While watching the new Disney animated movie, The Princess and the Frog at the Ziegfeld Theatre, and then photographing my daughter next to various Disney Princesses, all of whom were at the Roseland Ballroom afterwards, as part of The Princess and the Frog Ultimate Disney Experience, it occurred to me that the “finally a Black Disney Princess” princess might become known to the preschool set as “The White Princess”. I hope it happens in our “finally a Black President” Obama in the White House America.
Princess Tiana does spend much of the movie as a frog, which might entice some more little boys into theaters. However, she has 3 -count them three- iconic ball gowns in addition to a pretty great 1920’s fantasy sequence beaded number. I know one dress is kind of blue and the finale dress has some green layers, but the dresses are white. White like a wedding dress, white like a debutante dress, white like she is the white princess because her dress is white.
Maybe she’ll become known as the green princess or the frog princess, or the cooking princess, or the princess with the strapless dress with a blue sash, but the dress she wore at the Ultimate Disney Experience was white. A Southern Belle Princess, she’s a gift to the city of New Orleans. Also the music and story seem structured for an easy transition to the stage and I expect that soon I’ll see banner on a bus announcing the stars of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog on Broadway.
My daughter became intimate with the Disney Princesses in preschool. It was a social phenomenon. All the girls in her pre-K class loved princesses and each had her favorite. My kid chose Belle from Beauty and the Beast, because her favorite color was yellow. It was a simple transition from her favorite Wiggle, Greg, who was also yellow. Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, was her next favorite princess and Cinderella came in third. They are available often as a trio, the pink princess, the yellow princess and the blue princess. If one member of the trio on the pencil case, or whatever licensed item was in question, was Snow White, my child was not interested.
Pink. Yellow. Blue. White. Green.
Say Yes to the dress.
Being a princess is about the ball gown and Princess Tiana has plenty to choose from. She will not become one of the wallflowers like Pocahontas or Mulan. Worthy role models both, but what girl can have fun in the constricting folk costumes they wear. Jasmine wears pants, so she can turn cartwheels if she feels like it and Ariel, The Little Mermaid, can swim. I fail to see the appeal of Sleeping Beauty. She seems boring. When my daughter’s friends pretended to be her, they lay down and closed their eyes. But, she does have long blonde hair and a dress that is the favorite color of a large percentage of the little girl demographic.
Princess Tiana, the only Disney animated princess to debut during my daughter’s childhood, is destined to become a dress-up favorite. Her ball gown is big, the kind you can run in, the kind you can spin around in until you fall on the floor in and then get up without assistance. That’s something to be desired in formal attire. It’s practical and beautiful, like the American princess who wears it.
Kathie lives with her Handsome Prince and her Little Princess in Brooklyn.
This is an original NYC Moms Blog.