Wednesday, November 4, 2009

#376. Waiting Nearly 100 Years for a Black Disney Princess


The wait is finally over. After patiently waiting nearly a century to see it, Black people will finally enjoy the sight of a Black princess in a Walt Disney film, with the November 25 release of The Princess and the Frog:

"Move over Snow White. Make room for Disney’s first black princess.

With America’s first African-American president in the White House, Disney is counting on an African-American princess to be a big hit in Hollywood.

But even though The Princess and the Frog isn’t released until later this year, it is already stirring up controversy.

For while Princess Tiana and many in the cartoon cast are black – the prince is not.

Which has led some critics to complain that Disney has ducked the opportunity for a fairytale ending for a black prince and princess.

While some have hailed Disney’s decision as a reflection of melting pot America, others say the company is sending out a mixed message.

Although the black princess’s love interest in the new animated musical is called Prince Naveen of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor, he looks more white than black in photographs from the film that Disney have released.

Since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, all of Disney’s princesses have predominantly been white.

A native Indian princess was featured in Pocahontas and Jasmine in Aladdin had a Middle Eastern appearance."

Analyst are unsure if this movie will play with a global audience, for as we found out earlier Black people don't like their own hair and do everything they can to make it appear like a white persons locks, but the ebony Disney princess appears to be of perhaps 1/4 or 1/8 African ancestry. Thus, can she really be an authentically Black princess, when her features are oh so white?:

"The Frog Princess is the first animated film to be conceived since Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, the computer animation house that created such blockbusters as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and Cars.

The use of a classic hand-drawn process may be an indication Disney intends to create two streams of animation — one computer based, one based on more classic techniques.

Randy Newman, who created music for Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Cars, will write the score.

John Musker and and Ron Clements, who co-directed The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules, wrote the story and will direct the film, which is set in New Orleans.

"The film's New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture," Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said.

The heroine, Maddy, becomes the first African American among the Disney princesses, who are collectively responsible for more than $3 billion in annual retail sales.

Disney abandoned hand-drawn animation after 2004's Home on the Range, one of a series of animated films that provided poor returns.

The company bought Pixar, known for its computer-generated imagery, and gave Pixar's John Lasseter creative control of animated features.

Analysts said Disney may be retesting hand-drawn works with The Frog Princess with the idea of producing more films using the classic animation process that launched the original Disney studios."


A hand-drawn cartoon coming out in an era of James Cameron's Avatar and other computer animated movies, such as Pixar's Toy Story 3, might be bit of a stretch, considering Disney's last hand-drawn film - Home on the Range - made a whopping $50 million at the domestic box office (compared to Pixar's Up, which made $292 million).

Black people might not like the answer to this question, but are they being used in an attempt to regenerate interest in Disney's traditional money-making behemoth (hand-drawn animated films)?

After all, it will be primarily Black people in the audience of The Princess and the Frog, for this is who the movie is appealing to (interesting the setting for the film is everyone's favorite chocolate city, New Orleans).

The movie has already generated interest in one strange area for Black people, as Halloween costumes of the nubian princess are flying off the shelves and being purchased by Black parents for their Black children, in the vain hope that they will want to play with Black dolls instead of white ones:

"Fifty years after psychologist Kenneth Clark conducted the doll test that was used to help make the case for desegregation in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, a 17-year-old filmmaker redid the social experiment and learned that not much has changed.
In the 1954 test, Clark showed children a black doll and a white doll and asked black children which doll they preferred. The majority chose the white. The findings were not surprising for the time. In the summer of 2005, Kiri Davis, a high-school teen, sat with 21 black kids in New York and found that 16 of them liked the white doll better.
"Can you show me the doll that you like best?" Davis asked a black girl in the film. The girl picked the white doll immediately. When asked to show the doll that "looks bad," the girl chose the black doll. But when Davis asked the girl, "Can you give me the doll that looks like you?" the black girl first touched the white doll and then reluctantly pushed the black doll ahead.

The film has left audiences across the country stunned and has reignited a powerful debate over race."It's amazing that two generations after the 'Black Is Beautiful' mantra of the 1960s, some African Americans still believe that it's not," Monroe Anderson wrote in the blog MultiCultClassics.

"It's amazing that four decades after James Brown's chart-topper, 'I'm Black and I'm Proud,' so many African Americans aren't. It's amazing that in the same year hip-hop artist Kanye West told the world that 'President Bush doesn't care about black people,' Davis was discovering that neither do shorties in Harlem."

One blogger thinks that when black girls try to bleach their skin or black kids pick white dolls as a better-looking toy, it is merely a reflection of the societal stereotype. This stereotype is continually reinforced."

SBPDL is going to lapse into a prediction: The Princess and the Frog will make roughly $125 million at the domestic box office, flop in Europe and be a relative hit in South America. Black people will flock to the film like single women did to Titanic and testosterone fueled guys did to 300.

However, the merchandise wing of Disney will profit nicely off the ethnocentrism that Black people rightly feel for this film, as they will buy their kids every conceivable piece of flair that promotes this movie:

"This Halloween, 4.5 million girls will dress up as a princess, according to a recent survey from the National Retail Federation. More than a few of them will be a Disney princess, a category that ranks seventh on this year's list of top 10 costumes for kids.

Cinderella has been a perennial favorite, but this season, there's another princess on the rise. Princess Tiana, Disney's first new princess in 10 years, is also the brand's first African-American princess. The movie, "The Princess and the Frog," is a musical fairy tale in which Tiana, a girl from New Orleans, voiced by actress Anika Noni Rose, is mistaken for a princess by a frog prince who asks her to kiss him to break the spell. Though the film does not arrive in theaters until Dec. 11, Tiana Halloween costumes are already a hot property. And in an unusual twist, the character is resonating more with adults than with little girls.

Deidra Willis, 31, went through great pains to track down a Tiana costume for her 2-year-old daughter, Daylin. At one store, the costume was already sold out. At a another, she saw no trace of Princess Tiana. A friend was finally able to locate a costume at yet another retailer, Willis said. Good thing, because Willis was just about ready to create her own version of the outfit based on images from the movie trailer.

Disney Consumer Products representatives confirmed they have received calls from customers looking for the sold-out costumes. Sales, they said, have exceeded expectations, especially since the film has yet to be released. Willis typically doesn't celebrate Halloween, but this year, Princess Tiana was a good enough reason to start.

"I am very passionate about this particular Disney character," Willis said. "It has been 100 years in the making. I've been very disturbed because I love the concept of a princess, but they don't exist for the African-American community."

The excitement extends well beyond Halloween. Willis, like many parents of African-American girls, has taken a hard line on Disney products. She has avoided filling her daughter's toy box with too many princess products that don't reflect her image. The only other Disney-themed product she has purchased are Pull-Ups, but she has plans to scoop up more of the Tiana merchandise.

"I'm looking for Tiana dolls. I want pajamas and slippers. When I go to get her toddler bed from Toys 'R' Us, I want a Tiana bed to be there," Willis said.

If interest in Tiana merchandise is to be expected, so much early interest is less the norm. Usually, it's kids begging their moms to buy them princess this or that, but Tiana has moms all aflutter.

Nicole Nobles' 5-year-old daughter, Jaida, opted to be a cheerleader for Halloween this year (she had been a Disney princess for three years running, including Snow White and Cinderella), but Nobles can't wait to buy a Tiana doll for her daughter this holiday season.

"I refuse to put Sleeping Beauty on her bed," said Nobles, of Jonesboro. "I heard about Tiana, and I said 'Oh we are definitely going to get that one.' "

A Princess Tiana cookbook for kids, Tiana Band-Aids, a calendar, apparel and plush toys are already available for purchase online and at mass retailers. A Princess Tiana-inspired wedding gown, part of the Kirstie Kelly for Disney Fairy Tale Weddings collection, will be available this spring.

It is unusual to see so much merchandise hitting the market two months in advance of the film, said Suzanne Diamond, a marketing lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and president of Diamond Group Ltd. The early in-store arrival of Tiana products is in part an effort to get the merchandise on shelves for holiday shopping season.

"You would normally time it for the merchandise to hit at the same time as the movie, maybe slightly before, so you can capitalize on all the excitement and extend the brand," she said. "This is fascinating because this is really driven by the moms. This is very significant to the moms and it is word of mouth."

While the $4 billion Disney Princess brand is supported by a massive marketing strategy (which should begin in a few weeks for Tiana products), the buzz already generated by blogs and other less traditional forms of advertising helped Carol's Daughter sell out of "A Magical Beauty Collection" gift sets in just seven hours online, said the company's founder, Lisa Price. Price, who collaborated with Disney on the line of shampoo, conditioner, detangler and bubble bath, said she sees similarities between Tiana's story and her own and that may be part of the appeal for women.

"I feel like this story has a story that goes beyond the film. Tiana is someone who has the support of her family and her family encourages her to live out her dreams. ... That is a beautiful lesson," Price said.


Pre-Obama America is dead. Welcome to the coronation of a new princess for a new nation, conceived in the proposition that all colored people are equal, and all white people must bow down to this decree.

Cinderella, Snow White, Bell (Beauty and the Beast) and Sleeping Beauty are so 20th century, and will one day appear in a list of most racist Disney characters - like this one - as a symbol of white people attempting to instill the archetype of beauty upon the beleaguered colored masses of the world - even though Black people love white dolls.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes waiting nearly 100 year for a Black Disney princess, for every princess since Walt Disney conceived Mickey Mouse should have been Black, and it is an absolute joke that we had to wait until 2009 to be graced with the beauty of an obviously Octoroon princess.

When all is said and done, Black people will still probably scream that The Princess and the Frog is racist and demand another princess be drawn to raise self-esteem among young Black girls.

A trailer for the film can be viewed here.







38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having Disney promoting oil drilling pisses me off! Not as much as coal burning but still it does.

charlie sierra said...

The strangest thing about this to me is that when blacks try to emulate white culture, including the "good hair" and the European style of dress, it comes off as a bad imitation. Kind of like those tv commercials a couple of years ago showing black "athletes" trying to act "sophisticated" by (attempting) to speak correct english. They came off as rehearsed and stilted. More like a chimp who has barely learned a trick, just going through the motions with no comprehension of what they're doing. Disney will find that by trying to appease everyone they will appease no one.

Anonymous said...

Yet another Germanic fairy tale with a superimposed black face. Is there not a sub-saharan fairy tale worthy of Disney's 'artistic expertise'? When will they do a remake of Snow White? I would suggest they rename it Pyroclastic Black when they do.

Dave

Anonymous said...

13%, who would believe it.

Anonymous said...

Just another thing to push race mixing.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha..........Finally we got in and you cant handle it just because she's not hanah montanna looking.

Oh btw my husband is white.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

SBPDL is not upset about the movie coming out... pandering to 13 percent of the US population is an interesting financial decision, when considering how outdated hand-drawn films have become.

Disney will recoup there losses (from the film) in merchandise sales, but - as study after study confirms - little Black girls will still want to play with white dolls in the end.

We don't consider Hannah Montana to be the end all, be all of how girls should look, nor the perfect archetype for feminine beauty.

Thanks for playing though!

Black People Suffer From PTSD said...

LOL@These comments.

Heaven forbid that little Black girls can have someone to identify with. There's a larger presence of Blacks in America than Native Americans(I wonder who they can thank for that) and Asians and Middle Easterners and there was no question of whether a Disney film with something other than a white female protagonist can make a considerable profit.

Your rhetoric is faulty. Upset over one little Black Disney Princess when the majority are still lily white.

My little Black child doesn't play with Disney characters because Disney is in the business of sexualizing children and pandering towards subversive lewdness. Any smart Black mother wouldn't financially support a company with those ethics anyway. :)

But keep obsessing over our supposed likes and dislikes anyway.

DaveC said...

And that's "Hannah" not "hanah".

:)

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Black People Suffer -

I agree with you that Black people should have someone to identify with! Nothing wrong with that at all. Did you even read the post??!??

And yes, Disney has done some disgusting things and have objectified women worse than Tucker Max on a good day.

Disney once reflected Pre-Obama America; now they pander to 13 percent of the US population.

I believe this film will make $100 - $125 million in the US Box Office - compared to Up's nearly $300 million.

That is not a big hit, compared to how much marketing Disney will do for this film.

Thanks for reading the site. Please read the article all the way through though.

Which company do you support? Which dolls do you purchase for your girl (and kudos on not watching Disney movies - save for The Incredibles, most new films are horrible)?

Question though: is Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella out of style in your house?

Do you let your child watch Shrek, that horrible film series that is 100 times worse than anything Disney could come up with?

Mgrub said...

I was kinda looking forward to a hand drawn animated movie. The craftsmen when done right is amazing.
I wasn't too put off by having black leads in this movie but I'd prefer whites. However Disney was so busy kowtowing to the "easily offended crowd"(how about this idea:"blacks don't like to be offended...because it's so easy to")that I'm surprised this movie even got off the ground. The creative process was so burdened by consultants to change things that blacks would find insulting and offensive that it was changed from "Frog Princess" to its current title and other details that we have such a different story.
Besides, if blacks want a black image to identify with, why not create the animated movie themselves? Why insist on whites to do it for them? Some forum posters who are black even cry at the japanese creators of anime and video games to have more of their images too.
The issue should be addressed. Why do blacks insist on non-black creators to create black imagery for them to identifty with when so few blacks do so themselves.

Anonymous said...

I'm black and a solid majority of us don't really need to believe in fairy tales, like many whites. It's a Disney movie, nothing more. Based on what I'm reading here more whites are worked up about this nonsense than black people. I think this site should be called "Stuff Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton told us black people don't like" The only site funnier than this one is Stormfront.

charlie sierra said...

The reason there are more Blacks in America than Native Americans is simple. Arab and Black slave traders rounded them up in Africa and offered them for sale to whomever was looking for cheap labor. That's how slavery works, even til this day, with all races being made slaves, not just Black people. Yes slavery is wrong but that's called history, not perfect because people aren't perfect. I'm happy for people to have role models but changing a caucasion role into a black or other race character just to appease a small segment of society is also a form of racism and cultural "murder" that doesn't seem like a big deal unless your culture is the one being stepped on. If Blacks want traditional role models for movie fodder perhaps they should look to their own homeland they seem so proud about. You do like being called "African American" don't you? Maybe you should investigate your own root culture instead of trying to imitate traditional European culture.

Anonymous said...

I agree anonymous. This is making the white people act all weird. Like one little Black princess from Disney means their entire Western world is failing and falling about their ears. The melodrama is hilarious! This site IS just as good as Stormfront, but not as good as Niggermania.
:)

Mgrub said...

To annon Nov 4 11:15pm
You are right. You don't need Disney fairy tales. You create your own called
" black history" which has its own month. Claiming things from ancient Egypt to many white inventions not to mention media distortions portraying blacks as no less than great thru movies, TV, news except you don't seem to get it's false.
Indeed, who needs fairy tales when you are practically worshipped and seriously believe oneself a god?
President Obama: Oh God, I am!
Old black ladies: Sweet baby, Barack!
The black pantheon's new leader.

Anonymous said...

LMAO, anonymous this is funnier than Stormfront Just another fairy tale here about how we are all equal.

http://www.wntube.net/play.php?vid=2785

Anonymous said...

Mgrub-

Most of us are intelligent enough to realize that "Black History" is nothing more than a creation born out of a system of racial segregation. What ignorant blacks and whites don't seem to understand is that history is just that, history. Everything that happened was written down as it actually happened. Mr. Obama is a half white politician that was created by the powers that be. A black leader? What a joke! Also, I hate to break it to you but distortion and propaganda is the job of the media. I'll say it again "Stop believing in fairy tales"

Anonymous said...

"This is making white people act all weird"

I am well aware how weird black people think we are. The collection of European fairy tales is part of our heritage. Not that you would care. Negros see little benefit in the study of history or knowledge of it.

Whites on the other hand catalog and study artifacts from the Egyptian Tombs to the Behistun Inscription to the Rosetta Stone. We have documented these studies for not only our but your posterity.

Why wouldn't our behavior seem weird to someone with no knowledge of the Grimm brothers? Half these people probably don't even know who Shaka Zulu is or his story.

Dave

B. Herder said...

What I find hysterical is that Disney would associate New Orleans as of actually having/had ANY sort of 'Prince' or 'Princess'.. No matter what color.
(If that's the case, I declare myself 'King' of Idaho..)

But I agree that Princess Toshiba will be disturbing to blacks because:

A)Her booty/boobs aren't overly huge enough to be considered ... Well ... Attractive.

B)The fact that a 'sister' has taken a fancy to Price White Bread over one of the obviously fine black bucks like one might see on Judge Joe Brown or Judge Judy.

Anonymous said...

Hmm..aren't Mulan and Pochanantas considered Disney Princesses? :) You people are awesomely hypocritical..mighty white of you, as my grandmother used to say!

Anonymous said...

"mighty white of you, as my grandmother used to say"

Your grandmother was a wise woman. She spoke the truth. From what you have told me, I have great respect for her. I'd suggest you do as well.

Dave

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure people understand the point of this post, so I'll clarify a few things (but leave a few to the imagination).

1. Disney is making a financially questionable decision by putting this film out in tough economic times.

Read this website and their data:
http://www.mpaa.org/MovieAttendanceStudy.pdf

115 million white people went to movies in 2007. 19 million Black people went.

You make a movie that appeals to 1/6 of the market share that the majority population has offers... BAD ECOMONIC MOVE on Disney's part.

2. I could care less that the movie is being made. Disney hasn't made a good cartoon since THE LION KING (PIXAR doesn't count) and Moulan and Pochantas both performed underwhelming at the Box Office compared to other Dinsey films.

The point is Disney has a history of leaving Black people out of films, or having them depicted in horrible roles that perpetuate stereotypes.

3. There is no three. This movie will be called racist by Black people. White people won't see it. Black people will buy a lot of merchandise, but their children will still prefer white dolls.

Anonymous said...

SBPDL,

We'll see, because at this point it's all speculation, Mr. Glass Half Empty. :)

Anonymous said...

SBDL-

I agree with damn near all of your points. Especially the fact that Disney hasn't made a good movie since the Lion King. I have a few issues with point #3. Blacks won't call the film racist, activists and blacks in hollywood that didn't get on the gravy train will. No one will buy the merchandise, maybe collectors and gay men. You were 100% right about one thing. White people won't see this movie.


-Black guy

Anonymous said...

It's inaccurate to say she looks largely white. That's just one concept art piece, and in everything else, she looks predominantly black.

Mgrub said...

Well, it's not just about points 1 & 2 for me.
Actually I don't go to the movies that often anyways but I don't mind the idea of a "black princess" as much as how much "blackness" is being shoved down our throats constantly.

If this fails to capture $$ at the box office you can be assured of that a) blacks will say that whites are racists for not watching it in larger droves and b) blacks will still complain that blacks weren't properly protrayed hence my earlier post that they create their own imagery.

Anonymous said...

Negro cartoon will be a box office bust. Who wants to see a negro princess? Not even negros want to see it. The USA government tries so hard at pushing us into race mixing they aren't fooling anyone.

Anonymous said...

I love this idea, how often do little african american girls have a chance to see themselves as princesses. the only problem that I have with this is why is the prince caucasian? And what message is Disney sending to little african american boys? Nice try Disney, but you still have time to correct this grave error and give the african american community what it deserves,

Wanderlost said...

"Heaven forbid that little Black girls can have someone to identify with."

The assertion that "little Black [sic] girls" can only "identify with" other Blacks sounds like a suspiciously racist one to me. Hater.

"Your rhetoric is faulty."

Thank you for identifying the "rhetoric" with which you find fault, as well as for the overwhelming amount of evidence you provided. Posts of the quality of yours are rare.

Anonymous said...

I do not care if 'black girls' have some disney princess to identify with. I find it amusing. The blacks are copy-cats. They have no identity except one that comes from Africa; and they are constantly running away from that one.
If whites told blacks that cat feces was good to put in milk shakes, blacks would be following cats around with a pooper-scooper.
With all the black rhetoric about 'blackness' and 'black culture'.....we all know (especially them) that there is no such thing..: except maybe a culture of crime.

Anonymous said...

You'll find some discussion on this topic at www.Stormfront.org

Anonymous said...

Octoroon? I'm pretty sure "octoroons" didn't have dark brown skin. That's why they were so valued by white/genetically recessive men. That is a historical fact. So she is hardly "octoroon" or whatever other archaic/antiquated antebellum word you choose. I'm amazed a bunch of grown people are sitting here griping over a cartoon! Hahahahaha!! WOW..is it really all that serious?
*thinking to myself how odd and creep it is to dislike something yet obsess over it*

You know...I don't like snakes. At all. You wouldn't find me making a blog and spending one moment of my precious life discussing them. :) I guess that's just my rational thinking coming into play.


Oh...and number one this weekend. No matter how you try to twist it, spin it, play it down with bunk stats and strawman arguments. It was still number one.

LOL...I HAVE to forward this site to the people at White Watch blog! This is AWESOME! Genetically recessive people and their love/hate obsession with us. Flattering, really. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm brazilian and in Brazil we have more white people than black people.

Ezhel M. said...

there aint no way this chick looks 1/8th or even 1/4 Black. I got a cousin who's half black and his skin is almost white. This bitch looks as dark as me and I'm probably close to 100% black.

Ms. Cage said...

i just want to say that very popular cartoons should show different races. im happy that there is now a black princess. too bad mulan wasnt as popluar. im black and white by the way. not all black people are alike

Anonymous said...

its nice to see a black princess. too bad mulan wasnt this popular

Anonymous said...

im black and white and im glad to see a different priness from the norm. not all black people are the same. do not be so close minded people!!

Anonymous said...

There have always been black people in japanese animation... and that is why I'm not going to spend a cent on this stupid thing.