A Princess. A Frog. No Pressure, Right?

Just one more day before I go with the World's Cutest Goddaughter (WCG to friends) to see Disney's The Princess & the Frog on opening day. WCG would have preferred to attend a midnight premiere. She's 19. I think she's got it confused with New Moon. (See a trailer for the flick here; Disney won't let me embed it.)

I know that I'm among what's apparently quite a crowd of black women in their 40s and up who are hyperventilating over the film. I want to see it because I'm a cartoon nut, which de facto means I love old-school Disney animation. The Princess & the Frog is the studio's first hand-drawn animated offering in 5 years.

Not falling for it, eh? It's true. I do like cartoons. But oh boy oh boy do I want to see a black Disney princess with my own eyes.

There's already a Chinese princess (Mulan), a native American princess (Pocahontas) and a Middle Eastern princess (Jasmine). I'm a little antsy, OK?

Oprah and Mocha Moms have deemed The Princess & the Frog "OK" in that annoying way that implies black folks always need some kind of racial imprimatur on stuff. As for me, I'll wait till I see the movie before I speak on any of the mini-controversies buzzing around it.

For example, apparently Tiana's prince isn't black; he's certainly not as dark as Tiana. (Prince Naveen's first name is Indian, he's from a fictional country and he's voiced by a Brazilian actor. You figure it out.)

Basic plotline: There's a girl and a guy in 1920s New Orleans. They become frogs. Tiana spends much of the movie as a frog before she becomes a princess and he becomes a prince.

All I know is that when it comes to communicating a message, the appearance of Princess Tiana in Disney's princess machine is big, I tell you. Huge.

We're all aware that today's first graders will grow up to shrug their shoulders at the thought that an African American president is any big deal. At a molecular level, they will be changed by Princess Tiana, too.

I was 4 when Sleeping Beauty was released and I loved Princess Aurora and her little fairy godmothers, too. (Flora, Fauna and Meriweather. You didn't think I knew their names, did you?) Aurora had beautiful blond hair that was fun to color.

Here's my Kumbaya vision today: a floor covered with little white girls happily sharing crayons over their Princess Tiara coloring books.

What shade of brown is she? Does it matter? What color is Prince Naveen? And I'm sorry, but when they're frogs, aren't they both green?

And if like me, you'd heard stories of Walt Disney being a raging racist and anti-Semite, you'll be pleased with this really insightful piece by Neal Gabler, author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Apparently the rumors were untrue, though Walt did use the same racial slurs that were common in his day.

Bottom line? Little girls of all colors will want a Princess Tiana doll and sheets and all the rest. They will want to be her, just like they wanted to be Snow White and Mulan and Aurora and Pocahontas and Cinderella and Ariel and Jasmine and Belle. It's not about race. It's all about the tiara.