Disney's first black princess...and its last?

In 2009 Disney released their first black princess animated movie, "The Frog Princess." The 'Frog Princess' is a “an American fairy tale” starring a girl named Maddy who lives in the French Quarter in New Orleans. This princess, Maddy, finally will join 8 other Disney princesses from all over the world. Jasmine from the Middle East, Mulan from China, Pocahontis, an American Indian, they have all joined Cinderella, Snow White, and Bell to make up the famous Disney Princesses.

After 80 years, according to a Peoplesnews article, Disney executive Kristin McMurphy, they finally agreed that it was time to make a black princess as the focus for their next film. Even prior to the release of the film, there was much concern about how decent of a job Disney did to positively and correctly portray this 'black princess.'

For many critics, concern was a more than appropriate word to describe the disaster Disney was producing. "Disney is not only racist, but evil," commented various critics from Peoplesnews.

How is Disney racist? How are they evil? HOw poorly did Disney portray this young African American princess? Did Disney do the right thing in believing the time had finally presented itself where America was ready to handle this?

To answer these questions we can just look at the princess herself. Alandra Mitchell, a film critic simply states, "She wears a perm. That's saying our natural hair isn't beautiful enough."

"The prince is lighter than she is. What's that say about black men?" says fellow critic Hensley Jamson. He also mentioned that anyone lighter than Denzel Washington was not 'truly black.'

Another critic discusses how the princess and prince speak. “Have you heard the firefly talk? He sounds like Uncle Remus. Black people don’t be talking like that no more,” said Wilhemina Forrest, a minister in Waverly, Ga."

Disney explained that they believed the time had come in their corporation where they needed to produce a movie starring a black princess. It was not just enough anymore to have side black characters, for example, the crows in Dumbo, or the monkeys from the Jungle Book. With President Obama in the White House it truly seemed as if this was a calling said McMurphy.

Unfortunately, as Disney's plow to make additional millions off of Maddy, critics everywhere were raging about the poor decision of creating this film. This almost fits in perfectly with Cullen's chapter 3 where the 'exotic racial cultures are on display.' The culture of African Americans has now been officially put on display not just for white elitists, but now for the world to view.

Maybe it was still too soon, or maybe Disney did it wrong, or maybe just maybe there is still something holding these critics back for accepting what Disney has just done. Disney surpassed a huge milestone in their career. In American culture, regardless of individual people's thoughts, Disney has just done a remarkable thing.

http://thepeoplesnewsonline.com/2009/06/02/disneys-black-princess-is-the-most-racist-thing-ever/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17524865/