Coming out tomorrow; I figured there's be a thread about this flick. :biggrin1:
It would be romantic and fun and exotic and just all around African in a way we haven't seen since Lion King. And nobody in the US even knows about these places and kingdoms and people!! God it would be amazing!
Wouldn't it be just as stereotypical to set the movie in Africa? And, on top of that, to try to condense half of the continent into just one film? I can imagine the complaints going, "Sure, they have a Black princess now, but why does she have to live in a hut on the Veldt?" Just sayin'...
What I've been hearing is that it's a Disney musical in the vein of Snow White, Cinderella, etc. What New Orleans (or, properly, "N'awlins") has is a rich, yet distinct, musical tradition. That material gives Disney a chance to step away from the banal -- I'd say
modular -- compositions in past movies and, for once, play some funk and soul on the big screen.
I'm right with everyone on the racial stereotypes thing. I agree, why can't the prince be black, too? I also can't understand why the prince's relapse (if that's what it is; the shot in the trailer is a half-second long) gives him a big bubble butt.
However, bouncing butts weren't invented for this movie. The characters don't look to be any more radical than any others, likely not even as stereotypical as the crows in Dumbo.
But... is it pandering? As in, was the only purpose for the movie to finally have a black Disney princess? Or did they feel that, maybe, they could do it without totally pissing everyone off? Is it relying on stereotypes, or is it celebrating black culture?