That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
Even though credit is due to Disney for making this film (and it is about time) with a black princess, the road to the final product was a rough and contentious one. Following the good Disney tradition of controversy (remember the way the stars in The Lion King spell out ‘sex’ or the phallic image on the movie posters for The Little Mermaid, anyone?), the movie features racist undertones, some of which Disney has changed for the final version. For example, the main character was originally named Maddy, which sounds like the word ‘Mammy’, a derogatory term used for blacks in the Southern part of America before the Civil Rights Movement.
[Disney] have a huge responsibility to make the first black princess someone to look up to for children
The Princess and the Frog, obviously based on the fairytale The Frog Princess, follows (the newly renamed) Tiana through her life during the 1920s Jazz Age in New Orleans. Tiana is a struggling waitress and jazz singer - a much better job to have compared to the original plot of the movie in which Tiana was working for an upper class white family. After working she somehow finds a frog that is actually a prince and, as the story goes, she kisses him hoping to break the spell that the witch has placed on him.
Except in this version the witch is actually a voodoo magician. The kiss turns Tiana into a frog as well and they have to go to Mama Odie, another voodoo witch, in order to turn them both back to humans. Tiana follows in the footsteps of other Disney princesses by becoming friends with animals; in this case it is a firefly and an alligator, the characterisation of which is hopefully done tastefully rather than personifying stereotypical attributes.
Disney have made a profit of over £2bn from their princess merchandise in the last ten years. They have a huge responsibility to make the first black princess someone to look up to for children and to be sensitive to such an important subject as race. They did the right thing by changing the young woman’s name and occupation but by adding voodoo to the Southern setting creates an echo of earlier racial stereotypes found before the Civil Rights Movement.
Disney is also showing interracial romance between a white prince and non-white princess, as was the case in Pocahontas, but hopefully this film’s plot shows less divisive race relations. I applaud their showing (if not acceptance) of interracial love but having a voodoo witch to make the prince fall in love with Tiana is not the most politically correct or appropriate way to portray the romance.
Disney has a lot riding on this film and one can only hope that when Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said, "Princess Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney’s rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity", she was telling the truth.
Isn't Pocahontas black?
Native American...
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