Disney set to unveil first Latina princess, Sofia
There has been Jasmine and Belle, Mulan and Pocahontas, but never before has there been a Latina Disney princess.
Until now.
Disney is about five weeks away from the introduction of Princess Sofia, who will make her debut on the Disney Channel on Nov. 18 in TV movie Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, ahead of a 2013 TV series on both Disney Channel and Disney Junior. The TV movie and the show are geared toward viewers age 2-7.
Some may say that Sofia doesn’t look very Latina and others might say Hispanics come in all shades, but Disney says she is.
During a recent press tour, one blogger pointed out that in concept art, Sofia’s mother, Miranda, the newly crowned queen of Enchancia, had a darker complexion than the other characters, according to Entertainment Weekly. “She is Latina,” executive producer Jamie Mitchell said of the character, acknowledging that this makes Sofia the first Latina princess to appear in a Disney animation project.
Set in the storybook world of Enchancia, the movie introduces Sofia, a regular girl whose life suddenly transforms when her mother marries the king and she becomes a princess, Sofia the First. Disney’s Cinderella makes an appearance in the movie to offer Sofia some words of wisdom as she learns to navigate the life of royalty.
While producers say she is Latina, they don’t make a point of pushing that fact. “We never actually call it out,” said Joe D’Ambrosia, vice president of Disney Junior original programming. “When we go into schools [to talk to young students about the show], what I find fascinating is that every girl thinks that they’re Sofia.”
Ariel Winter from “Modern Family” will voice Sofia and Sara Ramirez from “Grey’s Anatomy” will be Queen Miranda.
. . . . . . It's not even a movie. And pfffff "we never actually call it out" [that she's latina] and she looks/pass for white? Yeah, good job on representing latin americans!
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