After watching Princess and the Frog for the first time, I realized I really did not enjoy the movie. This was mainly because of the fact that the characters were frogs for most of the film. I enjoyed the beginning and ending better when the characters were actually humans. Princess and the Frog is a controversial Disney movie because it contains the first African American Disney princess. I agree with Ajay Gehlawat point in his piece The Strange Case of The Princess and the Frog: Passing and the Elision of Race that "to call P&F a “black princess” narrative is to overlook, or elide, not only the fact that the titular character spends more time onscreen in green but, indeed, that audiences would not take notice of this strange substitution" (429). Gehlawat brings up a good point that this cannot really be called a "black princess" film. Princess Tiana may be black, but because she is mainly a frog throughout the movie it hard to say that this film is truly about a black princess.
This is the first Disney movie where the main Disney princess is not even human for most of the film. Because this was the first Disney black princess, I think it was smart on Disney's part for depicting the characters as frogs for most of the film. By doing this they avoid possibly making racial stereotypes offending viewers. However, as Ajay Gehlawat points out, this hypersensitivity to race seemed to ignore race as a whole. I believe Disney's next step would be to make a Disney black princess that remains human for the entire duration of the movie. Princess and the Frog was a small stepping stone to attacking race. By making another film entirely focused on a new black princess Disney can fully focus on a new, different kind of princess.
