Disney’s newest animated film, The Princess and the Frog, isn’t coming out until December 2009, but criticism of everything from the plot to the title itself (it used to be The Frog Princess) started months ago. There’s a lot of buzz about this particular picture because it’s the first Disney movie to feature a black princess as its star. Given that many people associate the corporation with cultural insensitivity, the general outlook among the public isn’t exactly optimistic.
Plagued with rumors of antisemitism, Walt Disney was notorious for his affiliations more than his direct actions. In the '40s, Walt was an avid supporter of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a "red scare"-era industry group that sought to blacklist artists and take down the Writers Guild. It was openly anti-Communist and anti-Semitic, so perhaps this partly explains is why Disney's cinematic past is filled with questionable material.
Fantasia
The original version of Fantasia featured a scene during “The Pastoral Symphony” in which elegant centaurs frolicked through the woods and were waited on by a creature named Sunflower. She was noticeably smaller than the other centaurs—ostensibly because she was half-donkey instead of half-horse, but more likely to exaggerate her inferiority—and had a darker complexion. In 1969, Disney execs realized that showing a black slave chasing after light-skinned characters was a wee bit racist, so all subsequent versions don’t include her scenes.
Peter Pan
First of all, one of the songs in this movie is called, “What Made the Red Man Red?” Oh, and not only are the Native Americans depicted with deep-red skin and huge noses, but they refer to themselves as “Injuns.” True to its title, the song describes exactly how their skin turned red: an “Injun” prince kissed a lady a million years ago and blushed (because why else would their skin have been anything but white?). The best part of the song is when the singers say that their version is the right one, “no matter what’s been written or said.”
