Does "The Princess and the Frog" Inspire Racial Stereotypes?

[Blue_Tires]

'The Princess And The Frog' Includes Disney's First African-American Princess, But Does It Inspire Racial Stereotypes?

Disney's newest resident in the palatial palace of princess movies, "The Princess and the Frog," opens in wide release December 11 and holds significance for a number of reasons. For one, the film marks the House of Mouse's return to traditional, hand-drawn animation (the last being 2004's "Home on the Range"). But more importantly, it features Disney's first African-American princess.

The movie stars "Dreamgirls" actress Anika Noni Rose as the voice of Princess Tiana, a Bayou-bred girl who stumbles upon a prince transformed into a frog by an evil witch doctor. Gregarious Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) convinces Tiana to gift him with a kiss to transform him back to his royal splendor, but instead, the smooch turns Tiana into a fellow emerald amphibian. The two set out on a musical journey through Louisiana to find a voodoo priestess who can change them back to their human selves. The cast also includes Terrence Howard, John Goodman and Oprah Winfrey as Tiana's mother.

Movieline's Seth Abramovitch recently spoke with directors Ron Clements and John Musker at Comic-Con about the racial concerns surfacing over "Frog Princess," including the pairing of the African-American princess with a South American prince and the inclusion of characters like Mama Odie who seem to perpetuate racial stereotypes.

"The first thing is that all the criticism of the movie has been from people who have not seen the movie, who don’t know the context of the movie, who don’t know the story," Ron told Movieline. "We did a lot of consulting, and our co-writer on the film Rob Edwards was African-American, and we talked to many African-Americans. The reaction we’ve gotten from everyone who’s actually seen the movie, and knows the story, has been very, very positive."

http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2009/08/07/the-princess-and-the-frog-includes-disneys-first-african-american-princess-but-does-it-inspire-racial-stereotypes/

[Kind of Blue]

1. It seems strange to me,

granted I haven't seen it, that the princess spends a good chunk of the movie being a frog. Maybe that's the point, looks don't matter :shrug: It's just that's not the version I remember from childhood.

[AspenRose]

2. Disney thrives on stereotypes

so I would say YES

[bliss_eternal]

3. i'm willing to wait.....

...and see it, before forming an opinion one way or the other. but i'm hopeful, and excited about this one. i feel badly that the company was pressured about the prince being non-ethnic (and thus having an "interracial romance"). so the result is the prince is a light-skinned, man of color.

it's nice to see the entire range of "color/hues" represented in tv, film and animation. so i appreciate seeing an "olive" or "light-skinned" prince. but am sincerely disappointed that they didn't pursue a love story featuring people of differing looks and background. i think it's important for children to see people of different backgrounds, coming together in love--without society's stigmas.

but oh well...someday maybe. :shrug:

[Kind of Blue]

4. Kids: the fairest critics of all.

My favorite, "She's beautiful and I like her green dress!"

Short but sweet survey of little ones' opinions at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121353041

[Brewman_Jax]

5. Disney has been into non-racial stereotypes

that is, anything that detracted from the majority viewpoint, for many, many years. If it did, it wasn't put on screen--that simple. Non-WASP main characters, like Mulan and Pocahontas, are relatively recent in Disney history.

They really didn't need to use the "one black friend" line. :eyes: There will be those who will like the film, and those that won't, but to fall back on the "We have a black co-writer and we talked to many black people, so ALL black people should be happy" line to deflect critism, shows the depth of racist ignorance that still underpins this social structure. :grr: Maybe I should work on a "You might be a racist" post. :think:

[Karenina]

6. I LOVED IT!!! The COLOURS, man, the COLOURS!!!

The animation is FANTASTIC, the music is fun, the story is one stereotype after another (whaddya want? It's Disney!) :rofl: , the Southern Bell caricature is HILARIOUS and I'll probably go see it AGAIN tonight!

[Number23]

7. lol! That's probably the best review I've seen yet for this (or any other) movie

:rofl:

Shoot, if it's all that I may leave my poppet at home and go sneak and see an afternoon matinee all by my lonesome. :)

[Karenina]

8. Consider it a gift to yourself and do go for it!

Then let's chew the fat! They WENT THERE with the light eyes thang and we could go on forever. I'm SERIOUS, I may get 3 viewings in on this one! I'm still missing how the frog prince got away in the first place. Oh, continuity...

[Karenina]

9. Calling Number23! Did you see it yet?

:bounce::bounce::bounce:

[Number23]

10. It doesn't get released here until 1 January!

I keep telling y'all that Australia is 3-6 months behind the US on EVERYTHING!! ;)