When You Are A Black Disney Princess
When You Are A Black Disney Princess
Long before Barack Obama's election, the studio created Tania, the African-American heroine of her new cartoon, "The Princess and the Frog". Indoor Wednesday.
In January 2006, when John Lasseter, visionary guru and co-founder of Pixar, took over the reins of the Disney When You Are A Black Disney Princess
, his ambition was clear. Give pride of place to traditional 2D animation, drawn by hand in the tradition of the immortal classics that forever cemented the glory and fame of the venerable studio founded in 1923.
Among the projects announced, The Frog Princess, based on a children's book published in 2002 whose author, ED Baker, is a mother who breeds horses from Maryland. She tells the story of Emeralda and her meeting with a frog, in fact, a prince victim of a bad fate who, in exchange for a chaste kiss, will regain his human form. Unless contingency?
Disney bought the rights to it in 2003. After having initially envisaged a version by computer whose action took place in Chicago in the 1930s, Lasseter calls to the rescue Ron Clements and John Musker, legendary duo to which we owe Aladdin and La Petite Mermaid. Their pitch corresponds to his vision. ". John suggested New Orleans which was the favorite city of Walt Disney and where we had never set foot. He recommended that we go and soak up the local color before writing any lines. When we returned, the idea that our heroine would be African-American came naturally to better symbolize the racial mix that we had perceived on the spot. ”
Rumors
The green light is given, and now titled La Princesse et la Gre-nouille, production begins in March 2006 with the support of a black co-writer, Rob Edwards. "Without ever imagining that a black president would be installed in the White House at the time of the release of the film four years later," quips Clements. Nor the extent of the controversial tsunami to come when the studio is about to enthron the When You Are A Black Disney Princess in its history. Finally succeeding other house heroines of color: Jasmine the Oriental, Pocahontas the Indian, Mulan the Chinese and Lilo the Hawaiian ?. While Oprah Winfrey, queen of the talk show agreed to be the voice of the mother of the heroine, thus providing the project with an unstoppable additional guarantee.
Even before the first images are revealed to the public, rumors begin to invade the blogosphere, in the name of politically correct. Horror, the word racism is dropped. The choice of New Orleans, not yet recovered from the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina is considered indelicate, like spicing up the intrigue with voodoo sauce in a segregated South.
Even thoughWhen You Are A Black Disney Princess to controversy (and has often been accused of ethnic insensitivity), the marketing department must defuse the risk of a disastrous torpedo before the cartoon is even finished.
Some significant changes are made to the scenario. Initially named Maddy, whose connotation close to Mammy is supposed to evoke the era of slavery, the girl is renamed Tania. A maid serving a family of well-to-do whites, she was promoted to a budding restaurateur.
. So what progress. Hardworking, independent and ambitious, she is nothing like a young lady in passive distress. What could be more positive and exemplary for generations of little girls? ”
Progression
Invited to the premiere of the film last November, the novelist ED Baker admits on her blog to have had a good time and found the result charming. Like most of the critics, generally positive, tempered by those of a more cynical press, reproaching for having decked out the prince of the patronym Naveem of Maldonia and of a suspicious café au lait skin as well as the abuse of stereotypes caricaturing the black community?
What does it matter since only ultimately counts the concrete sanction of the box office. Since its release in December, The Princess and the Frog has already garnered 131 million worldwide revenues. In terms of merchandising, sales of Tiana dolls, princess dresses, various stuffed animals, trumpeter alligators and cheeky amphibians remain on the rise.
These are all signs of the minimal impact of the controversy. Bet won therefore for Lasseter and his team, who risked big on several fronts, but managed to preserve by renewing the gospel of Disney cosmology. "This is a story with Are You A Disney Princess Freak pleads Musker. Overcoming obstacles to the pursuit of your dream is not limited to a single skin color!!!
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I really wish I knew the name of the artist who drew this and if they had an Instagram page so I could credit them properly, because this image gave me an amazing idea when I saw it on my mom's page a couple of days ago! See, ever since I was a little girl, I've loved being in the water, and I'd take any chance I could to do so even if it meant going into the ocean at the beach when I wasn't even wearing any swimwear. As such, I spent most of my childhood wishing I was a mermaid so I could swim as much as I wanted. I also happen to be a huge Disney fanatic, with "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast" constantly battling for my ultimate favorite Disney movie and "The Little Mermaid" coming in close behind them. So the moment I saw this picture, I had this idea of recreating it in an underwater photo shoot someday! I don't know if I'll go full out and dye my hair red for that or if I'll just wear a hair and outfit color that suits me best, but either way, I want to allow myself to live out my childhood dream of being a mermaid, and maybe even do other Disney themed shoots as well. Being an "official" Disney princess has a lot of requirements I personally find ridiculous, but if I did this, I could show other young girls who might want to be a mermaid or Disney princess that they don't have to fit a certain mold to be like the princesses they love! #loa #lawofattraction #lawofattraction101 #manifesting #manifest #manifestation #manifestingdreams #visualization #visualizing #disneyprincesses #blackdisneyprincess #disneymagic #blackdisneyprincesses #blackgirldisney #blackgirlmagic #blackgirlsrock #blackgirls #dreds #dredlocks #littlemermaid #disneyreimagined #reimaginebeauty #reimaginebeautystandards #shareyourheart #shareyourheart💜 #trezurewoods #littletrezures (at Santa Ana, Costa Rica) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpTTU7Oh6Bt/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2zcufqo3ch7n
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