Wow. I found this thread and was absolutely riveted. And, I thought I would take a stab at addressing some of the complaints I've heard here about Princess and the frog:
1) "
The beginning was pretty bad (Tiana and her mother were "servants of a rich white guy)": Ok, maybe there is some subtext I missed here but...They weren't working "for" him. I thought it was fairly clear in that scene the Eudora was "the finest seamstress in New Orleans," and that Mr. La Bouff was her "best CLIENT." It's also pretty clear that every time Charlotte decides she wants a new custom princess dress or something, Mr. Labouff has to open up his wallet and shell out a pretty penny to Eudora...that's a bit of a far cry from the "slave" relationship some people seem to think is happening.
2)
The characterization of Tiana as having to hold multiple jobs: It's a proud Disney Princess tradition for the princess to have to work thanklessly (Cinderella? Snow white?) and no one complained that anything was wrong with it then. It's not like they are STARVING, the reason she works so hard isn't because of crippling poverty...it's because she is trying to open a giant fancy restaurant in 1920 New Orleans. That takes a LOT of money. She has big dreams. Hell, her main character flaw is "she works too hard." That's NOT really much of a "FLAW"..that the kind of answer you give at a job interview when they ask you to candidly describe your biggest flaw...it still makes you sound pretty amazing. So I'm puzzled as to how this is a negative...are black people being steroetyped here as "incredibly driven hard working?"
3)
"Naveen should have been black!": Uh...why? If I'm understanding this right your upset because..Tiana is in an interracial relationship? Is that the issue? I mean, isn't it kinda more offensive to say that Tiana shouldn't be with someone because he isn't a specific race?
4)
"Facilier is a black man who practices voodoo!": Yes..yes he is. And.......? Voodoo is a big part of New Orleans history...and did in fact originate in African countries. The message here wasn't "all black people practice voodoo." It was "most voodoo practitioners in New Orleans in the 1920s were black." And....that's true. See:
http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/multicultural/multiculturaltraditions/voodoo.html So, where is the racism here?
5)
"She spends most of the movie as a frog!:" Well, yes, it IS "The princess and the frog." Now in the original fairy tale, only the prince is a frog..and if they stayed true to that, the movie would have ended 20 minutes in when she kissed him. As the movie was developed, the creators at Disney decded there was more fun to be had if she became one too. It suited the story they wanted to tell. Should they be making story decisions based on the STORY, or based on how people might (mis)interpret things? The choice was made to tell an engaging story, and I for one would like to think race didn't play into the process at all. Now this WAS addressed earlier in this thread, that brings us to my next point:
6)
"Well why did they pick "Frog Princess" for the first black Princess! Why not Rapunzel??: Because Disney tends to base the settings/tone/style of their princess movies on the cultural origins of the source fairy tale. Snow White had some very germanic design throughout. While sleeping beauty was also told by the german "Brothers Grimm", it also had elements from "
La Belle au bois dormant "(The Beauty sleeping in the Wood") by
Charles Perrault, Which was french/Bretonian. Aladdin is a bit more obvious, and Beauty and the Beast, as well as Cinderella were French, ect. Some Disney Films simply took liberty with the setting based on modern associations, such as Frozen having a "Nordic" flavor (something we associate with snow, ice, ect) As far as I know, there aren't an abundance of African fairy Tales tales out there that are dying for the Disney treatment (if you know of any please let me know) The Frog Prince, on the other hand, while arguable originating in Germany, also had versions popularized in Scotland, Hungary, and even Korea. Without a definitive culture tied to the story, they felt they could experiment a bit, and given Disney's long term fascination with New Orleans, decided it was an interesting enough culture to use...and from there felt a Black heroine would be a good fit. Would you rather a character's ethnicity come from development of the story and setting, or would you rather a bunch of pandering executives sit around and say "We need a black Pincess! Who can we make Black??"
Ultimately my point is...if Tianna was another white princess, no one would have complained about any of these story elements at all. The fact that Disney felt comfortable enough to make their first African american Princess should say something...but instead they got slammed with complaints about every little element. Tell me, how likely is it you think Disney will go out on a limb again anytime soon, with all the negativity they got for trying? Sadly I feel like the public dissection of TPANF has put them off of trying anything that "risky" anytime soon.
And just a note: I'm not saying anyone's reactions to TPANF are WRONG, or unreasonable, but sadly we live in a time when everyone is so race-sensitive that any over analyzing a movie like this is literally bred into the culture. It would be nice if we could just take things at face value and not look as hard as we can for racial overtones, despite what our instincts are telling us.
