...and we're B(l)ack... or the Disney Corporation doesn't care about Black people... part 2

You would think that with all of the storms weathered in the creation process Disney's new movie The Princess and the Frog would be a genius, racially sensitive, illuminating but lighthearted fantasy for children to enjoy. I mean they did get the fabulous Anika Noni Rose to voice her. And...well, um... maybe, kids like all kinds of things like... playing in sand and some even enjoy bugs. But, if you're going to be the adult shepherding tots to see that movie... watch out!

Seriously, I'm not even joking, let's consider the trailer. The first time I saw this I thought "Wait a minute, that didn't just happen, lemme watch it again." And the second time I saw it I thought, "Ugh, maybe the girls can just go see it without me or, even better, they won't want to see it." Now, the last was actually really hard for me to say. I love my nieces and I love animated movies so pair them up... (We just went to see Up and I completely cried, and laughed, and stole some of Sierra's candy!) But this looks a hot mess and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Some people are complaining because the princess turns into a frog and others are saying get over it. I can definitely see both sides of the issue. As a person commented on another site, if she turns into a frog and stays that way for most of the movie how is that better than the Lion King. Touche my friend! And the answer is that it's not. I mean, part of the outrage with that old chain email was that Disney seemed to equate Black people with animals and so it would seem that maybe they haven't shaken that off.

But then on the other hand, one could effectively argue that what Disney is doing is trying to revamp a tired (and let's face it, not that interesting) fairy tale, where the prince is turned into a frog who can only be turned back by the kiss of a princess, blah, blah... true love! So, by turning her into a frog, Disney is saying no maybe there's another lesson to be learned, something more for her to see. Like maybe, being a frog is how she was really meant to be and her prince is the one who loves her just as she is even when the sun goes down and his donkey.... wait a minute. That's Shrek!

So... maybe it's not so inventive after all...

Oh and then there's the voodoo. Come the frak on, Disney! Throw me a chicken bone... oops. This is such a mess. The villain in the movie is a voodoo priest (Papa Legba?) who's probably/obviously cursed the prince and is scheming to marry the princess (wait, was that the plot of Aladdin?) and his schemes are foiled by... I don't know... true love... and Christianity? Why is it that when white people think of Black religion they think of voodoo (and Baptist church ladies with big hats, huge digression!) and when they think of voodoo they think of dark magic. This is so played out for a variety of reasons.

First, voodoo is not, I repeat not, dark magic and if they're going to talk about it I would suggest that one of those trifling story editors do some research. Voodoo began, like Candomble and other related religions throughout the Caribbean, as a clear response to the dehumanizing effects of slavery. Those who practiced voodoo did so as a way to hold on to those cultural and religious practices that their enslavers attempted to take from them. So if you're going to deal with voodoo, you damn well better deal with slavery and the brutal racism that made it a necessity. But oh wait, Disney couldn't even get Pocahontas' husband right (easily accessible in pretty much ALL American history books), so the amount of time it would take to read a book on voodoo (a day, or less if you just read the damn introduction!) apparently couldn't be spared.

But that doesn't mean that I think that everything about this movie is some nefarious plot. The movie IS set in New Orleans during the Jazz Age (late nineteenth century into the 1920s), so I'm just going to excuse all the dancing Black folk. It just be's that way sometimes.

But here's what I'm not excusing. Someone on another site talked about the use of Black vernacular in Disney movies and how offensive it is and it brought back the old pain: Dumbo! I grew up loving Dumbo. I wanted a pet elephant (who could fly), I knew all of the songs and let's face it, that movie is wonderful. Well at least I thought it was until I was in the double digits. I was maybe 12 or 13 when Dumbo came on tv and I was so excited I settled in with a snack to watch. And I cried when Dumbo lost his mom. And I awwed at how all the animated little animals were freaking adorable even the little elephants who, I now know thanks to the Discovery channel are not cute at birth. In fact, no animals are cute at birth 'cause they're covered in goo! EW! (I'm including humans in that, btw.) Anyway, I digress, so I laughed and laughed when that spunky little mouse (from the NY?) got Dumbo so drunk that he woke up in a tree (that's so not legal right?). But then my mouth dropped when he met the crows.

Ooh I used to love those bad boys when I was a kid and knew all the words, but as an (almost) teenager they were not fun and all I could think was what.the.mother.fuck?

"I be done seen 'bout everything when I see an elephant fly!"

And did you know that the lead bird was named Jim Crow? I shit you not! Those are some jive ass turkeys! (I can't believe people said stuff like that...hehehe)

Look, like I said, I loved Dumbo and I also loved Peter Pan, so when I grew up and realized just how horrible they portrayed people of color, especially without offering any sort of alternatives, I was hurt. And it's this pain that I want to keep my nieces from. It's sad that there are so many movies that I grew up loving that I just can't bear to watch now (wat'chu say Shirley Temple?). Or those others that I've decided to ignore the lack of people of color and questionable images because... well I mean... it really could have been worse (oh Hayley Mills, I think you tried to make up for it on Saved by the Bell, with their one Black cast member).

There are lot of problems with this movie for me.

I have a general problem with movies that are historical (as pretty much all Disney movies are) and shit on that history. And this has nothing to do with my being a historian and everything to do with the fact that I respect people enough as HUMAN BEINGS with feelings, emotions and desires to not try and deprive them of a full and rich history. And you can yell all you want that this isn't what Disney's trying to do and this isn't their job, but when you're talking about kids that's exactly their job. My niece doesn't get European history in the second grade, but she damn sure understands that if there's a Queen of England, there damn sure better be some princes and princesses floating around her CASTLE! These movies convey to children what we can not; rich visuals of the world that surrounds them and that came before. So when you make a movie like Pocahontas and you tie that character into commercials about preserving the land and forest conservation (I remember those PSAs) you can't say that Disney doesn't have a message. And if Disney does have an agenda you have to look at their movies as a whole. And as a whole I'm disgusted.

So I finished this trailer on a sour note. That poor old woman near the end who bellows "dis gone be good!" pretty much does it for me. No ma'am I'm not sure that it is...

So what's the final verdict? What have I concluded at the end of this (hours long?) tirade. Two things. First, I'm almost certainly going to see this movie with my nieces because they're little Black girls who deserve to see a Black princess and know that girls with brown skin can be beautiful too. (If that isn't the message at the end of this movie I am going to go off!) Second, even though I've had an almost 20 year feud with Barbie dolls, and their generic knock offs (I'm looking at you Black Barbie and Bratz!) I'm going to make sure that the girls get a Tiana doll if they want one because one of the reasons I hated Barbie was because she was white (and I would never look like her) or the Black best friend with no real storyline and looked just like Barbie (but chocolate!). So they have the chance to have a doll with a (better be) fully developed storyline who isn't the forgotten best friend, or the token Black girl in a sea of white faces (maybe there's a silent Asian girl to keep her company huh Gossip Girl?) and I won't deprive them of the super expensive doll to go with it. Because, Tiana, this first Black Disney princess is a star!

And when it's all over I'll make sure that I ask them what they thought about the movie and the characters (silently searching for any hint of damage) and whenever they're ready I'll talk to them about our family's history in Louisiana, and I'll buy them jazz cds when they're cool teenagers rebelling against the top 40 music their friends listen to, and when they're old enough I'll give them books that present intelligent and interesting discussions of Black people in this country (and elsewhere) and I'll try and mitigate as much of the damage as this movie and all of the other media images of Black people have caused. I'll do what the adults in my life did for me and what I hope their forebears did with them.

And maybe that's the real tragedy...