The Princess and the Frog

The newest Disney animated film, The Princess and the Frog recently came out on DVD, and it got me thinking about the controversy that surrounded the film upon its release. Critiques Disney likes to stay true to traditional, conservative views of gender, economic, and racial construct. The newest Disney princess, Tiana, was meant to be a breakthrough for Disney, as she is the first black princess, and feature character, that has been in one of their animated films. However, Disney received major backlash after it was released that Tiana would the maid to a white plantation owner living in the south. Some critics said that this was an unfair stereotypical depiction of the black community. Others argued that while the roles of some of the characters remain true to Disney’s tendency to oversimplify the roles of males and females, the film is accurately depicts a certain culture and era in American history, and Tiana’s triumph in the end discounts any racist undertones. The article goes on to explain another criticism of the film, which is the questioning of why the first black princess must automatically be from the south. The argument that I got from critics about Tiana’s origin was something to the affect of them being wary of a southern lead character being thought of as an intelligent, well-rounded character that children could respect and look up to. Although I tend to think that critiques are reading too much into the film, which in my opinion was very cute and light-hearted, it brought to mind the issues we discussed about the depiction of African Americans in the media.