Two or so years ago my friend Hilary facebook-ed me with a link to a video on youtube. We had been talking about Disney princess movies in our choir class, and I had been lamenting the lack of a black Disney Princess. I knew that Nola was supposed to be the one, but still. A real princess would be nice. So imagine my surprise when her link took me to a first glance at Disney's The Frog Princess!
Cut to two years later, after TONS of controversy, several storyline changes, and probably come very discouraged Disney executives. Finally, Disney's The Princess and the Frog came out, and I honestly believe the entire country (naysayers and supporters) was holding their breath to see if it would work. I'll admit, I had serious doubts. I was disgruntled by the fact that it seemed like she would be a frog the entire movie and I did think the prince could have been black, plus New Orleans did seem like a controversial place to set the movie. Still, opening night came and my best friend and I joined a theater full of 20-and-up students at the 9:35 showing of what was being hailed as "the best Disney movie since The Lion King." We agreed to count racist elements of the movie as it went. Roll camera.
The racist count was 4 by the end, but maybe not because there weren't more things that could be construed as "racist" but because the movie was soooo wonderful, we stopped counting and started falling in love. The praise was completely deserved, and I'm willing to add this movie to my infamous Top 10 Disney movie musical list... that's a big deal for me.
But this post isn't about the movie. You have to see it yourself, and I think if you have a soul at all you'll love it. It's beautiful and fun and touching all at once. I just want to address all the people who have written negative posts about the movie.
Dear Ms. Dargis, Mr. Morris, and countless other reviewers that have written similar responses to the Princess and the Frog,
I'm black and I live in Alabama. I would say that makes me pretty well aquainted with anything and everything to do with racism. But here's the thing. I've never related to The Color Purple. Or Hotel Rowanda, or Crash, or Cooley High or any other black reaction movies. I don't watch Good Times or the Jeffersons or even Everybody Hates Chris. I watch Gossip Girl and Glee. I love the Cosby Show and Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire. You know what those last two have in common. They're about black people. But they're not about being Black. Yes, I'm black and yes sometimes things happen that force you to remember the color of your skin. And that sucks. But that's certainly not every day of my life or even the majority of it, and it's certainly not my choice of entertainment topics. You don't see white people making movies about the Great Depression or various European hardships (you know, wars, famines, etc.). Because who wants to deal with those things all the time? I certainly don't, and I DON'T need another movie shoving down my throat that it's "not easy being black."
Fact: The Princess and the Frog is a Disney princess movie. About a princess. It's a fairytale. Of course it ends happily ever after. I just don't understand walking into this movie expecting Tiana to end up alone and fine because she's a strong black woman. You can be strong and black and fall in love, and, again, this is a cartoon movie. Forgive me for wanting the young girls in my life to believe in true love. What's more is that Tiana isn't even the kind of heroine that only cares about love. She's not Ariel. She's not Sleeping Beauty. She is a hardworker, and she gets what she worked for in the end. What more do you want from a movie?
I'm just so frustrated that reviews like you insist on tearing apart a movie that I believe served its purpose. If you walked into this movie expecting enlightenment on racial roles in Southeastern America or the plight of the Black woman, Precious was playing right around the corner. Please just do us all a favor, and spread your negativism to other movies. As for me, I'm going to encourage every little girl I know, red, yellow, black, and white, to go see this movie. It's exactly the kind of story I was looking for as a child, and that I found in the classic Disney movies. It just happens to have a princess that looks a little more like me. As far as I'm concerned, that's just an extra perk to an amazing movie.
With love,
<3
