I went to see The Princess and the Frog not too long ago and forgot to give it a proper review. First off I am so glad I am not a kid and I can properly dissect the subliminal bull__ that they put out there. I know sometimes its just good to let a kid be a kid but this film really made me think of how easily they are brainwashing children. Put it in what they love best... cartoons.
PAUSE FOR TEEF SUCK
Like I was saying, I still like animation and was like ok, first black animation by Disney (aka the Notorious B-I-G-g-o-t? I was trying to go with an open mind and that was hard once I learned they were calling her princess Tiana and it was set in New Orleans. Something just told me this was going to go wrong. Cuz seriously how many black writers are at Disney? What kind of research did they do on black culture in New Orleans for this to come out accurate. Hell you have all that african history to pick a a film premise from...Empress Menen(Ethiopia) Yaa Asantewaa(Ghana) Amina of Zau Zau (nigeria), Queen Muhmusa of Jamaica, The Amazons of Dahomey (Benin)....Ummm...yeah this could go on and on. But no, lets make something up to remind black folks of "their place" Im getting to the explanation of that in a min. Hold on...
DISCLAIMER:
If you are someone who doesnt like to know the plot of a movie before you see it...dont read this blog. Cuz Im pretty much going to say what happens.
Ok. Now by in "their place" I mean indentured to Europeans and getting only what is given to them, not what they deserve. This has been a prevalent theme in films with black characters. So anywho, The story takes place in New Orleans and it starts off with a poor black family. The mother takes care of a white family...shes kind of the mammy to the white family's daughter. I thought hmmm. Yes this did happen but why is the image they continue to perpetuate? Like we werent anything else. Like that is where black people started...in servitude. Ask any child of their account of black history and 9 times out of 10 they will start it in slavery. Come on Disney, do your homework. Africa had civilized nations before they even knew where the hell America was!!!
deep breath
The premise of the story is the girl, Tiana , makes this pact with her father to open up their own restaurant. But the father dies and when she grows older she is scrimping and saving for that restaurant she promised to open with her dad. The little white girl that grew up with Tiana is the typical spoiled lil rich girl. Oober annoying...If you ever wanted to slap a cartoon character...this would be the one.
Here's where it gets deep. Im gonna take it there too so. put your second skin on. The story moves on and out of nowhere there is a Prince that just happens to come to New Orleans alllllll the way from Moldavia. Prince NAVEEN from an Eastern European country? Hmmm....Really Disney???? Research is key!!! He's olive skinned, wavy hair...like a Mideasterner would be. But like every other freakinDisney movie, they made his features very Anglo, that I did not get. Well the Prince's story is that he is broke and needs to find a rich woman to marry. He is turned into a frog by a Voodoo man (YES!!! voodoo) and needs to be kissed in order to turn back to a human.
Now the introduction of Voodoo I found so contrived and unoriginal. Really, that is what you take out of New Orleans culture? There is soooo freakin much in that culture and you skim from the top and keep it moving. hmm...And if they had done their research they would know Voodoo did not originate as dark "black magic" it was a cultural practice from West Africa brought here by the slaves to protect themselves from harm. I would have a freakin basement full of voodoo dolls , lined up and talkin like Chucky dolls if someone killed my family, kidnapped me from my home, terrorized me, raped me, stole my children, and imprisoned me into a life of servitude. But just like anything powerful, there are people out there that use things for bad deeds. The way this film projected it was so stereotypical and cliche. They could have easily left that out if they werent going to tell the whole truth.
The characters. hmmm... what was with the characters. Once again...African characters are depicted as animals. They could have picked any other gotdamn fairy tale for the first black Disney movie but there they go. (Umm I do believe Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is not yet a major film and Anansi the Spider is not a major film either...Yep!) The Princess and the frog, thats not even a popular fairy tale. And 30 mins into the movie.... we are fuckin animals AGAIN. some dumb gators, some toothless, slick talkin mosquito, and a frog. My jaw dropped, I was like OMG they brought in the sambo Warner Brothers frog!!!! What the hell! Did we not get enough of this treatment when they created an ENTIRE movie set in Africa and we were playing animals. And they wouldnt even let ALL the characters be black, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was Simba wasnt he? Moving on....
The love interest for Tiana was so predictable. Why would she want the put together brotha (darker brotha) that is hard working, has his stuff together...all that good stuff. No, give her the broke ass light complexioned cat, with no direction, and who is only out to marry sum chick for money. Why not...he has a light complexion and he has a label, PRINCE...thats better right? Why even play that angle? And it could be me just paying attention to these details but these are subliminal messages they are feeding children. Why do you think in the baby doll case study the black girls always pick the white baby doll with the long hair? This is ingrained into them by the media and society that one is better than the other.
I hated The Princess and the Frog so much, words cant describe. I wont give it a thumbs down, I give it a 30 sec teef suck. Now thats bad. We need our filmmakers out there to blast these so called children's films by Disney "Mein Kampf" Productions out of the water. Give children positive reinforcing depictions of what it is to be black and teach them to know the ugly beauty that is their history. Disney could've kept that bullshyt Minstrel Show trinket to the black community. Im just sayin...
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