Controversy starts to build on Disney’s ‘The Princess and the Frog’
Comments(8)
- By drvenkman
Really? Are you serious? I thought we were all past this. Disney has made a new 2D animated movie coming out the Christmas called ‘The Princess and the Frog’. Disney is going back old school on this one and I am happy to them do some traditional animation. Now some numb skull out there is trying to turn this magical Disney princess movie into a controversy of race discrimination. Are you kidding me? Charlotte Observer columnist William Blackburn has said the following:
“This princess’ story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community. And then they throw in the voodoo theme [the fairy-godmother character is a voodoo priestess] and an alligator sidekick. When you put New Orleans, alligators and voodoo together, there’s no beauty there.”
Ok this is just ridiculous. Lets take a look at some of the other animated films Disney has made that are loved all throughout the world shall we:
Mulan – the title character has a pet dragon. Is this offensive to the Chinese people?
Aladdin – Princess Jasmine has an name that does not even come from Saudi Arabia. She has a pet tiger and Aladdin has a pet Monkey. Was the Middle East offended by this?
Now lets just talk about Magic and the occult. These are used in pretty much every freaking Disney film! For Example: The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Sword and the Stone, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Emperors New Groove, The Black Cauldron, they all use magic and play around with the occult! So why in the hell is voodoo considered to be bad for this film?!
The movie is a fairytale that takes place in the 1920’s during the Jazz age! The movie is celebrating the greatness of New Orleans and it’s rich and amazing history not tearing it down you crazy man! And we all know the movie is going to have an amazing happy ending!
I think this movie looks great and i am really looking forward to seeing with my family.
There is no need to start up more controversy that is built on a foundation of hate. There is already to much hate in this world. Again, Disney has put together a Princess film to celebrate New Orleans and its history not destroy it and cause problems.
-Dr. Venkman
Dr. Venkman, I love the blog and I don’t want to sound hypercritical but I’ve noticed that in this article and other recent articles there have been quite a few misspelled words that a spell checker should have caught. It’s just a little distracting, but other than that I totally agree with your viewpoint.
Thanks for the heads up! I get so into the writing sometimes I forget to even check!
Disney has always had controversy in their movies just look at walt disney himself he was an anti-semite im not saying the movie is stereotypical but im saying disney has always been this
Ok, firstly
I agree that some people over act in regards to the portrayal of Disney stereotypes and misrepresentations. However, it is well founded due to the long history of discrimination (be it intentional or merely a result of societal internalisation) towards gender, class and ethnicity.
Secondly, it does not mater if people voice their offences or not, the damage is done as soon as the millions if not billions of people are exposed to Disney Films. Many features of Disney animations sneak under the surface of our consciousness, for example, Pocohauntus (forgive my spelling). What one may see as a successful attempt from Disney to rectify their past tendencies of only allowing male characters to play the heroic roles in their films, is in fact a subtle yet damaging portrayal of women. One interpretation (there are many) states that Pocahuntus, despite her desires of exploring the ‘new world’ remains in her village to help her people remain stability. In doing this, she has given up her dreams in order to adhere to the expectations of women as the nurturing, providers of society. As a result, the message is sent that women have an obligation to carry out the aforementioned actions rather than exploring their own personal fulfilment. Further more, her only motivation throughout the entire movie is derived from either her expected role as a woman and her desire for John Smith. Therefor, every action she takes throughout the movie is not out of her own wishes but rather what she has been conditioned to do by her society i.e. protect and nurture, fall in love with a man etc.
As is evident, what was a step forward for Disney is a stumble backwards for feminism.
Also, we only need to watch five minutes of the infamous “song of the south” to become aware of the explicit racism in early films and compare that to Alladin, which came out in the supposed advancement towards cultural understanding. Note that Alladin, despite being a Middle Eastern man, has clear anglo-saxon features including pale skin and an American accent (he is also reffered to as ‘Al’ a typical Americanised name). This is done as Alddin is the hero of the film, while the villian is of olive skin, a beared and a thick Middle Eastern accent. The creation of cultural ‘others’ is clearly apparent and this very creation is damaging towards cultural and racial equality.
There are countless other examples of this problem and although I have not seen Princess and the Frog I am sure that their will be some subtle and damaging representations of one race/gender as it wouldn’t be a Disney Film without Racism and/or Sexism
It seems that a lot of people don’t understand what the uproar is about with this movie. Quite a number of people are stating that race shouldn’t be important, and why should it matter if the prince is white or non black–it’s all about being equal and harmonious right? In fact some believe the people that are complaining about a white prince are the real racists, because they wouldn’t complain in the first place. Wrong. Race is important. Why is it that down the line of the Disney princesses (excluding Pocohontas) that their costars or counterparts were of the same race? Why all of a sudden when it comes to the black princess that Disney wants to change it up? It would makes sense to follow the Disney formula or blue print. I tell you why they changed the scheme of things because Disney wanted to send a message. You know what that message is? It is not practical for a black woman and black man relationship to exist. It is not the norm; therefore, a black woman would have to look elsewhere for love for her prince. In addition it is also saying that a black man could never be a prince or atleast a prince to a black woman. Yes we love interracial relationships, but why is it that the first black princess has to compromise herself to find love. It would make more sense for a white princess to have an interracial relationship first since we’ve already seen her have her white prince. Yes I am glad that Disney thought to have a black princess, but I am certainly not thankful. If they’re going to have a black princess they should present it in the right way. Also just like how I want my daughter to be able to identify with a princess, I want the same for my son. You mean to tell me that as a young black man that he can’t have someone to identify with and that he can’t be a prince. Mulan didn’t have this much controversy because the people that put that project together were knowledgeable about the history, and presented the story in a way that was uplifting to the asian community; however, with this project the people behind it don’t seem to have the same vigiliance. From the start there have been many problems as if they just decided to do the movie without doing their homework and it shows. It is very unfortunate because I have grown up watching Disney movies and looked forward to the fruitation of finally having a black princess, but I will not support this movie because of the damaging message that it is sending. There are beautiful black relationships.
"When you put New Orleans, alligators and voodoo together, there’s no beauty there.”
What the – ? That, sir, is the ultimate in beauty. Moron.
Rambo i can kinda see where your coming from with Aladdin not so much with Pocahontas.i can see where you're coming from also chichi but i think that there would be controversy about the relationship even if the prince were black.granted mulan did have a love interest who was also Chinese but it was set in China this is set in America a melting pot of different cultures.really the only "modern" movies that might have taken place in America is The Little Mermaid (maybe Beauty and the Beast).i agree that there are beautiful black relationships but i feel like doing this movie was a no win situation regarding the prince being black or non-black
This movie is demeaning to the black community….not only is there no such thing as royalty in New Orleans but to introuduce young children to such a devilish lifestyle as voodoo is plain wrong… granted that we finally have a black princess to represent our culture, but why is her "prince" not black as well… i'm just saying all the other princesses besides Pocahontas had a prince to match their nationality so why cant we have the same respect….not to mention i am also offended that we are the only "princess" to turn into an animal… and a frog of all that insinuating that us as black women have big mouths… i'm happy to get a princess but not happy how she got here…