Response to Breaux

I really enjoyed watching the The Princess and the Frog. I agree with my statements made in Breaux's article of how Disney avoided many of its pitfalls with a princess who is dependent on the male lead, and a female who is motherless and revels in the misery of the lack of a parental figure until an outside force relieves her of the suffering. I saw the movie as an achievement that helped Disney move forward and away from its racist past. Disney never really wins in most of these cases, for some people the movie lacks enough cultural aspects, and for others the movie plays on too many stereotypes. I enjoyed watching a Disney film that didn't where Tiana had "very little interest in waiting for her prince to come" (Breaux 404), and where Tiana was guided by her own self-interest and living up to the dreams of her father of establishing a restaurant without the monetary aid of a male hero. "Love or finding a prince to emotionally rescue her is the last thing on Tiana’s mind" (Breaux 404), and this is one of the things I loved about The Princess and the Frog. It deviated from Disney's popular depiction of love at first sight, and while the ending of the movie resulted in Tiana marriage with Nevine, it took the length of the movie to establish a loving connection and feelings for one another, something entirely different from older Disney films like Cinderella. I do disagree with Breaux's argument that the film missed opportunities to add historical relenacy of the Jim Crow Era, and aspects of segregation. I feel like Disney would have received a lot of backlash from viewers for creating a very racially historical film that wouldn't have appealed to many young viewers who wouldn't have understood the historical context. It would have appeared as the same fairy tale movie that young children like to watch. This is one of those topics that Disney really cannot win, but I think the creators chose the right side in being progressive in using the setting of New Orleans to introduce their first black princess. It's contextually relevant to make Tiana black in 1920's New Orleans, and also inspiring to not revel on the past (though a teachable topic) and create a princess who overcomes monetary adversity and does independently open her own restaurant. They also did a good job of avoided being overly stereotypical with Tiana's voice as well. Some people would regard her as too white, while others wished she would have more black features, but this is a tough line for Disney to walk. But to answer Breau'x assertion that the film's first critics were those who stated that black women's jobs at the time in New Orleans were to "primarily serve white people" (Breaux 407), I think the underlying racism was absent from the minds of the animators who wrote the script. If Tiana had not been serving at the movie, it would not have been such a wonderful fulfillment when she finally escaped from her situation and opened a restaurant where she herself was the owner of the store. By having Tiana be a waitress at the beginning of the movie, which also has some historical racial context, we have a greater sense of appreciation for Tiana's journey when she finally realizes her dream of owning her own restaurant, Tiana's place. 

The Princess and the Frog

While some people may take issue with The Princess and the Frog’s portrayal of Disney’s first black princess as a poorer woman who must work for her living, or with the fact that she was transformed into a frog for half of the film, thus making it easier for Disney to introduce Tiana. I take no issue with Disney for this movie. I respect Disney for making this movie, and I have actually come to really enjoy watching it. The setting of the movie is 1920’s Louisiana, and coming from Louisiana myself, it was really neat to see all of the cultural accuracy Disney had hen portraying New Orleans voodoo culture and the atmosphere of the unique city. I really appreciated this movie because while it was still the classic adversity to true love’s first kiss plot Disney employs in all their movies, it was masked much more effectively and was different from other Disney love animations. In The Princess and the Frog Disney addressed several firsts, and I really respect them for using their first black princess as a way to also kick off other changes in their films. This was one of the first Disney films I have seen where love takes awhile, it’s not easy, and it doesn’t happen right away. In films like Cinderella, the protagonist falls in love right away with the male lead however; with Tiana and Nevine things aren’t the same. It takes awhile for Nevine to woo Tiana, and the love progresses throughout the movie rather than instantaneously. I think this movie also introduced more realistic culture than I have seen in previous Disney movies as well, with the setting being in New Orleans. Just overall, I don’t see anything problematic with Disney using it’s first black princess in this movie because number one: it is required for the setting of the movie, a white princess would not have been accurate for the role in 1920’s Louisiana, and number two: we can still see/hear her blackness even when she is transformed into a frog so it eliminates the idea that Disney is trying to minimize screen time for their first black protagonist.