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About That Princess And The Frog Spoiler…
New York, 7:57 PM
Tue Dec 15
73 posts in the last 24 hours
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About That Princess And The Frog Spoiler… |
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05/14/09
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05/14/09
How they're thinking too much: if you're going to take fairy tale and make the princess black, just make the princess black. You don't have to add in all these (bullshit) elements of "black culture" which are just crappy stereotypes. You write the same script you would for a white princess and just make her black. If you wrote a black cinderella, you'd still have the fairy godmother make her a pumpkin coach wouldn't you? I don't see why a black Cinderalla or Little Mermaid or Belle, for godsake, would have to be written any differently than the others. (Sidenote: how hot would it be if the Beast turned out to be Michael Ealy? Nom Nom Nom.) And I'm not saying that race and culture aren't intertwined, I'm saying Disney is doing a bad job of incorporating that culture and they should just stop trying.
How they're not thinking enough: They could pick an African folk tale to adapt into a movie, and/or they could HIRE SOME BLACK WRITERS. I suspect we wouldn't be having this discussion if there were black writers at work here, because it would probably be a very different movie if there were.
And lastly, there was a storyteller, a black woman, who used to visit my elementary school about once a year or so and tell us African folk tales and there was one about a girl who was made of butter. That was my favorite story and that would awesome if they adapted it. But I can't remember it and I tried googling it and all I came up with was some little plastic people you use to butter corn on the cob. So if anyone knows what story I'm talking about, please let me know.
05/14/09
Sad.
05/14/09
05/13/09
Once they'll want to watch the film with you, for the 101 time, you'll just wish that Disney would burn t the ground.
Once your kid/niece/cousin, will reach age 7, you will hate every princess ever created. Black, blue, brown, white, with a fish tail...
This film is made for kids , please don't forget it.
05/13/09
05/13/09
This conversation is moot. I am still going to see this movie, along with millions of my 20 something girl-sisters who it's going to make feel like we are 10 again.
05/13/09
05/14/09
Logic fail.
05/13/09
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DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED on how making human-like hierarchies in nature TOTALLY NATURALIZES those hierarchies in real life Even if the hyenas weren't voiced by black people (although it does make my point), isn't it totally fucked up that there is an entire species of animals who are inherently evil and dumb? While there is a species of animals who are wonderful and knightly, and Scar is like the insane aberration? Who the fuck decided that lions are morally superior animals to hyenas? I suggest reading Tamora Pierce's Wildmage series to see some badass hyenas. And rats.
05/13/09
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05/13/09
Fuck depicting interracial relationships. How many black children have seen a black man and woman being romantic in a movie or on TV? Black boys are an endangered species. Is it too much to ask that they get a chance to be the Prince? A day after the heart-breaking post about self-hatred in little black girls, people it's okay that Tiana is a fucking frog for most of the movie? Fuck Snow White and Sleeping Beauty!! Those films were made in the 40s and 50s. It's 2009 and the first black princess can't stay cute for 90 minutes.
Actually, black people should thank Disney. In these times of economic hardship, Disney has worked hard to make sure that black people's money stays in their pockets. Walt would be proud.
05/13/09
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Also when was Disney ever a playground of sunshine and non-racial stereotypes? I mean we can go far back to all the stereotypes with the Uncle Remus animations, the crows from Dumbo and so on. So this doesn't surprise me, but still at least we have reached this point, I mean they could've just used another blonde and blue eyed princess for this and set it in New York, and if that had happened, nobody would be saying ANYTHING.
I must be viewing it different from others but I can't get behind why some folks are analyzing a cartoon.
05/13/09
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05/13/09
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak to why I am analyzing it.
This may be a cartoon, but it is aimed at a very impressionable audience -- children, and fairly young children at that. The images and stereotypes with which we are bombarded every day help form our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. This is particularly true with children, who internalize those images and interpret them in ways that adults can only imagine.
We've all seen (and commented upon) the impact that the Disney princesses and the Disney marketing juggernaut have had upon little girls, in particular. Dismissing this as "just a cartoon" ignores the reality that millions of children are influenced by what they see in these movies. I have no reason to believe this movie will have any less impact than any other Disney production, but I am afraid that the messages that it is going to be sending are going to be, at best, very, very mixed.
05/13/09
05/13/09
She's not a "black princess" she's a character. Just a character. Is it just her skin colour that matters? When she's a frog is she no longer "black"? Would it be better if she could have been a brown toad?
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05/13/09
@Pennyfeather: What side would that be?
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05/13/09
I agree though, and I think the need to see Tiana as more than she is strange. It's a Disney movie. Why can people not see her as a character, and judge her by the same standards they would use were she white? Is she admirable? Entertaining? Well drawn? If she is all of these things, how is that not enough? Why does she have to be more than any other good character? It's as if everyone who is foaming out the mouth (none of whom have even read a review, let alone seen it!) need any fictitious black character, no matter how for-children and Disneyfied, to be the sole embodiment of the minority women's movement while completely missing the fact that if she's a great character, she is an embodiment of the minority and women's movement.
05/13/09
The other non-European heroines, Jasmine and Mulan, are also paired off with a non-European heroes.
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BLACK BOYS DESERVE REPRESENTAION.
Why is this so hard for you people? My head is literally about to explode.
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@Cimorene: Keep fighting the good fight. I feel like I could play concern troll bingo. We are, obviously, looking for things to be offended by, because we have nothing better to do then point out why racial representation on film matters.
05/13/09
People will always find something to pick at, even if it's as ridiculous as (heaven forfend!!) racial diversity in Disney pairings. ...For god's sake. Just think about that for a moment.
@Cimorene: You realize you're making my point for me, don't you? You haven't seen the film. I haven't either. Nobody here has. It could be great, mediocre, or awful. Who knows. Nobody can say whether she's an awesome character, and the fact that you want to layer all that on her before the movie even comes out is bizarre and unnecessary. If she's awesome, it'll be a great step forward for popular children's culture, and that's all she really needs to be -- fun and engaging and positive. Or are you presuming that there is no possible way she could be awesome because she spends part of the movie as an anthropomorphized frog? As if it won't be her cute human form adorning scads of merchandise? As if people will forget that she's not white while she's a frog? ...Seriously?
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You never see a disney woman paired with a man who is darker than she is. Disney women also, with the exception of Princess Jasmine, usually succeed by marrying "up."
05/13/09
I am assuming that everyone here is dusting off some college sociology course notes to figure out what they should be outraged about and not realizing that the groan they hear is millions of parents who now have to go buy ANOTHER FUCKING PRINCESS COLLECTION because now their child's collection is incomplete.
05/14/09
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