Now I'm not a huge Disney person. However, when they boasted the first Black princess in a Disney film, I have to say that I was interested.
Now, the trailer's out.
And I'm still interested.
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- Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.
12 comments:
That looks charming. I love the classic Disney animation.
I'm not a huge disney fan either, but when they get it right, I'm there. This, I hate to say it, looks and feels more like the rather awful'Anastasia', from the 90's. I hope that's not the case, but the character design and animation definitely gave me that feel.
Getting back to the basics. I'm kinda sad it took them so long to make it, but it looks really good. I'm going to go see it, even if I am the only grown without a child in the theater.
Hmm still a little nervous. Was that Cree Summers doing the voice?
D.J., it does sound like Cree doesn't it!!! But no, it's Aniki Noni Rose the other Dreamgirl from dreamgirls....the one that was sleeping with Eddie Murphy's character.
I'm personally scared of this movie. It will be extremely difficult to do without somebody getting offended. It's hard to create characters without it being stereotypical in some way. Some of the images in it scared me a little bit, but I'm still gonna go see it! There's a lot more riding on this film than I think most realize. If it does well we can expect other studios to produce minority lead roles in their children's fair. If it doesn't do well, whether in the box office or with minority audiences and causes too much controversy. Expect more studios to become gun shy and stick to white leads in their movies.
But I'll keep hope alive!! :)
I'm interested, too. I like the idea of not only a Black princess, but having a fairy tale set in the U.S. Finally!!
I need to post a question to you guys. All this talk of Disney made me pull out my collection, I was wanting a Lion King fix. And I realized that Disney has had a large number of minority lead characters.
Asian-Mulan
Indian-Hunchback of Notre Dame and Jungle Book
Mayan-Atlantis
Native American-Pocahantas
So why so long for a black lead? What specifically makes it so difficult to do an African American lead character movie? Are we too sensitive when the other minorities aren't? Are we more vocal than other minorities in voicing our dislike at how characters are portrayed? Is our history with racism in this country too thick to be penetrated? What's really holding back our representation in these genres?
@ Wilson I think it had more to do with Disney not really caring for us.
I hate admitting this, but I've seen every Disney film for various reasons. Some I loved, some I hated. This looks OK...there was something in the clip though that didn't sit well with me.
We'll see. I'll take my goddaughters when it comes out, then lets all discuss/compare notes.
I don't know if this has anything to do with their hesitancy to feature african american characters in a major animated release, but Disney caught a lot of hell from the film 'Song of the South' from the 40's, which was based on the tales of Uncle Remus... While there aren't any actual african american human characters animated, the animal characters, Brer Rabbit, Fox and Bear are clearly supposed to be black. I saw the last theatrical release of it back in the 80s, and while it wasn't the most enlightened view of black people( since it featured an idyllic view of black people on a plantation), it was a product of it's time and no worse really than 'Gone with the Wind'. The NAACP and other groups protested and in fact, it's one of the few movies Disney refuses to re-issue. Recently, Disney did an pretty mediocre animated short based on the legend of "John Henry".
While I'm not overwhelmed with what I'm seeing of 'Frog Princess' so far, hopefully it will do well (and be a good film).
I am so glad to see hand drawn animation! If this hits then maybe it will make a comeback!
@Belasco..we could make the argument that a large number of Disney animals have been "black". But they have always been hesitant with actual African or African American characters. Now Disney has had black characters in their movies, the worst examples I would say are from Fantasia! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPKpFNm3QMMCheck the link and watch at 1:03, 2:14-2:25, 2:57-3:06, 7:38-7:48,and 7:59-8:16
Then there's those wonderful crows from Dumbo. And what scares me is that the firefly from Princess and the Frog sounds very similar to those crows. Nevertheless, let it be said that Song of the South is far from Disney's only bad mark when it comes to negro portrayals. And while they did ban Song of the South from U.S. release they did not ban it from overseas distribution. Which is how I got a copy of it and was able to view it in college. So while they may worry about how we perceive what they've done here. The same concern may not be being met when it comes to how the rest of the world views us.
I'm not sure how available Disney is making uncut versions of any of it's previous movies but it would be interesting to find out.
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