Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Black Princess

Since one's perception of beauty is largely influenced by their exposure and expectations in early childhood, the addition of Tiana to the Disney Princess line can only be seen as a move in the right direction.

Tiana (from the film The Princess and the Frog - release date; December '09) joins other established princesses; Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Jasmine (Aladdin),Pocahontas, and Mulan.

Disney has already had success with Black characters like Raven (That's So Raven) and Penny Proud (The Proud Family), so the leap to the big-screen was only natural.

Tiana fills out the racial mix of Disney princesses (Jasmine - Arab, Mulan - Asian, Pocahontas - Native American, Others - European) in the year of the Obama females.

Some think that Disney is pandering to Blacks with this new release.
But animation takes a while to produce.
I doubt if they could have written, drawn, voiced, scored and edited this movie since Barack Obama had any serious chance of becoming POTUS.
But the protests will come. ("Why does she have to be a maid?")
People will hate. ("They had to have a Black one.")
And Disney will get paid.

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