In 2004, Walt Disney Studios announced that "Home on the Range" was going to be their final traditionally animated film - the days of "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "Bambi", to name a few, were coming to an end. With Pixar and Disney successfully signing on to continue the success of the more dimensional characters, storytelling was second to animated quality. Fortunately, Pixar has a stellar reputation, and they have yet to produce a film that didn't become a smash hit and critical darling. Something must have changed though, because if you've been to the movies lately, you may have seen a trailer for the new film "The Princess and the Frog." The Disney film proudly announces itself as the return to traditionally animated films - and also takes pride in the fact that after years of princess films, there will finally be an African American princess.
This leads us to the point of this post. If you haven't seen the trailer, watch it now by clicking HERE (sorry, YouTube disabled the embedding option), and then continue reading.
Okay, tell me if I'm wrong - but does it not look like this new princess will be a FROG for most of the movie?! This could be one of the most offensive messages sent by Disney in the history of their films. The first movie that I ever saw in theaters, "The Song of the South", still isn't out on DVD because of a few racial remarks, but I think that's nothing compared to a company boasting it's first African American princess character and then having her turn into a frog of all things?! I'm white, and I'm turned off by this - I cannot imagine what the African American community is going to do - or maybe have even started doing - to react to this. Maybe the film will be a nice, touching, family film, but that's not the point. The point is simply you don't advertise a film priding itself in having the first African American princess, and then turn said princess into a slimy reptile for an hour and a half!! I really don't think that I'm overreacting, but feel free to share your thoughts about this. All right, I'm stated my case. What do you think?
I think you are overreacting ;) It's a fairy tale. Something terrible always happens to the princess in fairy tales. Some are turned into animals, some are locked up in towers, some are treated as slaves, etc. To completely change the mythology of fairy tales because of the color of a character's skin would be racist IMO. We are all equal: black, white, red, yellow, whatever. For that to be realized all races must be treated as equals. Not equal but special, but simply equal. Morgan Freeman's answer to the question of getting rid of racism is spot on... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO214IFRW1M
ReplyDeleteI think too big of a deal is being made. I mean, I think it's great that Disney made an African American princess...I don't think it was intentional that she is a frog for most of it...i'm sure the storyline was mapped out before the princess's skin color was decided. People act like Disney has had nothing but white, blonde princesses. They've had Blonde, Brunette, (REDHEAD..which is important to me...if they had turned Ariel blonde when they gave her legs, I wouldn't have thrown a fit), Native American, Middle Eastern/Moroccan, Asian, etc. I mean, how many Asian princesses are there? So, I think they've done a pretty good job with using different cultures and nationalities in their movies.
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's partially Disney's fault, because they're the ones making a big deal out of the fact that they have an African American princess. They didn't do that with their prior films. They just WERE princesses of different cultures.
On the other hand, I remember when I was little, it was really nice to have a redhead princess. They didn't really make redheaded dolls, so when I got my Ariel barbie, I was so excited and took it to kindergarten, because kids made fun of me when I colored people with red hair...they told me it didn't exist.