The Frog Princess Press Release

[Ariel'sprince]

Was the Chesire Cat sacrificed for the Frog Princess's boa?

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.

[mariadny]

I think that FROG PRINCESS will be a big success and a great film....but, do you prefer a happy end in this movie or dramatic end?

[ChrisLyne]

I agree Frog Princess and Rapunzel will both be fantastic movies, and I have to say happy endings as these are Disney Classics!

In terms of live action Enchanted is looking amazing, POTC: AWE will just be the biggest film of the year and I'm looking forward to Prince of Persia next year...

[PixarFan2006]

I think it should have a happy ending being Disney. Sad endings have not done much for most Disney movies.

[jeremy88]

Since Disney Animated features have always had happy endings for Disney films. This one should have a nice happy happy joy joy ending as well. The only one that kind of doesnt have a happy ending is Pocahontas that ending was happy/sad but its still amazing.

Im excited for POTC: AWE, Enchanted, Meet The Robinsons, The Frog Princess. It's going to be good Disney years hehe. Or maybe Im just saying that because I am a Disney Fan lol.

I hope Froggy does well. But for all animated films its a big risk, You never know whose going to be a financial success. The Frog Princess could take time to gaining classic status, it could be an instant classic, or take time like the way Sleeping Beauty and Alice in Wonderland did.

[Fantasmic]

Bittersweet, in the vein of Pocahontas. And then there'll be sequels that give it a happier ending

[blackcauldron85]

At the Disney-MGM Studios, the store that sells the custom watches (I don't know the name of it) has a markerboard on a table that is sort of like a mini-press release for TFP. I thought that that was interesting-promoting the film so far in advance.

[Fantasmic]

Could you post or link to a picture? That's really interesting...

[Prudence]

Bittersweet, in the vein of Pocahontas. And then there'll be sequels that give it a happier ending

The first sentence actually sounds like a good idea.

[blackcauldron85]

Could you post or link to a picture? That's really interesting...

You know, I should have taken a picture of it. I didn't, though, and I can't find a picture of it online. The next time I go to Disney-MGM, I'll take a picture!

[Atlantica]

I think there is so much hype because Disney wants it known that they have recruted the old favourites for this movie; Ron and John. They made some of the studios best movies, so naturally, they would want it known.

[singerguy04]

Is anyone else really excited that this might introduce Disney's first inter-racial couple (other than Pocahontas and John Smith, but that didn't work out) to hit the big screen? I think that this is an awesome thing for disney to do! I mean I'm assuming the prince will be white since he's the prince of england. On top of that it's set in the U.S. in the 1920's. I wonder if there will be anything concerning racism in this film.

[akhenaten]

Is anyone else really excited that this might introduce Disney's first inter-racial couple (other than Pocahontas and John Smith, but that didn't work out) to hit the big screen? I think that this is an awesome thing for disney to do! I mean I'm assuming the prince will be white since he's the prince of england. On top of that it's set in the U.S. in the 1920's. I wonder if there will be anything concerning racism in this film.

not to mention historical context..cant argue the same about pocahontas because its beyond myth but to have an english prince from the 20s would be like using a real person from the not to distant past.

[Fantasmic]

Is anyone else really excited that this might introduce Disney's first inter-racial couple (other than Pocahontas and John Smith, but that didn't work out) to hit the big screen? I think that this is an awesome thing for disney to do! I mean I'm assuming the prince will be white since he's the prince of england. On top of that it's set in the U.S. in the 1920's. I wonder if there will be anything concerning racism in this film.

*coff coff* Uhm, Quasimodo and Esmerelda? Milo and Kidakagash?

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Uhm, Quasimodo and Esmerelda?

Um, they really weren't an item. I think you meant Phoebus?

[singerguy04]

Is anyone else really excited that this might introduce Disney's first inter-racial couple (other than Pocahontas and John Smith, but that didn't work out) to hit the big screen? I think that this is an awesome thing for disney to do! I mean I'm assuming the prince will be white since he's the prince of england. On top of that it's set in the U.S. in the 1920's. I wonder if there will be anything concerning racism in this film.

*coff coff* Uhm, Quasimodo and Esmerelda? Milo and Kidakagash?

Yes, but they weren't a Black and White couple from the south Central United States. This really is a bigger deal than those couples considering we can't even release Song of the South due to hypersensitivity to how the African Americans were treated.

Also, Quasi and Esmerelda were still both French and gypsies for that matter...

Milo and Kida you have a point, but the atlantians weren't forced into slavery.

I guess I should've just said Black and White.

[Prudence]

Or African and Caucasian, to be politically correct.

[PapiBear]

From today's Charlotte (NC) Observer:

Posted on Tue, Apr. 03, 2007

Disney's `Frog Princess' no dream come true

WILLIAM BLACKBURN
Special to the Observer

Recently the Walt Disney Co. announced it has started production on a film featuring a new animated princess named Maddy. After some 80 years creating a collection of princesses that have represented Middle Eastern, American Indian and Chinese cultures, Disney finally has seen fit to develop an African American princess.

This endeavor may seem like a long-overdue step in the right direction, but Disney should be ashamed of what it is trying to pass off as its first black princess.

More than a decade ago, concerned about the lack of black dolls and animated movies for children of color, my aunt embarked on a campaign to persuade Disney to produce a black princess who would boost the esteem of not only her own daughters, but other young black girls. Shopping trips to toy stores yielded few positive images for her two daughters.

She wrote letter after letter to company executives. After receiving little or no assurance from Disney that any such representation was forthcoming, my aunt wrote a book following the adventures of a black princess called Mandisa. Though the book never made the New York Times Bestseller List nor received any mention from Oprah, the point was made. It was way past due for Disney and any children's toy manufacturer to create images that catered to everyone.

Few toys look like us

To those who say they're just toys -- that the race stuff is irrelevant and children don't care about that -- I ask: Why do the majority of toys, dolls and action figures have white faces? I am appalled that when I walk the aisles of any toy store with my young daughter, I rarely find items that look like her. As human beings, we find strength and confidence in things that look like us.Young, white males wake up each morning thinking they can one day be president of the U.S. because history shows them that every previous president looked like them. The same cannot be said for young, black males. They are inclined to believe they can be the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James because when they turn on an NBA game, seven or eight of the 10 players on the court look like them.

Black children, like children of any other race or ethnicity, must understand their culture and have a sincere appreciation for their unique features. Yet, since the 1920s, Disney has championed the white princess by creating the likes of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. This has been the standard of beauty marketed to young girls.

Need I mention the black doll test that was first conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark during the 1950s and recently duplicated by a high school student in New York? The experiment had black school children select either white dolls or black dolls, and they overwhelmingly chose the white dolls. Not only did the NAACP use these results to back its claim that segregated schools made black children feel inferior, but the results also played an important role in the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that outlawed school segregation.

Attempt falls short

Toys are a vehicle of creativity, and Disney has played a major role in shaping many young minds. The company has made billions marketing itself as a friend to young children with its toys, movies and amusement parks. Yet, despite all its resources and experience, it has failed to create a black princess to rival its predecessors.

For one, this princess' story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community. And then they throw in the voodoo theme and an alligator sidekick. When you put New Orleans, alligators and voodoo together, there's no beauty there.

And what's in a name? I have no desire to see my daughter play with a Maddy doll. Maddy? Say it five times real fast, and it'll start to sound like Mammy.

After all of this time, Disney owes us better than this ill-considered fairy-tale. Black consumers especially must implore Disney to go back to the drawing board. In 2009, Disney will bring this character to the big screen, and you'll see posters, trailers and other PR advertising this black princess as something glamorous. But the movie is called "The Frog Princess." Enough said.

William Blackburn

Observer community columnist William Blackburn works for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Write him c/o The Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308, or at williamhblackburn@yahoo.com

I have to say I agree with him. Disney needs to start over and rethink this entire film. They won't, but they should.

I'm particularly disturbed by the fact that Maddy's apparent love interest is a white male. While my own personal feelings on interracial relationships are extremely receptive (heck, I openly promote them), I believe that for Disney's first effort at presenting what is essentially purported to be an African American story to have the male love interest, the handsome prince, be a white male is a slap in the face to my Black brothers everywhere. I guarantee you that the reception to this will be that Disney is essentially saying, "sure, we'll throw you a bone with the Black princess, but the time, the place, and the situation have all got to somehow be evocative of the plantation, and there's no way we'll let the Black princess fall in love with a Black prince...... because Black males can't BE princes." The subtle, unconscious message to young Black girls will be "if you want to find happiness and contentment, don't look toward the Black man, look toward the white man." And that is a very dangerous message to send to children.

Now again, don't get me wrong; I don't have a problem with interracial relationships at all, and I think that love crosses all racial boundaries. I've been in interracial relationships most of my life, in fact. That's not what's at issue, though. The issue is Disney mollifying the PC police rather than doing the right thing, which is to provide a positive, uplifting tale for little Black boys as well as little Black girls, and for them both to see that Black men and Black women can be in love and that their love is just as powerful in defeating evil as all other forms of love.

Given the fact that Jasmine and Mulan both had love interests who were of the same ethnicity (Pocahontas' relationship with the Englishman was, although distorted, based on the historical reality, however tenuously that connection to history may have been), this particular story choice is stark and will not go unobserved and unchallenged. Given the historical reality of white slaveowners and their sons raping Black female slaves over several generations, there is a certain apprehension within the Black community over white male/Black female relationships.

I'm not saying that Disney shouldn't ever do an interracial love tale. I'm saying that for Disney's first effort at establishing an African (or African American) princess, the idea of an African (or African American) prince, or the general equivalent insofar as love stories go, has been given short shrift. The timing for this kind of tale is not right, no matter what might be happening in contemporary culture. Disney needs to figure out Black love first before it tries to tackle interracial love. They're putting the cart before the horse.

Ask yourself this - why is Prince Harry British? Because in 1920s New Orleans, an American white male was not legally able to have an open love relationship with a Black female. Anti-miscegenation laws prohibited it. But! If Maddy is a poor maid and she's rescued from her drudgery by a handsome European prince, well, magically she becomes a princess.

Nah, sorry, that's a cop out and it's just done to get this African American female character to be a "princess." The implication being that since we don't have a system of royalty in the US, no girl can actually be a princess, let alone a queen, unless she takes up with a European male, or unless she goes to some foreign land (like Grace Kelly).

So, why couldn't the African American girl meet up with a handsome African prince, where they really do have princes and princesses and kings and queens, and have had such for centuries?

Think about that.

[Poody]

Oh dear lord. Don't get your panties in a bunch. No one has even seen the movie yet! Wait about 3 years before you start bitchin'!

[PapiBear]

Oh dear lord. Don't get your panties in a bunch. No one has even seen the movie yet! Wait about 3 years before you start bitchin'!

That is a very rude response.

I don't want to get into a bickering match with you. I wanted to report your post but there doesn't seem to be a way to do so.

What I had to say was not "me getting my panties in a bunch" nor was it "bitching."

Perhaps you could actually listen to what's being said? Just a thought.