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A guest post from cultural anthropologist Michael Baran:
The Princess and the Frog opens nationwide on Friday. In
advance of the movie, many worried about how Disney would represent
Tiana as an African-American princess in 1920s New Orleans. (Here's DoubleX on Tiana's accent and her friends and mom.)
After seeing the movie, as a cultural anthropologist, I understand
those critics who argue that Tiana and her fellow African-Americans are
not black enough in terms of skin color or hair texture. But aside from
those physical shortcomings, I find only find positive messages about
Tiana. She is a waitress working hard to achieve her deceased father’s
dream of owning a family restaurant, “Tiana’s Place.” She is kind,
beautiful, loving, brave, and humble. Her one fault in the movie is
that she is too driven; she doesn’t take enough time for love or for
fun (certainly not the African-American media stereotype).
Not surprisingly, the positive portrayal is also the case with all
of Disney’s recent princesses: Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Pocahontas, and
Mulan. What sets Tiana apart, unfortunately, is that she spends most of
the movie as a frog ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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As Nina pointed out last week, and the Times pointed out over the weekend, Disney's The Princess and The Frog, its first animated feature to star a black heroine, Tiana, is already controversial, and it doesn't come out until December. Watching the trailer for it on the big screen over the weekend (it's playing before Pixar's totally awesome Up!) got me thinking about another potential source of contention: Tiana's voice... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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