Fuck yes!
This was the trailer I first saw almost a year ago. I shared it excitedly with my friends after we watched Bolt for the second time. (Oh, yeah, we're cool, I know.) I had brief exposure to it before this first official trailer, as others did, because of the rumors that Disney was going to make a film with their first black princess, and it was already set up to fail in so many ways. The princess was originally Maddy the black chambermaid, who had to be transported from her circumstances (saved) by the white Prince Charming.
So, I was freaking amazed when I watched this trailer and was asked to recall the classic Disney 2-D animations. Which is interesting, because this first trailer is almost aimed, not at the youngest of children, but at those older, as it asks us to remember Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. We have entered a period where children may actually be more familiar with parodies of fairy tales like Shrek and Enchanted than the actual stories. When my family last visited Disney World, I found out my youngest sister had never seen Aladdin, and I "luckily" had it on my laptop. We cracked up together over Jafar's "Prince Abubu" (ignore the rest of that video).
I was never a big fan of Snow White and I had not even seen Sleeping Beauty until only last year or so. I only liked The Little Mermaid for Ursula. She was one crazy mofo and I. loved. her, while Ariel was kinda just a petulant fourteen-year-old. (I honestly do not even remember much about the film except Ursula shaking her cephalopoidal ass.) I was just not into Disney princesses. Granted, I am not exactly the target audience there, but I like to think, even early on, I was able to recognize that a girl that takes food from strangers, slips into a coma, and gets macked on by some creepy guy is, uh, not a hero.
But the first black Disney princess is significant. If you read IMDb boards (don't), even before the film was released, you have presumably white critics saying that there should not be a need for a black princess. Somehow, a black Disney heroine is affirmative action and political correctness at work, but the lack thereof is just okay (read: preferable). These critics ask why little black girls cannot identify with the white heroines, when the question should be why should they?
In this thinking, white is supposed to be the default, neutral race everyone should be able to identify with (and care about, be inspired by, etc.), but somehow, it is impossible for non-black people to identify with black characters. It is shown, consistently, that white people often do not think of themselves as white (and the same for men, straight people, cis people, etc.), because it is not something they have to care about. They implicitly know, without thinking about it, they can always find a cultural icon for their daughters that will look like her. White As Default is a nice way to obviate whiteness as a racial concern because whiteness in the context of racism rarely looks good for the white person. "Racist" to these critics means "increases racial conflict" means "recognizes racism and racial disparities and willing to point it out to the discomfort of white people".
The racists critics should be happy to know that The Princess and the Frog only subtly works in the racial context. There is the one point where a minor antagonist points out that Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) should be happy with her place in life (waitressing) as that is really the best she can do with her "background" (black, woman, and black woman). Otherwise, race is easily missed, though one can see how Tiana and her mother, Eudora (Oprah), takes the trolley away from the wealthy, white landowner's mansion to the black neighborhood of shacks. The party thrown by the white heiress, Charlotte (Jennifer Cody), is exclusively white except for Tiana, who is working there, but then, Charlotte and Tiana are close friends and nobody seems to think twice about Charlotte marrying the ambiguously tan Prince Naveen (Bruce Campos).
I can see how one can argue that race should have been more of a factor to confront racism and color-blindness does not help anti-racist causes, but I think the film touches the topic well. There is only so much Disney can do in the film without turning it into another The Color of Friendship. There is also the very valid perspective that holds Disney responsible for its racist history and rejects it as a valid source of black stories, asserting instead that we should embrace stories from black (anti-racist) writers. I would also like to clarify that although the prince may have started out white, Disney slipped around this by coding Prince Naveen as just foreign with an Indian name, a vaguely Franco-Euro-Mediterranean accent, a home nation with a vaguely Latin-based name, and a Brazilian voice actor. The light touch allows parents to contextualize the story in racist history without pushing it to the detriment of the story.
Princess and the Frog also excited me because it is a story about black characters in Jazz Age New Orleans. Though the 1920s represented certain growing trends in racism and ethnoviolence, the Roaring Twenties in the United States also represented a brief period of relative liberalism as black people, women, and even queer folk were at least able to obtain greater cultural agency. The jazz of this time and place clearly infuses the film, putting a twist on the Disney musical numbers that I loved. (At the same time, I am not sure if I love the songs as much as I loved songs from other films.)
The thing about Tiana in New Orleans is that she is a black American. There is criticism that the black princess should be African, but if a black story written by a historically white supremacist corporation is potentially problematic, I would definitely not trust Disney to write an African story. Mulan has a problem in this, I think, where the story is essentially about sexism, but in a Chinese context. Chinese sexism is a valid target of criticism, but I am not comfortable with that criticism leveled by Disney. It seems like an easy way to point at China as a bastion of foot-binding, girl-aborting, woman-beating oppression, while ignoring sexism in the States, including that which is perpetuated by Disney.
I think this is vital: By telling the story of a black princess in New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog can speak to a black history (it's not just for February anymore!) beyond blacks as slaves (very sad) and blacks as followers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (racism is over!). This is the power of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Are Watching God: they simply do not teach you about the black freeman towns in Florida in US history. Your US History classes were probably as White Straight Male US History as mine were.
The other thing I love about The Princess and the Frog is that Tiana has virtues besides "silent" (coma, death, mute). Her defining trait is hard-working to the point that conservatives probably will love her once they get over her dark skin. She is pulling herself up by the goddamn bootstraps to achieve her American Dream. And Prince Charming? He is charming, but in a totally smarmy way. His princeliness is essentially a character flaw: He is lazy as all get out and Tiana teaches him about pride in honest work. Also, he's probably illegal.
So, I love this film, despite the various issues discussed and not discussed here. Yes, Ray is a Cajun caricature, a stereotype of the country bumpkin with more fourth cousins than teeth (though he is startlingly insightful and heart-touching). Yes, it is problematic and normative to suggest a woman is not complete because she is focusing entirely on her career and she needs a husband too. But you have a story about a couple of color (ish) learning from each other, which is pretty amazing as far as Disney princesses go. This is not a heroic prince saving the girl or even a greener-than-thou magic princess who teaches the white man how to appropriate her story to assuage his imperialist guilt.
Finally, props to Dr. Facilier (Keith David) for being the most terrifying Disney villain ever. And this is without any epic magic, just his brand of hoodoo. Four words: Voodoo dolls on drums. The fairy grandmother Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis) also provides an alternative practitioner, although the fact that her magic is also voodoo is not pushed as much as Dr. Facilier's. There is the danger of perpetuating voodoo as the scary black witchcraft, and Dr. Facilier can be seen as the black man who tries to make it in the white man's world through unapproved means (voodoo as socialism?) as opposed to Tiana's Republican-friendly hard work, so he must be punished.
It is also scary how good I am at this. And how fucking long this entry is.
