Black princess finally joins Disney's animation ranks

The damsel cast an image of striking beauty: mocha-colored skin, captivating eyes, coiffured hair, posing in a feathery dress and see-through veil. For a character that won't be in an animated movie for another two years, her arrival has been the subject of discussion for years - long before she was ever drawn.

Maddy, a 19-year-old heroine to be featured in the coming film "The Frog Princess," will be Disney animation's first black leading lady. That makes her the Sole Sister among a group of cartoon icons that bring out the inner princess in preteen girls worldwide - characters like Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Mulan.

Some say Maddy's debut is long overdue. Disney's characters have become firmly etched in American lore ever since the release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," its first animated feature, in 1937.

In 1992, the animated version of "Aladdin" featured its first princess of color, Jasmine, of Arabian descent. Since then, Disney has had animated film hits featuring an American Indian princess, Pocahontas, in 1995 and an Asian heroine, Mulan, in 1998.

But even as real-life black actresses and actors have won major awards and helped dissolve barriers in the film industry in recent years, a divide remained for cartoon princesses on the big screen.

Black families have clamored for a Disney character crafted in their image, even circulating petitions. If that seems overly eager about a cartoon, it also underscores the power of fictional princesses to become role models for girls.

"It's always good to have positive stories and positive images, where the main character is of your background," said John Powell of Salisbury, Md., shopping with his wife and daughter near the Disney Store. "It lets you know that you have no limitations."

Like other Disney features, "The Frog Princess" is bound to resonate not only with black Americans, but with children of all backgrounds. Eight other "Disney Princess" characters generated more than $3 billion in retail sales last year. Five Disney Princess films rank among the entertainment conglomerate's top six video releases of all time.

Disney unveiled Maddy at its annual shareholders' meeting in March, even summoning Randy Newman's Dirty Dozen Brass Band for a performance. The award-winning Newman will write the music for the movie, which will be set in 1920s New Orleans and be hand-drawn rather than computer-generated.

But the announcement of the princess Maddy hasn't settled the issue. Information about "The Frog Princess," including a list of characters put forth in a voice-actor casting call, quickly spread across the Internet. It appears that the prince in the story is not black, which has raised dissatisfaction. There are also people criticizing the creation of yet another cartoon princess whose story, they contend, undermines a modern message of individual empowerment.

Disney risks having well-intended attempts backfire if the story doesn't resonate with, or offends, certain viewers. It's a problem the company has run into with previous films featuring characters of color. Disney officials have declined to comment on aspects of the film beyond the news release they issued in March when they announced the film at their meeting in New Orleans.

"We're very proud and excited about this," John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and director of "Toy Story" and "Cars," said at the time. "This is a fantastic story. This movie is going to be classic Disney, yet you've never seen one like it before."

To its credit, Disney has a reputation for being progressive in offering characters that appeal to people of all backgrounds, particularly on television.

However, on the big screen, Disney's depictions of people of color have occasionally raised objections. Even as Disney was introducing Maddy, it faced concerns over plans for the DVD release of its 1946 film "Song of the South," which has been criticized for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks.

And while Princess Jasmine got a favorable response from moviegoers, the film "Aladdin" itself was criticized as anti-Arab.

Entertainment Weekly ranked "Aladdin" 25th among its "25 Most Controversial Movies Ever," noting the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's protest over the lyrics in the film's first song, "Arabian Nights": "They cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home."

Disney changed the lyrics for the video release.

Still, no one's doubting that Maddy will be a huge influence on girls. After all, she's a princess.