Reflection:
When I was reading this article all I could think about was the Disney movie that recently came out back in December, "The Princess and the Frog". This is the first Disney movie where the leading character is an African American princess. Some people are happy with the decision Disney made and some people are horrified by their decisions. Not only don't they agree with their decision of having an African American being a princess but they also thought that their decision of having the movie set in New Orleans wasn't a very good idea. As we all know, New Orleans was where one of the most devastating tragedies beset a black community and by having an African American Disney Princess live in New Orleans was not a good combination and it stirred up many arguments by the critics and the viewers. Another issue that many critics found disturbing about this movie was that the original name for the Princess was Maddy but before the movie came out they decided to change the name to Tiana. Many people saw this as very racist because when you think of a name for an African American you don't often think of ordinary names so many people believed that since it's an African American we should give her an name such as Tiana.
I work at Target and up front at each register we have a section with various items such as advil, chapstick, tide to go pens, hot wheels cars, and we also have a small collection of Disney Princess Dolls. One day we received a shipment of all the various items. I remember I was helping my manager put out all the items and when we came across this
African American Princess she began to bust out laughing. I asked her what was so funny and all she could say was "This is too funny!". I didn't say anything back to her and I just continued on with what I was doing. Working at the register I would see numerous kids pick up this doll and look at it kind of strange and they wouldn't beg their parents to buy it for them like they would for any other toy. I will admit that for the two years that I've been working here seeing this African American Princess was a little different to me but it I didn't let it bother me like it is doing to everyone else.
In Christensen's article she talks about how some people refuse to go see another Walt Disney movie until they have a black woman playing the role and how many people wanted to see a change in the race of actors. Well, with this movie I believe that they did get that change but some people don't see it as a change they see it as the creators of the movie being racist. Why can't people just accept a change for once and stop looking at the negatives of everything? This is the FIRST time that they've had an African American princess and everyone was so angry about it. I don't agree with everyone's negative reaction towards this movie and I thought it was a good idea for Disney to do.
Do you think Disney should have created this movie? Has anyone ever seen this movie and if you did, do you think it's a racist movie?
I thought it was a good idea that they created this movie. I didn't think it's a racist movie. But I've heard complaints about it because of how they portray everyone. A lot of people argued that it was too stereotypical
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested, here's one review where the writer tried to tear it apart: http://www.ncatregister.com/movie-review-the-princess-the-frog-1.2126483
I used the same movie at a point in my article because in my opinion I think most of the controversy was because this idea was different to many. It was the first movie an African American was used to play a princess so nothing they did would be good enough. It reminds me of how one person represents their community but for whites, no one is asked to do that. This movie is supposed to settle for all blacks, while white people get every other movie. Its just not fair.
ReplyDeleteThat movie was the first thing i thought of too. I think it's funny the way people interpret "The Princess and the Frog". I saw it as disney's attempt help be more diverse (as a good thing, but they probably could have picked a better setting, because i believe the setting made it a bad thing.
ReplyDeletei thought it was ok. But like nick said a lot of people argue that it is.
ReplyDelete