Portrayal of Race in "The Princess and the Frog"

When The Princess and the Frog came out in 2009, it was heralded as a milestone in Disney's progressive era.  Fans were thrilled that Disney had finally created an African American princess, and Tiana's work ethic and independence served as an improvement upon the "prince saves princess" standard of past films.  I was ten at the time and thought of none of this when I first watched the film—to me, it was just another Disney princess in just another Disney movie, and I loved it.

The Princess and the Frog has remained one of my favorite Disney movies (it ranks a respectable #10 in my top 10 list), but after starting this class I closely inspected the movie to see if it was as progressive as it appeared.  And after doing so, my answer is still uncertain.  Yes, Disney has made progress, but there are some ways it can still improve.

Let's start with Tiana.  She's strong, beautiful (Disney hasn't departed from clichés there), and African American.  She is arguably the most hard-working princess, trying to save enough money to open her own restaurant and fulfill her father's dream.  The movie paints two very distinct worlds of New Orleans: Tiana's lower-class, primarily African American world and her friend Charlotte's luxurious, primarily white world.

To me, this doesn't seem like an enormous problem.  Tiana's world is better in some ways: it's filled with love and family, proving excessive wealth isn't necessary for happiness.  I had a bigger problem with the prince, Naveen.  The first few times I saw the movie, I didn't really think about his race, but after reading some articles about the movie I realized—nobody actually knows what race Naveen is.

There have been arguments that Naveen is white, mixed, Middle Eastern...but nobody seems to think he is black.  Disney apparently did not want an African American prince—some argue this is because Disney didn't want a black male in a position of power (that seems like a bit of a strong accusation to me).  He speaks in a foreign accent and comes from abroad, reaffirming that he is indeed not African American.  Whether or not people are offended by this is a controversial topic, but I personally believe it would have done Disney absolutely no harm to create an African American prince.  Little boys need representation, too—just like the little girls who found it in Tiana.

While watching the movie, I kept my eyes peeled for any tiny microaggressions, but thought Disney did a pretty good job.  I've never been to New Orleans, and I have no experience with the culture depicted in the film, but to my knowledge Disney accurately portrayed the environment of New Orleans in the 1940s.  The only thing I caught were these snapshots of Dr. Facilier working his voodoo magic:

This is unproblematic so far—the typical "bad guy works bad guy magic."  Disney uses its usual purples and blacks to portray villainy.  Here's where the problem is:

The masks in the background of these screenshots are pretty prevalent in all of Dr. Facilier's magic, including at the end of the movie when he dies (here we see some green!):

Am I the only one who thinks these masks are reminiscent of typical African tribal masks?

Perhaps without even meaning to, Disney is associating Africans with dark magic and evil.  Maybe this is just a coincidence, or maybe it's a real problem with the movie.  Either way, I think Disney could have picked better symbols than these masks to represent Dr. Facilier's voodoo.

Still, I think this movie has made great progress with regards to Disney and race.  It launched a new progressive era for Disney movies that paved the way for feminist films such as Frozen and Moana—I'm looking forward to seeing what new racially forward-thinking movies will follow.