The Princess & the Frog

"...we were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. her poverty kept us generous. even her waking dreams we used to silence our own nightmares. and she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. we honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength." --from The Bluest Eye

In my 10th grade English class we read Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and I had my first in-depth discussion about the media and concepts of beauty. My senior year at NCSU I took a Sociology 200 class--just for fun--and we talked a lot about the images we see on television and how they influence children. While the academic in me knows it matters that film companies like Disney have never had an African-American princess...EVER, it didn't really hit me until yesterday, when I went with Favorite1L to see Disney's The Princess & the Frog.

The movie was classic Disney animation. Which is a great thing! Think Beauty & the Beast or The Little Mermaid. The film is set in post WWI New Orleans and as a lover of NOLA I thought the movie captured the spirit of the city well. The accents were subtle, yet there. There were blacks, whites and all the in between. There were black cajuns and white cajuns and vodoo people [both good and bad]. Without giving too much of the plot away, the story is about Tiana a young girl who always dreamed of opening a fancy NOLA restaurant with her father [who died in the war]. She works like 2-3 jobs trying to save her money for her dream place and makes the city's BEST beignets. When the prince who's visiting the city looking for a bride is turned into a frog by the Shadow Man he mistakes Tiana for a princess and asks her to kiss him. Hijinx ensues. Its great Disney fun!

I loved the movie! It was cute. I laughed. I got emotional. It was everything you'd want from a good Disney movie. But what really got me choked up was watching my fellow movie goers. It was a mixed race audience. Everyone seemed to just be excited about seeing the latest Disney film. But then there was this group of little black girls who had come with their mothers. And they were ALL dressed like Princess Tiana complete with a little crown. They were beautiful kids. And I realized how they look up at that screen as little Southern black girls and identify SO much with Tiana. And Tiana is a good person. She's smart, beautiful, disciplined, and hard working. And they see themselves in her! Yeah, its just a movie. But its also a powerful image for a 4 year old or 6 year old girl to see. No the movie wasn't perfect. If you look hard you can find racial shadiness anywhere. But I am proud of Disney for making a princess that EVERYONE can love who just happens to be African-American.

I'll never really know how the absence of characters like Tiana influenced me as a young child. Luckily I grew up around strong successful people who looked like me to serve as role models and tell me I was smart, talented and special. But sitting in that dark theater watching Tiana look up at the stars and dream her dreams, it really connected with me. It felt different than Mulan or The Little Mermaid. I'm glad that those young girls I saw got a chance to experience that. And based on how PACKED the theater was, I'm glad EVERYONE is getting a chance to experience and love The Princess & the Frog.