I found myself in a Disney sort of mood the other day (shut up, it happens), so I finally watched Enchanted and The Princess and the Frog. The former was OK. Not great, but good, mostly because of Amy Adams. (I don't know how she managed to play the role of a 500% adorable Disney princess who believes in the power of ~love~ and ~niceness~ without bugging the crap out of me, but she pulled it off somehow, four for her.)
The Princess and the Frog was also great, not good. To its credit, it was really (forgive the unintentional pun) unexpectedly dark for a Disney movie. The way the villain dies is absolutely terrifying, and I never thought I'd see a Disney movie where the adorable, comedic relief sidekick is just outright killed. I mean, sure, he's reincarnated as a star to be with his lady love or something (?!?!?!), but... he was fucking stepped on. And he didn't magically survive it. That's some heavy stuff for a Disney movie.
I think that if I'd seen Princess when I was a kid I'd have loved it as much as I love the classic Disney movies I grew up with (mostly The Lion King and Mulan—I have personal problems with The Beauty and the Beast, but that's another story for another time). When I look back at those movies now my nostalgic feelings are tempered by a big dose of awareness for how messed up they are, largely in regards to (I don't even need to tell you this, do I?) their female characters.
But Princess is nicely non-problematic that way. I mean, sure, Tiana still gets married at the end of it. But I'm willing to overlook that typical Disney move because, as a Disney princess and a heroine, she's flipping (pun intentional that time) awesome. And so:
Five Reasons Tiana Is Better Than Every Other Disney Princess (Except Maybe Mulan*):
1) Tiana, unlike many other Disney princesses has a goal: She wants to have her own restaurant. She's wanted it since she was a kid, and she'll be damned if she's going to let anything—lack of money, a social life—stand in her way. Later in the movie Tiana realizes that maaaaaybe she's been going after the restaurant too much, at the exclusion of other things, like love and family. So she decides to marry Naveen. (And she ends up with the restaurant too, because Disney.) No one else makes Tiana's decisions for her. Not her parents, not circumstances, not her Prince. She's determined and she has agency. Which brings me to...
2) She's a hard worker. Just as she doesn't let anyone else make decisions for her, she doesn't rely on anyone else to do her work for her. She has agency in her life. You know she could just ask Charlotte to give her the money for her restaurant. And Charlotte'd probably give it to her. But she's going to earn that money by making some damned beignets for Charlotte's party, so help her.
3) But, while Tiana recognizes the value of hard work, she accepts help from others. She's a good friend to Charlotte, who is on her own an amazing character—she is the "typical Disney princess" who just wants to get married, but at the end of the movie when she could, when all she's ever wanted could finally happen, she gives up on marrying Prince Naveen because he and Tiana love each other. OK, this bullet point might have been an excuse to talk about how awesome Charlotte is, but the point about Tiana still stands: She's a good daughter, and a good friend. (Plus, now that I think about it, most Disney princesses don't have female friends, do they? It's all anthropomorphic male animals/furnishings that follow them around. But The Princess and the Frog doesn't play that, at least not exclusively. Sisters before misters.)
4) And here's my favorite thing about Tiana: She has actual character development, which is more rare in Disney movies than it should be. I mean, look at Belle and Ariel. They want, respectively, to go on adventures and to be part of the human world, and then stuff happens and by the end of the movie they both get what they want. Even in Beauty and the Beast, with its message of "what's on the inside is important," Belle never really had to learn that lesson herself, because she was so very very moral and good and thought the Beast might be good as well almost immediately.
But Tiana had to learn for herself what is truly important in life. By the end of the movie her priorities have changed. She has changed. And that's an incredibly important thing for kids to see. Because the challenges of childhood aren't just external; they're internal, too. Emotions are a complicated, scary bitch sometimes. But Tiana was smart and determined, and she figured her life out.
And finally, 5) She keeps the restaurant after she gets married. Let me say that again: She's a princess, and she keeps her job because it's her dream, it's what she's always wanted, heck yes she's going to keep at it! Her identity isn't defined by her being a princess. I mean, what do Belle, Ariel, Jasmine and the like even do in the decades after they marry their princes (no, direct-to-DVD sequels don't count)? Have babies? Read? Swim? Tiana runs a damn restaurant, and she doesn't have time to put up with your shit, Naveen. Just keep on mincing, Tiana has gumbo to make.
*look, I just really like Mulan, OK?
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| Not emotionally scarring at all. Nope. |
I think that if I'd seen Princess when I was a kid I'd have loved it as much as I love the classic Disney movies I grew up with (mostly The Lion King and Mulan—I have personal problems with The Beauty and the Beast, but that's another story for another time). When I look back at those movies now my nostalgic feelings are tempered by a big dose of awareness for how messed up they are, largely in regards to (I don't even need to tell you this, do I?) their female characters.
But Princess is nicely non-problematic that way. I mean, sure, Tiana still gets married at the end of it. But I'm willing to overlook that typical Disney move because, as a Disney princess and a heroine, she's flipping (pun intentional that time) awesome. And so:
Five Reasons Tiana Is Better Than Every Other Disney Princess (Except Maybe Mulan*):
 |
| Tip yo' waitress |
2) She's a hard worker. Just as she doesn't let anyone else make decisions for her, she doesn't rely on anyone else to do her work for her. She has agency in her life. You know she could just ask Charlotte to give her the money for her restaurant. And Charlotte'd probably give it to her. But she's going to earn that money by making some damned beignets for Charlotte's party, so help her.
3) But, while Tiana recognizes the value of hard work, she accepts help from others. She's a good friend to Charlotte, who is on her own an amazing character—she is the "typical Disney princess" who just wants to get married, but at the end of the movie when she could, when all she's ever wanted could finally happen, she gives up on marrying Prince Naveen because he and Tiana love each other. OK, this bullet point might have been an excuse to talk about how awesome Charlotte is, but the point about Tiana still stands: She's a good daughter, and a good friend. (Plus, now that I think about it, most Disney princesses don't have female friends, do they? It's all anthropomorphic male animals/furnishings that follow them around. But The Princess and the Frog doesn't play that, at least not exclusively. Sisters before misters.) 4) And here's my favorite thing about Tiana: She has actual character development, which is more rare in Disney movies than it should be. I mean, look at Belle and Ariel. They want, respectively, to go on adventures and to be part of the human world, and then stuff happens and by the end of the movie they both get what they want. Even in Beauty and the Beast, with its message of "what's on the inside is important," Belle never really had to learn that lesson herself, because she was so very very moral and good and thought the Beast might be good as well almost immediately.
But Tiana had to learn for herself what is truly important in life. By the end of the movie her priorities have changed. She has changed. And that's an incredibly important thing for kids to see. Because the challenges of childhood aren't just external; they're internal, too. Emotions are a complicated, scary bitch sometimes. But Tiana was smart and determined, and she figured her life out.
*look, I just really like Mulan, OK?
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