The Walt Disney Company just started the production on an animated musical fairy tale called “The Frog Princess”.
The story is about a black chambermaid working for a spoiled white Southern debutante. A voodoo priestess fairy godmother helps Maddy, the main character; win the heart of a white prince, after he rescues her from the clutches of a voodoo magician. Sounds very familiar and Disney- like, but this fairytale has a different wind than we’re used of Disney. It will be set in New Orleans and feature for the first time, a black princess.
Disney introduced its first non-white animated heroine in 1992’s “Aladdin”: a Middle Eastern character named Jasmine. Three years later an American Indian princess appeared in “Pocahontas”, and a Chinese heroine in “Mulan”. The princesses of Disney are a huge hit and they have rolled out as toys, books, clothing and other merchandise.
The film, which will be released in 2009, will be an American fairy tale. It shows the life of Maddy, who lives in the French Quartier of New Orleans. The Disney Company wanted to show their support for New Orleans after the flood of Hurricane Katrina.
Apparently there is a huge fuzz about the fact that a major company, who as an impact on little girls stars a Disney’s princesses who is unemployed, desperate for a man and… that the first black heroine works for a white woman. Who knows, they might change a bit the synopsis after seeing the controversy they create.
