The release date of The Princess and The Frog was moved up to December 11th, 2009 when Disney shareholders reacted positively to an unfinished scene in the animated movie. December 11th can’t come soon enough for the parents and children excited to see a princess of African decent in a Disney film. However, promotion for this movie hasn’t always been this positive. The lead character's name was initally supposed to be Maddy but there was concern that that name sounded too much like a stereotypical slave name. Consequently her name was changed to Tiana. The movie was also once called The Frog Princess which also upset members of the Black community prompting the change to it's current name.
The most recent criticism is that the male lead is not going to be Black. Some critics of the film believe that this will “reinforce prejudice”. With my experience working in media and I’ve seen this before. People are often afraid that a mostly white audience won’t be able to relate to an all or mostly ethnic/black cast so they include one or more key characters that are “more relatable”. From a business perspective I can see why they would make such choices from but from a social perspective I think it’s cowardly. Give your audience some credit and allow them to connect with your characters on a human level and not because they “look relatable”. After all. People of other races have found ways to relate to the mostly white characters on television and in movies for years.
In the end I don't know why Disney made the decision they made and by no means am I accusing them of this practice. To be fair it’s 2009. Who cares if Tiana's prince is Latin, White, or East Indian for that matter? Isn’t exercising her right to chose someone outside of her race a positive demonstration of how far Black people have come? Does anyone agree with me? Disagree? Im interested to know how people feel about this.
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