The Princess and the Frog: Multicultural Misrepresentation (abstract)

Micah Moyer

The Princess and The Frog: Multicultural Misrepresentation

            With Disney taking a step into the right direction and blurring the lines between the traditional princess and what represents all of society; that we are not a blonde haired blue eyed Aryan race society. We step into This film with the hope that finally the African American race can take pride in an epic journey of love and overcoming odds. Central to these negotiations are Tiana's racial identity and her passing as a frog, as well as the film's attempt to pass as an African American princess narrative. In order to further argue this point; a process of detailing the film's racial contexts, address its reception by critics, as well as how Disney, in its extraordinary sensitivity to racial issues and its desire to fulfill so many competing agendas, has absurdly created an animated feature which generally neglects race.

        The movie over all was quite charming with the attempted undercurrent of New Orleans Jazz and “culture.” Nevertheless we do not get the epic adventure that we expect from most of our protagonists that we’ve been trained by Disney to believe in. Mulan saved Japan, Pocahontas stopped a war, Snow White saved dwarfs, Simba restored the Pride Lands…and Tiana got to turn into a frog for the entire movie and eventually open a restaurant? Most characters have a distinct goal that saves their “kingdom.” Tiana had a dream and a mean old man that wanted to crash on her parade and was feeding everyone really what her “Kingdom” needed? All of the “Classic” are rooted in some folk tale, or historical incident.

In brevity, the story comprises Tiana and her friend Charlotte la Bouff grow up together in New Orleans dreaming of fairy tales and happy endings. Though their lives intersect through the skilled service work that Tiana’s mother does for the la Bouff family, & the resulting friendship between the girls, they live two very different lives.When they reach young adulthood, Tiana wants to fulfill her dream of owning a restaurant that will not only showcase her cooking but also the music of New Orleans and “bring the community together from all walks of life.” Charlotte wants to be a Princess. And as their two dreams intersect, both girls find themselves coming face to face with a Prince. Tiana’s journey transforms her into a frog, where she and her frog prince endure the trials of both swamp and Vodoun to find what their true hearts desires are and how to be better people.

Tiana lives in a seemingly lower middle class neighborhood with her doting father and mother. Her father, a world war I veteran work multiple jobs in order to save for a restaurant and teaches Tiana how to cook. He dies before he is able to afford the restaurant, but not before he passes the dream on to his daughter. Both he and Tiana’s mother also teach her the value of hard work and kindness. Charlotte La Bouff on the other hand, is born rich and spoiled near rotten by her father, “Big Daddy”. She has an endless supply of princess dresses for dress up, made by Tiana’s mother, and gets everything she asks for: puppies, kitties, parties, etc.  As both a child and a young adult, Charlotte is a ridiculous caricature of former Disney Princesses, cherub cheeked, swathed in pink, vacuous and prince obsessed. While she is clearly a parody of the old princess myth that is Disney’s bread and butter, she is also a troubling racial character. In many ways it seems as though the writers of The Princess and the Frog are being less satirical with Charlotte’s dewy pink skin and bright blonde hair wrapped around a package of cluelessness, ignorance, and “some day my prince will come,” and are more likely unable to imagine how to lift up Tiana as the alternative, or a more authentic, Princess figure without making her white counterpart a joke. Moreover, about our heroine’s role as a southern belle’s maid. Yes, it’s cannon for fairy tale protagonists to begin their stories having low status, but a black heroine who is a domestic could be legitimately read not as a fairy tale trope but a reinforcement of real world racial denigration. Some may claim that it would be historically accurate for a 1920’s black woman to be a maid, but Disney doesn’t even care about historical accuracy when animating actual history (for example, Pocahontas.)

All princesses are of noble lineage or perform noble acts that are accentuated by unsatisfactory situations. Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas, Ariel and Princess Aurora were Born of Nobel lineage, Mulan is historically based on a Chinese Folk legend that include ambiguous lines of superior lineage…but Tiana did not get her back-story explained like past Princesses. And why does Tiana’s Prince have to lose all of his money?  It’s known that we are in a time where equality is respectable and desired, but do they, Tiana and the Prince, have to be “equally poor?” As stated these Disney Princesses are mostly of noble birth, except for Tiana and Belle. Belle’s only difference is that her character does not play into any common stereotypes of her era. Would Belle’s father actually be an inventor for his day job? Would Belle honestly be able to read; yet alone, spend her days reading?  And it seemed Disney tried to justify this new classic movie as, “It’s not where you come from and not what you have that makes someone respectable.” But why did Disney change? That seems like a lot to tackle in a children’s movie with all the other plot twists. To the dismay of Disney executives — along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company — the film is also attracting chatter of an ugly nature.

 Is “The Princess and the Frog,” set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them? African-American culture, faulted the prince’s relatively light skin color. Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white. In a subtle form it’s as though Disney believes that a black man is not worthy of the title of prince. Some might argue that portraying interracial marriage in film is good - but why then weren't any of the white princesses given non-white princes to save them from white villains? And since Disney doesn't give white princesses non-white princes, isn't this interracial relationship at the expense of black boys who deserve a hero just as much as black girls deserve a heroine, “Disney should be ashamed,” William Blackburn, a former columnist at The Charlotte Observer, told London’s Daily Telegraph. “This princess story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community.” And wait: We finally get a black princess and she spends the majority of her time on screen as a frog? “Because of Disney’s history of stereotyping,” said Michael D. Baran, a cognitive psychologist and anthropologist who teaches at Harvard and specializes in how children learn about race, “people are really excited to see how Disney will handle her language, her culture, her physical attributes. Young girls can dream of a Prince with “nice” things and being swept off their feet. Why stop that dream now? The problem that seems to be evident is that Disney neglects the values of African American history, and the closest story we have to mimicking the formula for the ideal princess and prince story is Lion King. Is it indeed too much to ask for the traditional Disney storyline comprising black characters?

In congruence with concerns, is the way voodoo religion is treated in the film. The prince is turned into a frog by a bad voodoo “magician,” the black villain, and when Tiana’s attempt to save him by kissing him turns her into a frog as well, the two of them must seek the aid of a benevolent voodoo priestess. Most of what people know about voodoo comes from inaccurate information both in fictional entities such as books and films and in ill-informed news stories. The foundation of voodoo is not charms but monotheistic faith, belief in saints and spirits, and a focus on moral values such as charity and respect for the elderly. People do perform rites for protection and defense, but suffice it to say that voodoo is not about being a magician or a fairy godmother. Yet the rites performed in voodoo, when not exaggerated past any impression of accuracy or entirely fictionalized, are typically considered superstitious magic by non-practitioners while rites in Christianity  such as the belief that you can lay hands on people and cast devils out of them or anoint people with oil and heal them are not.

            On the other hand, Disney often gets criticized no matter how carefully it strives to put together its television shows, theme-park attractions and movies. For years, some parents for not having a black princess have lambasted Disney. Now, some of those same voices are taking aim at the company without seeing the finished product. Peter Del Vecho, a producer of the film, said the idea for a black princess came about organically. The producers wanted to create a fairy tale set in the United States and centered on New Orleans, with its colorful past and deep musical history. Something to take note of is how the debate surrounding “The Princess and the Frog” illustrates how difficult it truly is to deal with race in animation, experts say. Cartoons by their nature trade in caricatures. Mainstream producers have largely avoided characters of color for fear of offending minority groups, although black producers have been creating cartoons featuring stereotyped characters since the days of “Fat Albert. It is important to remember that Disney’s aim is not to serve any community but rather its own bottom line. Creating The Princess and the Frog is not a handout to black people any more than all the films starring white princesses were special gifts to white people. We didn’t beg Disney for a movie with a black princess nor is there any onus on us to be content with the movie or any aspect of American society out of gratitude or to remain silent in the face of issues we see as needing improvement because someone decided to throw us a bone. Floyd Norman, an African-American and a former Disney animator, said in an interview. “Are we being racist ourselves by saying this movie shouldn’t have a white prince?” Perhaps the final word should come from somebody who is. “Overly sensitive people see racial or ethnic slights in every image,” wrote Floyd Norman, whose credits span from “Sleeping Beauty” to “Mulan,” in a 2007 essay on the Web site Jim Hill Media. “And in their zeal to sanitize and pasteurize everything, they’ve taken all the fun out of cartoon making.”

            Disney did make changes to their original format for “The Frog Princess” and that alone validates the concern about what effects racial stereotypes can have on viewers young and old alike. Media influence on cultural identities, misrepresentation of ethnicities, and the ridiculous assumption that issues on race and discrimination are non-existent today: all of these factors are prevalent in mainstream media. There is an oversaturation of mainstream imagery and ideology being broadcast on a global scale. This ignorance has been present in America for so long that major media outlets making decisions and spreading misconceptions have actually disillusioned themselves.

Works Cited

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Gregory, Sarita. "Disney's Second Line: New Orleans, Racial Masquerade, And The Reproduction Of Whiteness In The Princess And The Frog." Journal Of African American Studies 14.4 (2010): 432-449. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

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