When we talk about Cinderella, people would
hardly think of a black Cinderella, even though there is indeed a black Cinderella
existing in 1997 TV show starring by Brandy Norwood. The specific designed
black princess Tiana in The Princess and The Frog just came to people’s eyes in
2009, and 7 seven years past, there are no other black princess produced in
Disney’s fairytale world. At the meaning time, Elsa and Ana in The Frozen catch
people’s eyes and swipe commomers’ attitude of the new time princess. It seems
the poor little black princess never came into audience’s mind and already fade
off in the real world and fairytale world.
Talk to the Asian princess, there are only
a few characters remain similar social and historical statues in Asia in Disney’s
history such as Mulan. However, those Asian princess carry other missions rather
than be a pure happy ever-after princess: they represent heroism.
We want to see a Disney designed non-white
princess living in a fairytale and we indeed expect the encounter of
multicultural Disneyland.
A very interesting perspective!
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I'm a massive Disney fan. My home University is a 10 minute drive away from Disneyland, and I am very much an aspiring employee for the Disney Company. That doesn't mean, however, that I completely agree and support the decisions made by the company in the past. I am happy to report that the company is trying to reverse its white-centric tendencies of the past to be more inclusive. Later this year, Moana will be coming to theaters, and she will be the next Disney Princess. She's from the South Pacific and has a cast made up entirely of actors of South Pacific heritage. Big Hero 6 was last year's animated movie, which blended the cultures of America and Japan and featured a multi-ethnic cast. In the future, Coco will be released, a movie about Dia des Los Muertos that will be set in Mexico, and Gigantic, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, which will be set in Spain. The first Latina princess is appearing on Disney Junior's animated television show Sophia the First. However, your point is still very much valid: there seems to be a massive underrepresentation of black characters that will hopefully be rectified in the very near future.
Disney appears to be making some changes to catch up with the culture and times we currently find ourselves in, and it will be interesting to see if their adjustments will make any difference or what the response will be.
Disney does seem to be changing a lot especially with it trying to be less racist. But from what I noticed the only way to do that is through animal interaction or human and robot friendships. Also many interracial relationships are placed in question and have a large backlash. How can Disney suddenly do right? By making more brown characters based on stereotypes?
ReplyDelete