Dissonance Chords & Dissenting Opinion

Princess & the Frog

I went to see this lovely movie last night, and as a Disney fan, was thoroughly impressed. Tiana is the princess we have been waiting for for a long time, and I don’t just mean that in reference to her skin. Outside of being beautiful and kind, she’s also funny, independent and hard-working. Cinderella may have scrubbed some floors and succumbed to abuse, but it was magic that made her dream come true. Tiana works two jobs and saves every penny in order to achieve what she wants; the magic is necessary for a different lesson.

It’s classic 2D Disney through and through, and beautifully animated. The issue of race is never mentioned directly (there is one line early on that’s up for debate as to whether the character is referring to her race, or simply that she’s poor), which is why it’s so strange that those of us in the real world seem to assign so much significance to it.

Was it time for a black Disney princess? Certainly. Way past time. It was also way past time for a princess who could think for herself and achieve her dreams with her own two hands (Mulan technically isn’t a princess). I’m glad the two were combined in one movie.

But I also understand exactly why it took so long to get a black princess. Just look at all the criticism the movie received, even before her character design and story were finalized! Early on in development, apparently there was an uproar about her original name: “Maddy.” People were claiming it was offensive and a slave name.

The only Maddy I know is my cousin’s daughter: a blonde, blue-eyed white girl. It’s just a name. Names only have significance if you assign it to them.

Then her character design was released, and people started to complain that she wasn’t black enough. Her hair wasn’t kinky enough, her nose wasn’t big enough, but this issue is a moot point. If they’d made her hair more kinky and her nose bigger, the same people would’ve complained that she was a stereotype. There was no way Disney was going to win this one. Personally, I love her design. She’s the first princess to have dimples, and it’s beautiful.

I know, I know. I’m a white girl who grew up in the suburbs. I’m “privileged” and have no idea what it’s like to be black. Fine.

But there are critics and moviegoers alike who are complaining that there’s no issue made of her race, and that her best friend is a rich white girl. They say it’s not realistic. Why not? In the time period it may have been rare, but certainly not non-existent. Plus who’s to complain about realism when the movie involves voodoo turning humans into frogs? I mean, really?

What concerns me is how those complaints will affect kids today. The colorblindness of the movie reflects how colorblind the world should be today. The unfortunate part is that it isn’t, and yes, there are white people out there that have a problem with this as well, but black people are the ones complaining. If their complaint is that white people were never really that nice to black people, what message does that send? And how will we ever truly be colorblind if that message keeps being sent by people of all races?

One of the friends I went with last night commented as we were coming out of the theater, the movie makes it very clear that it doesn’t matter what you look like. And that’s the bottom line, y’all.