Misguided Efforts
First Disney Depiction of African-American Princess Shows Signs of Cultural Insensitivity
The Princess and The Frog is Disney’s first hand-drawn animated feature since 2004’s forgotten Home on the Range, and is being touted as a return to the studio’s second golden era, when later classics like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King breathed new life into the art form.
Until now, our only exposure to Frog was in a short, teaser clip that set up the main characters and locale — an African-American girl in a gown and tiara leans over a New Orleans balcony holding a puckering frog in her hand, which she is extremely reluctant to kiss. The notion of kissing frogs is a cliché, but when you’re actually faced with the sight of a woman planting one on an amorous amphibian — even a hand-drawn one — it’s really quite unsettling. And just as you’re done watching that in awkward silence, along comes a toothless, inbred insect with a giant incandescent ass, and you’re struck by the fact that this both literal and figurative ugly stereotype will be the film’s insanely grating comic-relief — its Jar-Jar Binks. And like that, in under 60 seconds, you’re left with the overwhelming sense that Walt Disney’s The Princess and the Frog and the Racist Firefly is in deep trouble.
Now, new footage has emerged on an ABC special, and things look to be shaping up quite dreadfully. The silent frog now has a voice and a name — the creepy, vaguely Latin-sounding Prince Naveen, who’s about as charming as the Nasonex bee, and who licks his lips lasciviously as he and Princess Tiana (what, they couldn’t go for Tramicia?) negotiate over the exact terms of their frog-on-girl intermingling.
Memo to Disney: That’s disgusting.
And despite the best cheerleading efforts of Pixar Jesus John Lassiter, we don’t see how the addition of a “jazz-playing alligator” is really going to mitigate the underlying problem with The Princess and the Frog, which is that it is looking to be a G-rated Song of the South 2 for the post-Katrina, 2 Girls 1 Cup generation. It hits theaters this Christmas.
Did we mention it’s full of Randy Newman songs?
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Posted 05 May 2009, 2:49 PM
Kudos, for the "Oh, no you dih nh" frame.
Posted 05 May 2009, 3:21 PM
I won't be happy until Disney represents me and makes a film about a half irish, quarter mexican, atheist, liberal, gay man in the goddamn Bible belt.
Just think about that minefield. No religious images, home construction, potatoes, drinking, fairies, princesses, otters, bears, whatever other anthropomorphic gay symbols I hate, marriages, Sherri Shepherds, or rainbows.
Posted 06 May 2009, 9:54 AM
At least they're trying? We'll see. If it comes out in December they've got a few months to scrap that scene in the watermelon patch.
Posted 06 May 2009, 2:30 PM
Oh, HELL YEAHS! You got a "2 Girls 1 Cup" reference into a story about Disney! That's why you are the best in the Biz, Seth!