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Poor Disney. The studio tries to do good by finally producing an animated movie featuring a black princess (The Princess and the Frog, out Christmas 2009) and it’s still called out for being racist. Since this past weekend’s debut of the teaser trailer for the film, a return to traditional 2-D animation (can the new computer-assisted techniques still qualify these films as “hand-drawn” or “cel” animation?) after a five-year drought, blogs such as Vulture and Defamer have noted possibly offensive stereotypes in the movie.
Well, what do you want? A return to traditional Disney films or racism-free films? As displayed in the montage featured as today’s clip of the day, most of our beloved Disney classics unfortunately have their share of racist portrayals. And let’s not forget some of the more contemporary Disney films, like Aladdin, which can be seen in this other YouTube clip as also being racist. So, perhaps Disney’s return to tradition is about more than just 2-D animation style. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m just not all that shocked by it.
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[...] and the Frog, Disney’s return to traditional hand-drawn-style animation, a lot of the blogosphere was labeling the film potentially racist. Hopefully the political correctness circles have died down a bit, though (or are at least [...]
But Louis Prima and Phil Harris (the voices of King Louie and
Baloo in Disney’s adaptation of ‘The Jungle Book’)were both
WHITE. That’s what their voices sounded like. Why does whoever
put together the YouTube clip call them “black people”?
I’m sure Disney has had some racist moments. However, for some of them that is there, the people who made this is either just ignorant or over analyzing.
One example is Shan-Yu in Mulan. It’s set in China so logically, the bad guy would be Asian. Nothing wrong with that.
About the statement, “So… Where are all the black people?” As you already know, the Disney company has obviously gone through some very racist times. You seem to be pouncing onto every bit of racism there is; well most of it. Do you think it would be possible without conflicts if they put “black” people into the movie? Look at Song of the South. How much controversy it has caused.
And as stated before, King Louis was voice by Louis Prima. Baloo was voiced by Phil Harris. They are both white. Ever heard any other song that they have sang? That’s just their accent.
Besides, children don’t actually view things like these and try and point out all these so called racism in movies. They just want to watch the movie and have fun with it. Unless, of course they are influenced by somebody else, they probably won’t talk about, “Wasn’t X scene in X movie racist?” or stuff like that.
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I always felt that Disney was racist. As an African_American mother of three children, it’s hard when I have to tell my children that they can NOT watch Disney movies or go to Disney land EVER, not under my roof! Last year My husband and I took them to Universal Studies. I’ll never support Disney. Their new African-American princess name is “Maddy” –Please, no offence to the Maddies out their but shit that’s an old lady’s name. Why not name her princess Nicole or princess Naar (Nay-r) those are pretty names suitable for a princess if I must say so myself. Nice try Disney but you still have a long, long, long, way to go.
I’ve noticed that in a lot of online conversations about racism in Disney cartoons and children’s television people continually say, “well its not like the kids are analyzing the shows and movies they watch, asking questions about the races of characters, etc.” What i really want to know i guess, is if anyone writing these comments has ever heard of subliminal messaging, or even for that matter, that as children we develop our opinions and points of view, in a large part, due to external influence. Just because the kids aren’t acknowledging the depictions at racism does not mean that somewhere in their developing mind they aren’t equating “blacks” or “asians” to the stereo-typed characters they’ve been shown. I know that some people believe that racism is a thing of the past and i suppose that if you are stuck in this type of a blind belief i may not get through to you, but on some level you have to be understanding that our history and our present state in the world has been built on foundations of racism, sexism, and religious persecution (like most of the world for that matter). I don’t think this is going to change anytime soon, especially seeing as there are still people who are loathe to admit that that racism is alive and well today (if perhaps not as socially accepted as in the past), but if we can at least take the step towards agreeing that there has been and continues to be a problem than maybe that essential change can begin.
And please don’t claim that my remarks are liberal or left-wing or that they stem from any political or social agenda i have. I say and believe these things out of nothing more than a moral obligation to the human race and the hope that, though ignorance can be bliss, enlightenment is a far preferential state of mind.