Disney's The Princess and the Frog: Black People have Dreams and Feelings, Too?!

The Princess and the Frog (2009) / Disney

There's been buzz floating around about Disney's first princess of color for quite a while now. I remember the controversy a few years back concerning a casting call which listed Tiana (the main character) as a chambermaid, my mom's curious comment about how quickly USA's pop culture was responding to having a black president, and the unsubstantial snippet we were teased with at Comic Con 2009. As a relatively newbie lover of animation, (I will never claim to know as much of its history as my favorite reviewer, Tim) I was thrilled for Disney's return to traditional 2D (cel?) animation. But as a woman of color and a humanities student, I was dreading the insensitivity and broad generalizations I have come to expect from Disney (see: the melding of distinct Asian cultures in Mulan, mystic shamanism of Pocahontas). I guess that's why I waited so long to see the film in theaters.    But after seeing Avatar with my dad, I had no active interest in any other films so I treated my little sister to a late night showing with pretty negative expectations.

Surprisingly, I found very few things to gripe about and had an overall positive experience. Maybe it's my distance from African-American identity as an Asian individual or the recent loosening of my up-tight critical student outlook on life, but Disney managed to not once offend me in this charming 97min feature.

In a script inspired by the novel The Frog Princess, Tiana is a young working class woman with a talent for cooking. She works two jobs in order to save up enough money to one day open up her own restaurant. When a voodoo magician named Dr. Facilier uses Prince Naveen's greed and irresponsibility against him in an evil plot to take over New Orleans, Tiana inadvertently gets caught in the mix. Both Tiana and Prince Naveen must remain frogs unless he can receive a kiss from a princess. Along the way we all learn a wholesome lesson that people are rewarded by hard work and pretty white blonde girls who wish on stars are silly gold diggers.

Wait, what?!? It's that last part which distinguishes The Princess and the Frog from its shallow predecessors. While Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella simply had to be good obedient girls and wait for their Prince Charming to turn their fate around, Tiana displays refreshing agency, toiling to change her social status and achieve her goals. She's an embodiment of the immigrant upward mobility, and as a single independent woman - who is possibly supporting her aging mother? The film isn't clear - clearly differentiated from the classical princesses who were firmly ensconced in the established tropes of femininity (nurturing houseworker: always cooking, cleaning, sewing). Even though Tiana's main skill is cooking, this isn't a man-catching tactic passed down from mother to daughter in the kitchen (where women belong, amirite?) but a value nurtured by her father with emphasis in food's ability to bring a community together.

Not only is Tiana an active agent, but she is starkly contrasted against her childhood friend and daughter of her mother's employer, Charlotte. Spoiled, immature, and absolutely adorable with her pleasingly rounded figure, bright blue eyes and bouncy blonde hair Charlotte embodies all the classic tropes of the Disney Princess. The film even gets a little self-referential: the previous princesses appear as dolls on young Charlotte's shelf and she talks about how much she loves all the fairytale stories of handsome princes. Now the film doesn't completely demonize Charlotte - she is still lovable and cute in the way dumb puppies and mindless babies are - but it's made clear that being just a pretty face isn't a desirable future for young girls. That alone makes this film a radical statement for the post-modern (or is it just modern? idk) woman.

But really, do you not know how all this is going to end?

Tiana learns that she's gotta learn to relax a little and Prince Naveen learns that he can't be a money-grubbing manwhore. They get married, turn back human, and work hard to fulfill Tiana's dream of owning a fancy restaurant. Ultimately, the Disney formula prevails and Tiana is reinscribed into established tropes: a member of the middle/upper class (she's a successful business owner and technically a "Princess" since she married Naveen), and most importantly, a happy wife. I can forgive it this saccharine ending because after all, this is a rated G Disney kid's film (and we all know that them kids need to be shaped into proper, productive members of society). But just how fun would it have been if Tiana dates Prince Naveen casually, becomes just as successful, experiments with her sexuality along the way, realizes she's gay and lives happily ever after with a wife? Or has a fulfilling life as a straight single woman?

I'm not being completely serious. I personally do think that a standard nuclear family is a perfectly suitable goal and acknowledge that there are straight people (or maybe just people who haven't met the right woman/man yet haha). There's nothing wrong with being conservative or traditional, you are just as entitled to your opinion as the young radical dyke.

Whew. It can be hard to admit things like this when you're at a liberal arts college.

And maybe this was because kissing is at the center of this film's plot, but they sure do mention sexuality a lot. In a relatively unveiled way that frankly took me by surprise. When Tiana first turns into a frog she covers her boobs. Prince Naveen talks about how good he is at making out and how he's had many girlfriends in the past. Charlotte prominently jiggles her abundant tits to get ready for dancing with Prince Naveen. There were more but I don't quite remember. Does this seem unusual for anybody else? I don't really remember this much innuendo in the older films, but maybe I just didn't notice because I was young.

Speaking of mature content, the scenes with Dr. Facilier were surprisingly scary, too. Large shifting shadow creatures from "the other side" stalking various characters and dragging them to their doom. All rendered beautifully and really adding to Dr. Facilier's characterization as The Villain. I'm sure little kids will be legitimately scared (but not me, because I'm a mature adult, RIGHT?)

Anyways, politics aside, I love love love 2D animation. The Princess and the Frog incorporates its New Orleans jazz influences beautifully and I especially enjoyed the scenes with Dr. Facilier's "friends on the other side" which seemed to have borrowed heavily from Tim Burton's skeletons in The Corpse Bride. The character design of Tiana is pretty much in keeping with all the other princess but with a slight more curve and flesh to her which has become an easily-understood connotation of black-ness. Her face isn't a grotesque characature with big lips and a broad flat nose but there are subtle differentiations from the white princesses that make the ethnic distinction. One sequence in particular - a song called Almost There - is gorgeously rendered in an Art Deco style that somehow fits beautifully with the rest of the film. I especially loved how they treated the transition in and out from the piece - a series of radial layers which progress from one style to the other, simultaneously creating a strict boundary AND a sense of flow. This happens just once in the actual film and then it comes back for the credits. It's just the right amount of spice, a decorative point in an all together good looking movie.

The only stylistic point that bugged me were the unending references to past Disney works. I know it's tradition for films to have hidden Mickey faces and what not but this film is overflowing with obvious obvious obvious tidbits of homage. It gets to a point where I'm distracted with thoughts like "this funny musical alligator singing about how he wants to be human is exactly like King Louie from the Jungle Book", "the animators for Prince Naveen just drew Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid and colored him brown", and "WTF is the snake from The Jungle Book doing in Mama Odie's house? Wasn't that bitch evil?" But there's celebration and there's recycling countless character designs from previous films so that we have to do less work. The Princess and the Frog straddles the line.

A quick throw-away observation, the song that plays over the credits is an unremarkable ballad and my little sister right away commented that it sounded like Ne-Yo. I was skeptical since that seemed like such an odd and tacky choice but the credits proved Ellen right. It was definitely an omglolwtf moment for both of us followed by lots of giggling.

All in all, it's a great return to old roots with a refreshing modern shift for Disney. I grew up loving my Disney VHS tapes and I hope this film can foster a new generation of art lovers. If you haven't seen it yet, take a little girl with you (get permission first) for a satisfying experience that will warm your heart (but keep it clean, you).

“New Moon” Rises Slightly Above Low Expectations

By Se Young Kang / Reporter
Published Thursday, December 3, 2009
Issue 48 / Volume 90

It is a generally agreed-upon fact that Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels are absolutely god-awful. Through the character of Bella Swan (She’s a totally average girl! Really! Except that everybody in Forks automatically falls in love with her even if all she does is mope and get all googly-eyed over Edward. Oh, and she randomly falls over all the time. Like Ally McBeal. And somehow this is endearing to pedophiliac men wearing lots of white powder and red lipstick), Meyer manages to single-handedly strangle the entire Feminist movement. Bella is incapable of doing anything without a hunky supernatural boy’s help.
When Edward dumps her, she stops eating, stops talking and loses what glimmer of personality she once had. This sequence also happens to feature the best acting of Kristen Stewart’s entire career. (Zing!) She’s unreachable, until Jacob and his new-found muscles roll into town. (Note: I am now taking applications for a personal wolf-boy servant. Impeccable pecs required). At one point, Edward literally says, “Get behind me [woman], it’s dangerous.” Somehow, I’m supposed to find this charming and romantic. The only time I actually sympathized with Bella was when she was annoyed by Edward’s refusal to turn her into a vampire. You’re gong to show me all your fancy pretty powers and then not give me them? Come on! But if you can concentrate really hard and ignore the utter banality of the source material, the film does have its redeeming marks.

Director Chris Weitz (“American Pie,” “About a Boy”) is a vast improvement from “Twilight“‘s Catherine Hardwicke. While the first film was blue, diffused and styleless, some thought actually went into the making of “New Moon.” Static textbook-style compositions are replaced by actual direction; my favorite shot takes a short reflexive moment by having the camera get knocked to the ground during a particularly violent wolf fight. The speed of vampires and werewolves fighting was well conveyed by the dramatic use of slow motion and blur. Everybody is rather gorgeous and the vampires are beautifully dressed in lush cold-weather clothes (double feast for the eyes!).

The supporting cast by far out-acts the main love triangle; while Bella, Edward and Jacob are busy pouting and whining, Anna Kendrick puts in a fun performance as the self-absorbed mean girl, and Ashley Greene is just way too cute as the fae-like Alice Cullen. Unfortunately, Dakota Fanning and Cameron Bright - two legitimately creepy, naturally pale children - are completely wasted as Jane and Alec with a combined on-screen time of five minutes. And thanks to screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, there are some well-crafted comedic moments that speak to high school (ugh) and growing up in the classic sweet-but-not-too-sweet John Hughes way (R.I.P., bro).

Small moments of joy aside, this film is weighted down with way too much talking (or monotone mumbling). I do not need 100 minutes of Bella (unconvincingly!) swooning over Edward’s perfectly cold, ancient penis flesh, and I’m pretty sure that the 12-year-old girls didn’t come to ogle Bella (but if you did, little lezzie, more power to ya!) Just flex them werewolf abs (or as Bella puts it, “Hello, biceps!”) and keep the mild violence coming.

“New Moon” is really, really pretty bad, but it holds two major advantages over Meyer’s novel. It’s much shorter, and you don’t have to read the word “glowering” fifty thousand times.

New Noise Festival’s Debut Is Promising

Pandora Founder Tim Westergren Talks New Media, New Potential

By Se Young Kang / Reporter
Published Thursday, October 15, 2009
Issue 18 / Volume 90

The organizers of New Noise Santa Barbara, a three-day “music and digital media conference” that invaded downtown State Street this past weekend, sell the event as a hip and timely educational event for those plugged in to the music scene — the West Coast’s answer to South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals (oh, that shiny Mecca of hipsterdom), if you will. The panels and speeches took place at the Canary Hotel (possibly decorated by the same interior designers as the Anthropologie chain of clothing stores), while the concerts were held up and down State Street at venues like Velvet Jones and Whiskey Richards.
Seeing as this was the first year ever for this budding enterprise, I can forgive some unprofessional staffers, needless delays and often-boring moderators. I can even pretend I didn’t notice the heaps of self-congratulatory hype about how cool and edgy it all was and how lucky attendees were to be graced by the presence of semi-indie darlings.

That being said, I enjoyed the panel that I attended. Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Radio (and perhaps the most recognizable name on the roster of the weekend’s speakers), gave a keynote speech Friday afternoon, in which he illustrated the importance of interdependency in the music business by re-tracing Pandora’s surprising success. Dressed casually in jeans, a long-sleeve shirt with the Pandora logo emblazoned on front and fashionably tussled, light brown hair, Westergren is the prototypical new digital entrepreneur. Accordingly, he maintained a very open and casual attitude throughout the speech, inviting audience input and cementing his legitimacy as a music fan turned music businessman.
Westergren explains industrial interdependency (up-and-coming buzzword?) by using his own experience with travel. When you purchase an airplane ticket online, your journey through the Web site is designed to lure you into purchasing compatible services from adjacent industries such as car rentals, spas and wineries. Since the health of the airline industry is connected to the success of adjacent vacation-related industries, they are “interdependent.” By working together, they can increase profits for all involved.
Westergren and Pandora seek to create that same synergy within the music industry. Right now, radio stations and music labels are systematically organized to screw the artist out of money. The lack of diversity in stores’ catalogs makes it hard to earn a living as a musician unless you have mainstream success. The only way to get mainstream exposure is to be played on radio stations, so radios get to use artists’ content for free while the music label eats an exorbitant percentage of the sales for promoting the band. Ugh.

Thankfully, Pandora is going the opposite direction of traditional radio — inclusive instead of exclusive. The upstart’s infrastructure doesn’t distinguish between big labels and small labels… even unsigned artists have a shot at being played, and you can submit music yourself through the Web site’s interface. Also, Pandora actually pays to play music, creating a monetary flow from the sponsor/advertiser through Pandora to the artist. Along with providing increased diversity, Westergren sees a future of new artist services. Somebody’s got to manage these new successful bands’ tours, sell merchandising, deal with rights and retail, etc. All that’s needed is a new class of brave entrepreneurs crafting services tailored to developing needs.

Westergren has some ambitious dreams. The coolest vaporware he mentioned during the keynote speech was a map, accessible by the band, which shows the geographic concentration of their fans within the United States. This information would be compiled using the user-provided ZIP code, helping bands formulate their tour routes and informing fans of their up-and-coming tour dates through e-mail. Utilizing interdependency, other connected businesses such as music sales and merchandising could be offered through a sidebar listing multiple options for each service. Everybody does what they do best, everyone makes a profit and the band can concentrate on the artsy end of things like, you know, making music.
Slightly teleological but infectiously optimistic, Westergren is excited for the future of music. Hopefully, the KIIS FM-worshiping masses will catch on.