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Why didn't Disney make an African princess?
Is it because of racism? The Princess and the Frog is a European story with an African-American girl only made a princess through marriage. I don't see how that is empowering to girls. Surely a movie based on a real West African princess tale would have been more empowering to both the African diaspora and Africans in Africa. There have been real African princesses before. Why did Disney take the cheap route, by just throwing an African-American girl into a European story? I find that to be embarrassing.
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Most of the widely known fables and 'fairy tales' are of European origin. There's a long history of the arts, high and low, using them. And by now, a studio like Disney also has a long history of using them, more or sometimes less directly. Making movies costs money, and younger audiences likely to be rather conservative in outlook. Happy when the movie follows a narrative they are probably familiar with already. If the whole premise of the story contains unfamiliar motifs a child will quickly lose interest. Possibly children who live in Africa would be more familiar with local/national fables. But the target-market (who are going to buy all the associated merchandising etc) is not there. A substituted African-American character is probably as far as they are going to go. These ables always contain a strong moral or ethical message too and one does not have to try too hard to find it. In fact the whole 'plot' of them is weaved around this message. And really, the message transcends any national or racial differences. So I would say it is a matter of taking these movies for what they are, rather than trying to project any further significance onto either the stories or media adaptations. Reality, and adult values don't really come into it. Any adult evaluation of such tales would be that all the characters are at best charicatures, have no dimension and are not at all convincing. And the plot is simply ludicrous. Requiring the complete suspension of reality to the point of believing in magic, witches, spells and enchantments etc etc.... But they're not actually for adults are they? I would suggest that a child (who they ARE intended for) could be delighted by the adventures of Elsa and Anna in Frozen regardless of their own ethnicity. Would they wonder why the two characters are not African, or Asian, or whatever unless prompted to do so by an adult? If they amuse the kids, why complicate things by imposing adult values on them?
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Different countries have their own fairy tales although most that have been used come from the European continent which includes the tales like Aladdin and such. The Disney of today is said to be so successful because of their mission statement.
I looked it up online:
"The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world."
And that came off this link: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
To continue to stay at the top once every European fairy tale has been represented, then they would have to come up with tales that at least I have never heard of like the "Frozen" tale or even way back with "Lion King". You know they will be looking for more ideas to continue with the last part of their mission statement to
"develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world." Creativity that leads to profit is what is going to speak to them in getting the idea to come up with an African Princess tale. The link I gave you hascontact info for Disney so you can write, call or go on line. Often times a company will not think to create a product until they have heard from enough people asking for the same thing. So all I can advise is that you actually share how you feel with others in the black community and see if they also want to see the same thing as you do. Then get a group of people to all contact the Disney company asking for the same thing, an African Princess movie. If there are any African tales that are not well known around the world, perhaps you can enlighten them on those and even provide internet connections to versions of those African fairy tales. It may take time and patience and not a one time of everybody writing or contacting them at once but have it spaced out so that someone different is contacting them once each week with the same idea. Eventually, the 'squeaky wheel gets greased," as the saying goes. It means to me that if one persists long enough, not dropping their wish but continuously making it known to the point that Disney is tired of receiving all these requests, then most likely they will do what can satisfy you and still accomplish more success as a company as well, just think of what the right words shared with them can do. They want to be the leader and yet Barbie has come up with Black Barbies but there is no real good representation of a strong African female, princess, etc. in any of their movies. That statement shared with the right persons at Disney, maybe talking to the head of the Dept. that comes up with the possible ideas for future movies, is the one who may really want to hear this. Get a contact name, pass it around, put up a blog, or do a you tube video talking of the issue and ask people to contact Disney if they want to see the same thing as you do. One person alone won't make a dent against such a large established company very easily, but when we band together, companies will listen especially if at the bottom line, a suggestion will increase their profit and keep their mission going.
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