The Princess and the Frog is NOT a Black Princess Movie

It is indeed Black History Month. What a wonderful time to call out Disney for still not actually creating the first Black Disney Princess. We are also not begging Disney to do so. But if you must do it, do it right and be mindful. Hopefully, one day my husband and I will get bold, come up with a Black Princess movie ourselves, and reach out to a Black animation company.

Anyway, The Princess and the Frog- or as Disney was going to originally title it, The Frog Princess, was a slap in the face to little Black girls. Don't get me wrong; the movie was great! As entertaining and creative as the movie TRULY was and with one of the most amazing villains and villain songs of all time, the movie is still NOT a Black Princess movie. 

Here are a few of the qualms I have with the film and my arguments for why it is not a Black Princess movie: 

1. Tiana is a frog for most of the movie. My daughter doesn’t like it. She doesn’t believe it is a princess movie, just a movie about frogs who get turned into people. That says a lot right there. But hey, she's only 3 years old... I take that back; I bet she can tell you who the Princesses are on Frozen. My daughter loves to be called a princess and loves to dress up as one. Yet, she has never seen a Black Princess all dazzled up, having royal adventures, and wearing beautiful gowns and tiaras. Let’s think about other characters who were not princesses at first. Belle from the Beauty and the Beast- She didn’t come to the castle and get turned into furniture or cutlery for most of the film, right? LOL! Girls get to see her in a gown which, in their minds, already makes her a princess. Disney’s Cinderella- She didn’t get turned into a rat for most of the film, right? LOL! Both Belle and Cinderella get to remain human and we get to see them all dazzled up in beautiful sparkly gowns and shoes. They looked magical. And to a young girl watching, I am sure they believed early on that these were already princesses or royalty.

2. Instead of a Princess and to, I assume, make the character 'more relatable' to Black audiences, Tiana lives in extreme poverty. Her mother, Eudora, is pretty much a peasant earning little to nothing making dresses for a wealthy man, Mr. La Bouff. He is the wealthiest man in New Orleans and "King" of the Mardi Gras parade. 

Also, If you can make up a place called Maldonia, you can dream up a world where Black people can be princes and princesses. Our life is not just about poverty. Thankfully, not every Black person comes from poverty. It's a bit of an insult.

3. Why take Tiana's father out of the picture? Also, if we wanted to make Tiana the first Black Princess, let her father be the king of the Mardi Gras parade and the wealthiest man in New Orleans. The mother could also be a wealthy seamstress or fashion & costume designer. The conflict could involve Tiana wanting to find her own path- to own a restaurant, etc. There didn’t need to be a story about a prince. The movie could have been titled The Mardi Gras Princess.

4. Why couldn’t the prince also be Black? Why did Tiana have to marry outside of her race to become royalty? Furthermore, if they wanted to reference the original The Frog Prince story while replacing them with Black characters to give us the first Black Princess, then this movie could have actually been the orginal story with minor twists like a change in the villain and location. The movie could have included a Black Princess and a Black Prince all in one go. Unfortunately, that would mean a character still gets turned into a frog. So yes. Creating a twist to the Grimm’s Fairy Tale version of the story, the witch that turns the prince into a frog is replaced with Dr. Facilier, just like in the movie. I love that character! Instead of a childhood ball mentioned in the original story, Tiana loses a different item of value. The frog sees what happened and approaches Princess Tiana on her balcony. To keep this bit short, here is the original story of The Frog Prince for you to read yourself. 

In conclusion, there were so many choices they could have made other than turning Disney’s first Black Princess into a frog for most of the movie. The Princess and the Frog is an excellent movie. However, I will never count this as being a first Black Princess movie.