A first, a return, and a big fat "Uh..."
Disney's finally going to do an animated movie with a black female lead. Called The Frog Princess, it will be set in New Orleans and also represents a return to an ink-and-paint approach over 3-D computer animation that has been nowhere near as good to Disney as it has to other studios. Randy Newman will get to lose yet another Oscar for Best Song for his efforts on this film, I expect, as he's slated to write the music for it.
I've complained about the dearth of female leads in animated films here before. The last studio to do it on a regular basis is back at it. I should be happy, right? Well... Here's where I get worried. Disney's promising "voodoo charms". They get to not win for losing. Accuracy will freak the mundanes. Their mere existence will freak the fundies. And within a year of its release, someone will claim the movie did it right no matter what and that their newly founded Wiccan tradition of ancient lineage is the best source to learn it from.
And without knowing which era it's set in, I don't even want to think about what they would or would not do with race relation issues in New Orleans.
I've complained about the dearth of female leads in animated films here before. The last studio to do it on a regular basis is back at it. I should be happy, right? Well... Here's where I get worried. Disney's promising "voodoo charms". They get to not win for losing. Accuracy will freak the mundanes. Their mere existence will freak the fundies. And within a year of its release, someone will claim the movie did it right no matter what and that their newly founded Wiccan tradition of ancient lineage is the best source to learn it from.
And without knowing which era it's set in, I don't even want to think about what they would or would not do with race relation issues in New Orleans.