Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Disney's $25 Million Black Princess - Risky?

Critics say that Disney took a chance on diversity when they recently released "The Princess and the Frog" - their first ever animated film starring an African American princess. The film grossed $25 million in it's first week, and won national reviews.

I'm thrilled that the film did great in it's opening week, but I'm confused as to why critics are saying that Disney "took a chance" on diversity by releasing a film that caters to African Americans.

Disney has released several animated films with non-white leading female characters. For example, Jasmine from Aladdin (1992) was Arabian. Pocahontas from the film Pocahontas (1995) was Native American. And, Mulan from the film Mulan (1998) was Chinese. All of these films were huge box office hits.

So why would it be risky to release a film with an African American princess?

Not only is this country more diverse than it's ever been, but we have a Black president and African Americans are more accepted globally than they've ever been.

Even more, African Americans are the largest minority group in the United States with over 40 million in population, and globally there are billions more who are brown-skinned and would pay to see a Black princess on the big screen.

By grossing $25 million in the first week, the film proved that it will go on to easily gross more than $100 million in combined ticket sales and DVD sales worldwide. Over time, it may even escalate to more than $200 million.

It definitely won't be Disney's biggest movie ever, but it is on target to rake in a lot of money. Disney, I'm quite sure, knew this all along. But the critics should be ashamed for calling it a risky endeavor because it centered around a Black woman.

Just a little research would have easily shown that this film was huge before it even existed.

1 comment:

  1. Risky in the sense that they casted a black princess with a non-black counterpart. With the exception of Pocahontas, all other Disney princesses have male counters of the same race. The claim is that the story of Pocahontas follows "historical records." Outside of African nations "black royalty" is not recognized elsewhere. So instead of pairing Tiana with an African Prince, they paired her with a prince who is characterized as white less the light brown hue of his skin.

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