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

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Lilo and Stitch has a mixed record. I'm a homesick kama'aina and first saw the original movie with a friend who's also from the islands, and we loved how much attention had gone into making the film look and sound right -- the physical setting, the variety of ethnic features, the accents and dialects used by the characters, it all really looked and felt like home. There were Hawaiian musicians on the soundtrack and even before the credits rolled, it was obvious that they'd had someone who knew their stuff helping them make sure the hula looked authentic. But some native Hawaiian activists have criticized the theme song, He Mele No Lilo, being a mashup of two traditional mele inoa for beloved monarchs Kalakaua and Liliuokalani, and one of the direct-to-video sequels came under fire for its misrepresentation of a legend from the Pele and Hi'iaka cycle.

(That said, yes, a ton of the voice actors were local, the dance sequences were done in consultation with a notable kumu hula and his halau, and even that theme song that garnered criticism was an arrangement by the same kumu and performed by the Kamehameha Schools children's choir; so it's really an object lesson in how even folks within the same culture can disagree as to whether particular uses are positive or skeevy, and that working with cultural consultants is no guarantee that the end product will be immune from criticism.)