Will There Be A Happy Ending for "The Princess & the Frog"?

New York Times media reporter Brooks Barnes talks about the controversies surrounding, Disney's upcoming film The Princess and the Frog in this week's Sunday New York Times. While it is the first animated Disney film to feature a Black princess, there are concerns that the movie may perpetuate stereotypes about African-Americans:

Like her predecessors, [Tiana] is a strong-willed songbird (courtesy of the Tony-winning actress Anika Noni Rose) who finds her muscle-bound boyfriend against all odds.

To the dismay of Disney executives - along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company - the film is also attracting chatter of an uglier nature. Is "The Princess and the Frog," set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them?

After viewing some photographs of merchandise tied to the movie, which is still unfinished, Black Voices, a Web site on AOL dedicated to African-American culture, faulted the prince's relatively light skin color. Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white.

"Disney obviously doesn't think a black man is worthy of the title of prince," Angela Bronner Helm wrote March 19 on the site. "His hair and features are decidedly non-black. This has left many in the community shaking their head in befuddlement and even rage."

ALSO under scrutiny is Ray the firefly, performed by Jim Cummings (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Yosemite Sam). Some people think Ray sounds too much like the stereotype of an uneducated Southerner in an early trailer.

While in recent years Disney has attempted to bring diversity to their films--Mulan, Pocahantas, and Aladdin comes to mind - they will never quite escape the racist images of the black crows from Dumbo or King Louie from The Jungle Book, or even Song of the South . According to the article, Disney has done many focus groups and showings to African American audiences:

Few people outside the company have seen footage of the movie. Among them are consultants like Oprah Winfrey, whom Disney asked for input on the racial aspects of the film and was cast as Tiana's mother. (Movie theater owners and members of the N.A.A.C.P. have also been shown scenes, and the reactions, according to a Disney spokeswoman, were "extremely positive.")

Even though there has been lots of criticisms about the characters themselves and also New Orleans as the film's setting, some Black parents are hopeful about having a female Disney character that their daughters can enjoy:

Donna Farmer, a Los Angeles Web designer who is African-American and has two children, applauded Disney's efforts to add diversity.

"I don't know how important having a black princess is to little girls - my daughter loves Ariel and I see nothing wrong with that - but I think it's important to moms," she said.

"Who knows if Disney will get it right," she added. "They haven't always in the past, but the idea that Disney is not bending over backward to be sensitive is laughable. It wants to sell a whole lot of Tiana dolls and some Tiana paper plates and make people line up to see Tiana at Disney World."

The movie has not yet been released and while I understand some of the criticisms, I'm not sure if I'm ready to write off the entire movie as another racist depiction of Black life and culture. I would hope that Disney will have more individuals and organizations than Oprah and the NAACP watching the footage as it gets closer to completion. Given that it is set in New Orleans, I can only hope that the director and his team has spent time researching New Orleans culture and has incorporated that into the way they adapt the story of the Frog Prince to images of the city during the 1920s.

I also worry about the use of the "princess meme" in Disney stories and other stories we tell our girls. Sure, it's great to finally have a Black girl starring in an animated Disney film, but how positive can the image be if it's just another dainty, helpless princess waiting to be rescued? And finally, with Anika Noni Rose as the voice of Tiana, it'll be interesting to see how Disney tries to create positive image of Black girls and what that will look like to the movie going public.

Only time can tell whether The Princess and the Frog enjoys a happy ending in the eyes of critiques, parents and young children everywhere.