This was my first time watching The Princess and the Frog, and my initial impression was that it
did an adequate job of portraying the time period. While it did shy away from addressing race
relations during that time period, that is to be expected from a Disney film,
and most children’s films. Jim Crow laws
and the unfair treatment of blacks in the United States is a real issue, and
something we should not just pretend didn’t and still does not exist. However, there are other ways of addressing
this issue, and I can understand why Disney did not want to include this as a
part of their story. This being said,
there were still subtle ways that this issue was addressed, such as the fact
that Tiana’s mother was the housemaid of ‘Big Daddy’ La Bouff. It was also portrayed by the fact that Tiana
and her parents lived in the ghetto of New Orleans, while the prominent white
characters lived in a mansion.
Another controversy that has come up with regards to this
film is the portrayal of Tiana, who critics have claimed is really a “white”
princess with black skin. Personally, I
do not know how the Disney animators could have made Tiana’s character any more
“black” without succumbing to certain stereotypes. It also makes me wonder what exactly critics
were looking for in a black princess. At
the end of the day, she stays true to her roots and her father, making her a
human like anyone else, and confining because of her race also does not solve
the problem of race portrayal.
I also felt as if this film did a good job of gender
portrayal. Tiana is a hardworking,
independent woman who can take care of herself without the presence of a
man. She remains focused on her goal of
opening a gourmet restaurant throughout the film, not giving up on her and her
father’s dream. Prince Naveen, on the
other hand, is a completely insufficient on his own, relying on what he hopes
will be the wealth of the La Bouff family to allow him to continue to live his
lavish lifestyle. This “reverse sexism,”
in the context of other Disney films, sends a good message to children that men
and women are not confined to specific roles, but rather that a woman can be
just as independent as a man. On the
whole, I feel as if The Princess and the
Frog was a progressive film in Disney’s standards, and the fact that it
wasn’t as successful as other princess films likely has more to do with the
fact that many children and adults may not have been ready for a black
princess.
