Disney, A Princess, A Frog, and Your's Truly

I was going through some of the class blogs and I one entry seemed to catch me. Melissa wrote an entry about the upcoming animated Disney feature the Princess & the Frog. She wrote about how the movie features a princess who is black and this is the first time Disney has ventured to do this. I commented on her blog but it really got my wheels spinning so I wanted to expand a bit.

The picture she chose to include in her blog was of the two main characters, the prince and the princess. Now as anyone who has seen a Disney movie, this is pretty much the standard way of doing things. Of course this time the princess is black, which is a bold departure from their usual W.A.S.P. princess. Not only is the princess black but the prince being white makes for an interracial couple which once would be considered far taboo especially for a children's movie. I'd imagine they want to make the film contemporary and socially conscious. I will commend Disney that this is a very bold, progressive decision that I think is a real positive step and departure from their standard operating procedure. I think it is great that young children can look up to a princess who doesn't look like the unrealistic Barbie archetype. That all being said, here is where my issue comes in. I can't help but notice that the prince is still white. I haven't seen the movie so I probably shouldn't be making assumptions but I'd imagine the prince makes some sort of a macho brave act. I'm just wondering if his being a white male ultimately makes the black princess out to be something of subservient. I don't mean this in a master-slave relationship, but more in a male-female capacity. As if to say that she is a woman so at the end of the day she will still need a man to rescue her. I mean here she is a bold black princess but at the end of the day she still must be rescue by a white male. It almost seems that her being black is counter-productive because it seems to put the prince up on a higher pedestal than he already would be on simply because he is a male. I hate writing this because I feel like I am attacking Disney, which is not my intention because I think they made a wise and positive departure from their standard archetype(s). I just think the contrast between the two characters has the potential for some unintentional side effects. I wonder if there was discussion about making the prince black and princess white. Perhaps they thought that might be "too much" because America couldn't handle such a culture shock. Do you think they ever realistically entertained the idea of both of the characters being black? Unfortunately I doubt it. As I said before I haven't seen the flick, which actually looks pretty solid, so I shouldn't be making assumptions. It is interesting to consider though, ya heard?