Our Princess Is Here

There's a new princess in the Disney family and her name is Tiana. And if you haven't heard by now, she's black. :) 'The Princess and the Frog' hit theatres Friday and was number 1 at the box office this weekend. I don't know about you, but I'm extremely excited about Disney's first African American princess. Finally right? It's been way overdue! I never understood why it took so long. Over the years, we watched Disney create an Arabic princess (Jasmine), a Native American character (Pochantas) and even an Asian (Mulan) leading lady, but never was she black.

Growing up, there weren't too many cartoons characters (especially princesses) that looked like me. Looking back, it kinda made me feel left out. I can't speak for every girl, but I bet plenty of girls wanted to be a princess when they were younger. Playing dress-up as Belle (Beauty and the Beast) or Princess Jasmine (Aladdin) didn't ruin your childhood, but I'm happy that little black girls will now have a princess that they can play with or aspire to be that looks like them. Even though I'm older now, it makes me feel proud that we have a black Disney character that is beautiful and smart that the world can see.

Luckily, I was able to see a sneak peak of the film this past May. I loved the movie! I thought that Disney did a great job with the character of Tiana. I felt that she was positively represented. I didn't see any negative depictions of African Americans. I know that there was some controversy about the prince not being black, but that honestly didn't bother me (too much). I felt that the story had a good message overall that made up for that. Those were just a couple of my thoughts and I know that there are some people out there who would disagree with me. I could get into a deeper discussion, but I want to leave that to you. What are you thoughts about 'The Princess and the Frog?' Did Disney get it's first black princess right? Let's talk about it...

--Tymika Morrison
Brownstone Team