The Princess and the Frog, my views.

As I stated previously, I am anxious for the movie to come out. But there have been criticisms from every which way about the movie.

such as:
1. The name of the movie
2. The name of Tiana
3. The interracial relationship
4. The New Orleans location.

there is much more, but these are the main ones you will hear over and over again.

Now obviously Disney does have a racist past (and present?)....so one should not be surprised about racial problems being prevalent in this movie. Especially if you research long enough you will find controversies with Mulan, Aladdin, and Pocahontas (and The Lion King also). In fact, if you look hard enough, you will find racial overtones, in older Disney moves of Walt's time.

So its important to go into this movie, expecting the unexpected, and expecting to see some racism or stereotypes.

Now I am going to address my opinion on each of the 4 things I mentioned.

1. The name of the movie. The working title for this was The Frog Princess, it would later be changed to The Princess and the Frog. I much prefer its title now, than the working title. Even though Tiana doesn't become a princess til the end of the movie (from what I am getting from the previews and descriptions), the vibe comes off more better than The Frog Princess.

2. The name change from Maddie to Tiana. I much prefer Tiana, not just because its more ethnic, but because when I think of the name Maddie, I think of Ashley Tisdale who played a Maddie in The Suite Life of Zach and Cody...thinking of Ashley makes me think of HSM, and I despise HSM. So I like the name change. Tiana would not have necessarily been my pick, and its not that I hate the name Maddie, but considering both HSM and this new movie are both under Disney, its just too much Maddie.

3. The interracial relationship. The Prince is either latin or indian. Its been confirmed by the voice actress for Tiana, that the princes is neither white or black. Some are upset not so much that its an interracial relationship, but that its not a black guy simply because those in the past got to stay in their race. Looking at this realistically, Disney probably had no other choice but to go out of race. A) a black movie doesn't sell. You can't have 2 black leads in a movie. You can have a predominate black cast, but there has to be another race as one of the leads, in order to get maximum ticket sales. B) It would be much harder to do a movie with a black princess, since Africa is really the only known continent with black princesses and princes...and an African culture and setting would not mesh well with the western world, including black americans. Sure Lion King was successful, but it had no people. I don't care so much that there is no black prince, I guess because I am not really attracted to black guys. And one person made a point in saying that black men would not object to not having a black princess, which is true.

But another problem some had with this relationship, was that Disney was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. This isn't the first interracial relationship in a movie, but Disney has had very few Latin representation, the same as blacks. The Disney Channel has shown more Latin and Blacks in their shows (The Wizards of Waverly Place and That's So Raven), than Walt Disney Pictures itself. As of yet, there has been no actual Latin/Hispanic princess. Although if the prince turns out to be brazillian or some kind of hispanic/latin orgin, he will be the first princes. Although to most this does not matter, as very few times, has a princess movie ever really been about the Prince...in fact, up until The Little Mermaid, the prince usually had few lines and would only be in a few scenes. Disney is a female venture, especially the Princess movies.

4. The setting in New Orleans. This has created problems for various reasons. New Orleans is the location of many horrible racist acts of the past (even as recent as Hurricane Katrina), and also, there is the question of how blacks of New Orleans would be stereotyped...such examples being the Cajun accent. Quite frankly, I am not sure what to think right now....Disney probably chose New Orleans for its culture and its black population (I am not sure how big its population was in the 1900s since this movie supposedly takes place in the 1920s). Remember this is the 1920s, in order to make it work and not drift too far from reality, they had to be concisous about location....

In the end, some people say its not possible or realistic for there to be a black princess....but anyone who truly knows disney, would truly know that Disney obviously isn't one to stick with reality (seriously, does a the Little Mermaid ring a bell????).

The one thing that I had a problem with myself, was seeing her in a blue dress. I have seen her in a pic with a blue dress, and then a pic with a green dress. I sincerely hope her signature dress is the green dress. Its a beautiful dress and the blue dress, while looking nice, its too reminescent of Cinderella. I think each Princess should have her own distinct dress, in its own color too.Here is the link to one of the three trailers