Disney's Princess and the Frog Full-Length Trailer

Disney's new animated film, The Princess and the Frog, is intriguing for a couple reasons. For one, it's a return to more traditional 2D animation now that Disney has purchased Pixar and is letting them do the 3D, since they don't completely suck at it the way Disney seems to. The other remarkable thing is that it features a new entrant to the Disney Princesses fold, and for the first time, she's African-American. Ah, but there's a hitch!

Thar be spoilers here, along with a full-length trailer:

Tiana is the latest of the self-made Disney princesses. That's not the hitch of course, as Disney has many self-made princesses.

See, there's two factions of Disney Princess: The Princess Snow Whites and the Princess Cinderellas. Cinderellas actually work for a living. Carrying out rags-to-riches success stories, Cinderellas experience class mobility as well as wedded bliss in their happily ever afters. On the other hand, Princess Snow Whites are born princesses. They may have to do some hard labor because of a mean stepmother or witch, but they're basically just disenfranchised rich princesses who get their richness and princessness back in the end. Snow Whites' stories follow the following formula:

( Maiden Princess + Obstacle ) / Prince = Happily Ever After Princess

Tiana is definitely a Cinderella princess. Her day job is working in a restaurant in New Orleans, but with aspirations to own her own restaurant some day. As a fan of Top Chef and Cajun cuisine, I approve of this princess's description heartily, but there's a slight issue.  See, it appears from the trailer above that she doesn't actually spend a whole lot of time being an African American aspiring chef, but rather a Green American frog. The magical kiss with her would-be frog prince near the beginning of the movie transforms her into a frog, rather than the frog into a prince. While I think it's an cute plot device to turn the magical kiss on its head, when I think about it, they kinda already did that in Shrek, didn't they?

I dunno, shouldn't Disney's first African American princess get to be pretty like the rest of the princesses? It's not as though I suddenly began looking to Disney to be the pillar of diversity, but it still seems like a bait and switch.

The good news of course is that, even though Tiana spends most of the flick as a frog, Disney can now finally inaugurate an African American Disney Princess doll. Of course I'm sure promotional merchandise and cross-marketing opportunities are never deciding factors in Disney's animated features, but it's about time.

source

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Comments

[Renee]

It'll be good. I have faith.

[CheerMom]

So do I Renee. I haven't met a Disney princess yet that I haven't loved.

[Whit]

And Disney hardly sucks at CGI- it ain't Pixar, but it's not bad.

[LovelyLayla]

I'm happy it's animated and not Pixar. I enjoy the Pixar movies, but c'mon, what's better than a good ol' Disney animated film?
I think it looks cute.
Despite the fact there is already an uproar over the Prince not being African American.