In recent news there’s controversy surrounding Disney’s first black american princess. While The Princess & The Frog’s Princess Tiana and the rest of the cast is made up of mainly black characters, folks are not to happy that the prince is not. Prince Naveen of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor and people are saying he looks more white than black in photographs from the film that Disney has released.
Some disappointed fans have wrote:
‘I think it’s sad that he is white because its saying that black love isn’t good enough and that black men could never be princes.
‘Disney had the perfect chance to make its first black prince, but instead it decided to go the controversial route.’
“I am very disappointed and I wished Disney had made the prince black,(and the ironic thing is the prince in the movie is white but the evil voodoo villain is voiced by a black actor and is black).’
Anika Noni Rose, the voice of Princess Tiana, says “Not only is she the first black princess, she’s the first American princess. We’ve never had an American princess. The scope and the significance is larger than people even realize.” The movie, set in 1920 New Orleans, comes out later this year.
2 comments:
I saw a piece on this on 'Access Hollywood'; not the controversy, but the first black princess which I think is cool.
As far as the controversy, there's several ways to dissect it and find a positive.
As a black man, sure I'd love to see a black prince in the story, but since there isn't, I just rationalize that at least society is more receptive to an interracial cartoon couple. Just think that when Disney first started doing cartoons, no such thing would've existed, so we've come a long way; let alone a black princess leading the role. In time a black prince will come along, but I truly don't think there's cause for alarm.
I almost don't want to comment... why do we expect the creators, who are mostly white at Disney, be expected to create a Black royal couple?! We expect too much, AND we WAIT for others to create the images we want! That is insanity. Now I would expect a Tyler Perry to create a black couple (if he did animation.) But if I was white, why would I write my own image out of the script/off the screen?????? That wouldn't be relevant to the larger audience that I'm selling to if they don't see themselves on the screen.
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