The Princess and the Frog

[meganbmoore]

Ok, O Mighty F-List Who Knows All, the following is what I know about this upcoming Disney movie:

1.  It's an adaptation of The Frog Prince.
2.  It's Disney doing 2D animation
3.  It has a black heroine
4.  It's set in New Orleans, presumably at some point in the past.

Anyway, apparently there is some sort of huge controversy over it?  Can anyone fill me in?

Also, does anyone know when it's coming out?

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think the maid thing is sliding by me because, it being a Disney fairy tale, I'm automatically assuming it'll be set in the past. (And it may also be significant that my two favorite Disney heroines-Mulan and Meg-weren't princesses.)

[melonfusion.livejournal.com]

I misspoke about her being a princess (or a daughter in a wealthy family, like I'd thought), according to the wikipedia article, she isn't. Regardless, I think it would have been problematic for Disney's first and only black heroine to be a maid whether it was set in the past or not.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Very true, and I suspect there's some subconscious waving around of white privilege going on here on my part.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

It's set in the 1920s. And even with historical settings, there were educated, professional, middle-to-upper class free blacks in the U.S. long before the end of the Civil War, and if Disney wanted to go for that accessible New Orleans setting, gens de couleur libre were a big part of Louisiana society. So there's quite a range of social classes and professions they could have used that would have been a lot less skeevy than the initial "chambermaid working for a white family" version.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

They should do a movie about Marian Anderson! It's not entirely fair to say "talk about your fairy tales," because she worked so hard for her successes, and had a lot of love and support from her family and the black community--but wow, talk about your fairy tales. And the incredibly dramatic moments are already built into the story!