Breaux's take on The Princess and the Frog

In his article, “After 75 Years of Magic: Disney Answers Its Critics, Rewrites African American History, and Cashes In on Its Racist Past”, Richard M. Breaux explores how Disney released The Princess and The Frog in response to the overwhelming criticism that it has received for racist portrayals of African Americans in its previous movies. He focuses his argument around three main points; how the movie attempted to counteract criticism, how African-American mothers are portrayed negatively in films and how Disney’s sole objective for this movie was commercial greed. Breaux argues that Tiana is the antithesis to previous Disney princess as she encapsulates the main characteristics that are usually lacking in Disney’s stereotypical princesses. However, he suggests that she is ultimately a “synthesis” of the three most important characteristics that recent Disney heroines embody. She becomes a princess through marriage, she is extremely loyal to her father’s dream of opening a restaurant, she is independent and hardworking and she triumphs over the menacing villain, Dr. Facilier. He remarks how Disney consciously tried to avoid the film being perceived as racist by consulting Oprah Winfrey and members of the NAACP and by incorporating many “Africanisms” into the movie such as the bottle trees and Mama Odie’s portrayal as Voudou princess.

Breaux also criticizes Disney for blatantly avoiding and omitting important historical background about New Orleans that would have helped audiences to understand more about the issues facing African Americans during the 1910s in Louisiana. While there are references to potentially controversial issues, Breaux believes that very few viewers would have had the sufficient background knowledge to notice them or understand their relevance. Personally, I did not pick up on some of these issues but perhaps natives of Louisiana may have been offended by the reference to them in the movie. I thought that it was interesting that Disney had originally planned to name Tiana, “Maddie” and cast her as a maid rather than a waitress. Breaux remarked Disney ultimately changed its mind due to the strong resemblance of “Maddie” to Mammy, which could potentially have garnered racial criticism.

Breaux also highlights one of Disney’s underlying reasons for making this movie, commercial greed. Personally, I agree with Breaux that making a movie with a black princess definitely would have had great commercial appeal to Disney. He suggests that Disney intentionally leaked information about the film, the actors being cast and the script in order to generate free publicity and spark audience’ interest almost two years in advance of the movie being released. In my opinion, this is very plausible theory. However, it is perhaps merely just speculation and I would highly doubt that Disney would ever confirm any claims that they were he source of the leaks.