maybe not now or soon. but eventually. Look how long it took them to get the Black Princess and prince in.
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