Bravo Disney, Bravo

Friday, December 11th now holds greater significance to me. For as long as I can remember, I have considered my mother a princess and once the release date was set I knew I wanted to take her to see it. So, my mother, father, brother, my girlfriend and my cousin and her boyfriend went to see The Princess and the Frog the Saturday after my mother’s Friday, December 11th birthday.
I have been to a few opening weekend movies in my day, but never have I been given a survey to fill out as I walked in the theater. Still slightly bitter that Tiana did not have a black prince, I asked the people handing out the surveys, “Is there a question on here where I can respond as to why Disney decided to leave out the black prince?”
To this I got puzzled looks from the survey employees whose job probably did not entail answering ridiculous questions from bitter moviegoers. Nevertheless, I was going to be heard.

I had every intention on writing my suggestions and feedback on the back of the survey. I knew the survey passing employees would not take time out to read my comments, but surely there was someone at Disney whose sole job was to read and record surveys. I was hoping mine would be sent directly to the Disney Headquarters for full evaluation.
By the end of the movie, however, I did not write my "Why The Princess and the Frog needed a black prince" manifesto. I told myself I could no longer be upset with Disney for excluding the black prince. Seeing all those little princesses at the AMC River East cheering and smiling and taking pictures with a real life Tiana made me realize that The Princess and the Frog is doing for little black girls what the election of President Obama’s did for black boys: it is empowering and encouraging.

Disney's willingness to stray away from typical princess story line, I think, is the result of their research and development team. With this being the first black Disney princess, black moviegoers would not have responded well to a head-in-the-clouds-waiting-for-prince-charming-to-come-to-the-rescue princess. This movie spoke directly to the black community. The opening scene showed the contrasting roles of the typical “wishing upon a star” princess (Charlotte La Bouff) and Tiana, who was told by her father that “wishing upon a star” is only half and it takes the another half - hard work - to make your dreams come true.

Tiana’s dream was not to marry a prince charming and live happily ever after. It was to own her own restaurant, one she had been planning with her father since she was little. Throughout the movie she is seen busting her butt putting in the necessary hard work to make that dream a reality. As cute as I thought it was to take my mother to see this movie - I saw a little bit of her in the Tiana from the previews - I was in awe at the story line of perseverance. It was like seeing my mother on the screen. Knowing all that she has been though in her life and still having the temerity to PUSH on despite setbacks and struggles.
So many black women can relate to this story and so many little girls will be inspired by this, a story of working hard – not sitting back and waiting – to reach your dreams knowing eventually that prince charming will come. The sad reality in the black community is that either he never comes or a few to many frogs precede the prince.

I can live with a non-black, minority prince because of the role Tiana's father played in the movie. Granted, he was only given about five minutes of actual screen time, but Disney paid attention to detail by giving him a major role in influencing and shaping Tiana's life. Again, hats off to their research team for knowing that many of the little black girls who will see this movie will have a father absent from their lives. Those who do not think it matters are oblivious to the subliminal message sent by Disney (a reoccurring thing in Disney movies) as they intentional showed both her parents married (as evident by the camera angles that showed their left hands with wedding rings), loving and spending quality time with Tiana. When little girls were already remembering lines of a two-day old movie and quoting the movie word for word (just like the ones who sat next to me), this movie is already making a difference.

For as much as this movie will do for the self-esteem of black little girls everywhere, I am still waiting for reactions about the portrayal of the white characters in the movie. They were either: rich and out-of-touch (the La Bouff family), prejudice and uncaring bankers (the Fenner brothers) or uneducated and county (the Hunters in the Bayou). I was a bit concerned, but I am not sure others read into it as deeply as I did. My only other concern is the darkness of Dr. Facilier – The Shadow Man. Voodoo and its ties to New Orleans made for a great subplot. I was worried that it might have been a little too scary for children. Thinking back, Ursula (The Little Mermaid), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) and even Beast (Beauty and the Beast) had some scary moments, but fictional magic seems harmless when compared to historical Bayou Voodoo.
I could be bias, but knowing there are a lot of real life Tianas out there and Disney’s ability to reinvent the “fairy tale princess” role, this might have made this the best Disney Princess Movie of all time. Movie critics rate this movie by giving stars, I am rating it by the impact it will have on lives.