It’s about time. Walt Disney Studios is set to release a new hand-drawn movie in 2009 that will follow its normal story line of a mistreated princess who finds happiness in the end – only this time the princess will be black. The new movie, titled “The Frog Princess,” will be set in the New Orleans French Quarter and will center on the story of a young black girl named Maddy. Disney executives are willing to release “next to nothing” about what the movie’s plot will involve, according to a report in the Belfast Telegraph, an Irish newspaper. But the company’s decision to feature a young black girl as the image of royalty is a necessary and important step for our pop culture society. It’s hard to believe Disney has not produced a movie featuring a black princess before, but at least they are making up for it now. In its latest hand-drawn feature, Disney will finally embrace the diversity of our time. In the past, Disney has not shied away from featuring other minorities as its leading ladies. The company celebrated Middle Eastern culture in its movie “Aladdin” with Princess Jasmine as the movie’s heroine. And though they are not included in Disney’s princess collections, Pocahontas, a Native American, and Mulan, an Asian warrior, have lent a different ethnicity to past Disney films. But this feature has a special significance to our area. “The Frog Princess” will take place in New Orleans, a city struggling to get back on its feet after disastrous hurricanes and a worse federal response. The Crescent City has long been known for its inculcating of diverse culture. As the birthplace of jazz and Mardi Gras headquarters, the city has a unique place in America’s heart. And now that uniqueness will finally be presented in a full-length Disney feature. For too long, Disney and other movie studios have portrayed minorities in stereotypical roles perpetuating the problems of insensitivity toward diversity in America. Disney in particular, a studio whose targets are children, is a prime candidate for making strides in portraying diversity as equally worthy of exaltation. The company’s decision to feature both a city with a unique and celebrated diversity and a member of a community long neglected in American pop culture can only be considered a positive step for Disney and an example of how far we have come as a society. Well done, Disney. It’s just too bad it took so long.
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