Content area
Abstract
[...]even as multiculturalism flourished in marketing and entertainment, why have African Americans remained all but invisible, marginal, and tokenized-so much so, that the appearance of Frozone in The Incredibles lifts one's spirits? While Disney's promotional materials for the film suggested that The Princess and the Frog would break new and significant ground, the release of the film provided an opportunity for scholars to consider whether the territory visited in The Princess and the Frog was indeed new or whether within the film we can actually find familiar lessons about gender, race and princess-ness-lessons played out within its storyline and on its characters. [...]we might ask to what extent The Princess and the Frog represents a new animated representation of blackness or the princess, to what extent it relies upon familiar, racialized or racist tropes, and to what extent its representations and messages might be found in other animated characters in film, television, and print media. What lessons are Tiana and Prince Naveen depicted as discovering "in nature," and what lessons do they carry with them upon their re-entry into "civilization"? [...]what additional binary constructions are reinforced through the interplay between these two locations, and what stereotypes and negative lessons are reinforced through their deployment in the film-a film, again, lauded by Disney as breaking new ground?