Disney animates black princess

by Elayne Riggs on March 16th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Posted In: News

Somewhere, Ororo Munro is yawning.  And even the folks at Warner who parodied Snow White are wondering what took them so long.  But Disney is finally getting around to creating its first black princess to star in her own animated movie.

The protagonist’s name is Maddy, the fairy tale (which will debut in 2009) is to be called The Frog Princess, and the setting will be New Orleans, where Disney’s annual shareholders’ meeting is currently taking place.  It also marks Disney’s return to 2D hand-drawn animation.  John Musker and Ron Clements wrote the story and will direct the film (they co-directed The Little Mermaid and Aladdin so not too shabby there), and in a real shocker, Randy Newman was announced as doing the score.

Lest we forget the real reason the company makes these announcements at annual shareholders’ meetings in the first place, Disney assured the happiest crowd in the world that Maddy "will be added to its collection of animated princesses used at the company’s theme parks and on consumer products."