Disney Princess Watch

By Sarah Sluis

Continuing my Disney theme from yesterday, the studio made several announcements about its upcoming movies, including three princess-themed projects, each planned for a December release over the next three years: The Princess and the Frog, Rapunzel, and The Bear and the Bow.

Disney had the stroke of genius several years ago to group all their princesses together into one marketing line of "Disney Princesses," and with the December release of The Princess and the Frog, they've added one more to the group and put its protagonist, Tiana, front and center.

The Princess and the Frog will be a return to Disney's hand-drawn animation (which makes me nostalgic for my youth), and feature its first black princess. Because there's never been a black princess before, Disney is under

much more pressure to come up with an unequivocally positive role model. The full trailer for the movie, as well as the teaser that released awhile ago, has made many uncomfortable. I think part of this has to do with the characters' New Orleans accents, which seem to differ by race, as the black and white princesses in the trailer talk differently. Knowing Disney, this has been extensively researched and is historically accurate, but it can be uncomfortable to hear because these accents have been so frequently lampooned in other contexts. There's also some voodoo/black magic references that could generate mild controversy. The credits say the movie comes from the directing team that did Aladdin, which also faced criticism from Arab-American groups for the lyric "Oh, I come from a land.../Where they cut off your ear/ If they don't like your face/ It's

barbaric, but hey, it's home." After protests from the group, they changed the rhyme to "Where it's flat and immense / And the heat is intense" in the home-video version.

'Princess and the Frog' Teaser Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Rapunzel, which is scheduled for a Christmas 2010 release, has cast its main roles. Mandy Moore will voice the lead and sing Rapunzel's songs, and Zachary Levi of "Chuck" will play the male lead. Moore is definitely more talented than her debut as a 15-year-old pop singer revealed, so I am thrilled to see her take on this role. The plot, too, has been expanded and changed from the original fairy tale. When Disney announced an adaptation of Rapunzel, many were disappointed, since the female is especially passive in the fairy tale. According to the presentation, Rapunzel will be much more of a female hero. Her hair still "comes to the rescue," but this time she uses it as a weapon to defeat their enemies.

Finally, artwork for Pixar's The Bear and the Bow, planned for a December 2011 release, was unveiled. The character sketches look much different than the bubbly CGI animation that has characterized Pixar's work, so I am curious to see how this visual look develops. It appears that Pixar is trying to emulate the style of Medieval artwork that was popular during the time period of the film, which takes place in 10th century Scotland (French animated film Azur et Asmar did similar work incorporating Middle Eastern-inspired artwork into its animation). They also revealed that the plot will be less about the princess (Reese Witherspoon) finding love, and more about her relationship with her mother (Emma Thompson). There's also a witch, par for the course, who will be voiced by Julie Walters.

Each of these films has tried to "twist" typical Disney plotlines towards the empowerment of young girls, a move that I applaud. In the end, Disney will have three more princesses to add to its line, and three more stories to enchant young and old audiences. Sounds like a win-win.