11/2/2022 0 Comments They re turning the frogs gay"He's really creating a blueprint of what it looks like when people of color are able to have a seat at the table and what that power can do because we’re just now extending the table and creating beautiful stories,” says the critic. Cherry's work in particular, says Mitchell, is worth praising. The studios would do well to learn a few lessons from 2015's Home, which features an African American girl (voiced by Rihanna) who propels an underlying story about understanding outsiders and immigrants, and Matthew Cherry's Hair Love, which went on to win the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards for its emotional story about a Black father learning to style his daughter’s hair using advice from video tutorials his cancer-stricken wife (voiced by Issa Rae) posted on her vlog. Proper representation in animation is an important conversation to have, especially as more films featuring characters from underrepresented communities are developed, marketed, and released from Disney/Pixar as well as competing animation studios like DreamWorks, Illumination, and Warner Bros. THEY RE TURNING THE FROGS GAY HOW TOAre you saying Black characters are connected to animals? Is this all you know how to do when you’re telling Black stories? Is this all you think we’re really worth? Did Cinderella turn into a pumpkin?” Walt Disney Studios declined to comment to Mic about this story on representation in animation. “When you’re talking about him being the first - the first - Black male lead and then he’s a cat instead, there are some valid questions and concerns that should be answered. “It was strange that the main character in Soul was a cat, and then you had Tina Fey playing this weird cartoon blackface in a way because her character was inhabiting his body,” says Mitchell, who often addresses diversity as a co-host of Let’s Go There with Shira & Ryan on LGBTQ+ station Channel Q. Watching this Black protagonist as a cat clawing his way around New York City, it’s not hard to connect it with the studio's other problematic animated films. While his soul tries to escape the cosmic realm to return to Earth, it inadvertently gets trapped inside a therapy cat instead of his human body. This time, Joe falls into a manhole and goes into a coma that sends his soul into the afterlife (and a pre-life phase called The Great Before) less than 10 minutes into the film. In recent months we’ve been having a similar head-scratching discussion about Pixar’s life-affirming Soul, starring that studio's first Black lead character, Joe Gardner. That’s the power of representation, and we shouldn’t take it lightly.” Are you saying Black characters are connected to animals? Is this all you think we’re really worth? Did Cinderella turn into a pumpkin? This isn’t just an animation - this is something that could really impact whoever is watching it. “Princess Tiana is rooted in the Louisiana Bayou and that is very nuanced. “I’m hoping Disney learned that telling these stories should be handled with care, and that by actively listening, now understands they could have done some things better by making sure Black animators, directors, actresses and actors are part of the process to ensure the story feels authentic,” Mitchell, 27, tells Mic. THEY RE TURNING THE FROGS GAY TVGiven this history, many are now wondering whether the groundbreaking princess will manage to avoid the same sad fate when Tiana, the upcoming animated TV spinoff, arrives next year on Disney+? Some viewers, including Los Angeles-based culture critic Ryan Mitchell, sure hope Disney avoids this dehumanizing microaggression. In 2000's The Emperor's New Groove, Kuzco, an Incan emperor, is turned into an anxious llama. In 2003's Brother Bear, Kenai, an Inuit boy, becomes an angry bear. Though perhaps the most prominent, Tiana’s transformation wasn’t the first time Disney turned people of color into animals. But less than 30 minutes into the animated film, the relatable hero was stripped of her human qualities and made to hop around as a frog before younger viewers and their parents, some of whom were seeing themselves represented as a Disney princess for the first time. In 2009, The Princess and the Frog was greeted as a long-awaited milestone: more than 80 years after its debut feature, Disney had finally centered its first Black princess, Tiana.
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