This movie is set to launch December 2009. Theres already so many polorized opinions about it to make your head spin. "Disney isn't the best at handling characters who aren't white." But that kind of puts them on par with Hollywood. Well... Hollywood has gotten better.
I don't really know how to word my complaints. But lets just say. I wish that if Disney, after deciding that making this movie would be a good idea, hadn't put the setting in 1920's New Orleans and then kick it into an alternate dimension where either all the characters are black and live in a land where white people don't exsist.
Or they spit on history by having black and white people act like they're best pals, change the main characters name from Maddie to Tiana, a name that I think doesn't sound right for the era, because the name "Maddie" sounds too black and uneducated. Ugh. Sorry all you people in real life named Maddie. But you're obviously all ignorant given your name. Then changing her role from historically accurate chaimbermaid into a princess. Wait...princess? Princess of what? New Orleans? This has to be like some...odd alternate dimension type thing. But if it is its just Disney's desperate bend over backwards attempt to not offend anybody!
Cinderella and Snow White were both scullery maids. Hell, Cinderella was a SLAVE in her own home! Why can't Tiana be one? Obviously by the end of the movie she will have transended her lowly role in life into something above and beyond. But apparently she's a princess from the start. It would have been ok if the script had her be a princess originally. But no. She was a chaimbermaid first. Then the bitchery started so they changed it. I don't like that.
BUT. There is the possibility that the movie will be good. I saw the 1 minute teaser on youtube. It reaveals nothing but I'm very interested. I'm not going to go see it with a mind set that its going to be a butchered terrible mess of potential lost under the waves of overbearing political correctness. But I'm just wondering if well....sensitivities today are going to hinder it.
For Disney's sake, it would be wise for them to think very carefully how to approach the film and the sensibilities of its audience. Among other controversies Disney has gone through in the past, it reminds me of what happened with Song of the South (the one with the "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" song). It's the reason why it hasn't been re-released on VHS/DVD for years in the U.S.
Its impossible to please everybody. I know already that people are going to complain and protest against "Ray" the Firefly XD As if he's the true mascot of New Orleans/Southern people. Just like Shrek is the posterboy of Scots. 
Cinderella and Snow White were both scullery maids. Hell, Cinderella was a SLAVE in her own home! Why can't Tiana be one? Obviously by the end of the movie she will have transended her lowly role in life into something above and beyond. But apparently she's a princess from the start. It would have been ok if the script had her be a princess originally. But no. She was a chaimbermaid first. Then the bitchery started so they changed it. I don't like that.
Ah, reverse racism. Logically, I don't see what the problem with the original movie would be, especially since a 1920s New Orleans with racism would be historically accurate. Obviously by default Disney would tone it down majorly, then it could be a story about a chambermaid who beat the huge odds stacked against her and became a princess. (Why a princess in New Orleans though??)
But of course, having a black girl in a slave-life position of any kind, no matter the ultimate outcome of the plot, is detestable in the eyes of the black community. I personally loved the original idea (it's a semi-modern take on Cinderella, one of Disney's best films) but for the idea to get convolted this much by an ignorant public has soured it for me. Despite the fact that the animation looks gorgeous. (handdrawn?! **happy dance**)
I believe there may be a merit to the mardi gras thing - it seems far too much of a curveball that Disney would use for something like this...after all, who really needs to be royalty when ya'all be livin' in da Big Easy, riiiight? 😛
yeah most likely she's just a princess of a celebration like Mardi Gras...well at least that makes more sense.
What upsets me is that....the small group of blacks who complained enough to get this dramatic character change were probably all like "No no no no no! She can't be a chaimbermaid! Screw that this movie takes place in the 1920's and thats HISTORICALLY ACCURATE! Screw that by the end of the movie she'd most likely end up a princess anyway! We totally want to forget our past and act like it never happened and baawww!"
