The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923. It was made to be an animation studio that entertains, inspires, and informs people around the globe through storytelling. The first non-white Disney princess didn’t appear until 1992 as an Arabian princess, Jasmine, in Disney’s “Aladdin”. Shortly following was Pocahontas, Mulan, and then Tiana. Disney changes the race of popular characters to allow African American children to see themselves in the character when instead, they should create storylines unique to that character. Making new storylines would be more special than just giving the children reused and modified designs.
These characters are “protected” from race-swapping because they are not white and doing so would make Disney appear racist. These characters are original to a certain group and story. Mulan was a Chinese warrior during the 400s AD. Making her any other race wouldn’t suit her story. Tiana was an African American woman during the 1920s in New Orleans, LA. If Disney decided to make her any other race in a sequential movie or live-action, they would receive major backlash for being racist as Tiana is the only black princess and it wouldn’t match with her storyline.
In Disney’s 2023 “The Little Mermaid” live-action, they changed part of the storyline and brought in a new character. Noma Dumezweni was brought in to portray Eric’s mother. However, in the movie, we learn Eric was adopted and wasn’t born into royalty. In the original animated film, Eric’s parents were never mentioned. Princess Ariel was played by Halle Bailey, an African American actress. Ariel is traditionally white with blue eyes and red hair. In the live-action, she has become African-American with locs and brown eyes. As well as Ariel’s six sisters Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina. In the live-action all their names were changed, so instead of the seven daughters who all start with “A,” they now have names that are completely different. That can be confusing to younger children who know Ariel as white with bright red hair. Disney completely stripped her of her iconic appearance to show inclusivity.
Multiple characters were swapped in the “Descendants” movies, like Cruella de Vil, Cinderella, and Queen Leah. Cinderella and Queen Leah are both blonde characters. Disney “needs” more colored characters so instead of creating new characters with new storylines who are original to them, they decide to give already known characters opposite appearances. Disney claims to be inclusive but they just reuse the characters that are the most popular and known to tweak a few things to continue to produce money off them.
This upset many people because Disney is changing the familiar faces and confusing the younger generations. If you go to Disneyland or Disney World, you’ll see many of the princesses walking around. When “The Little Mermaid” live-action came out, Disney added both versions of Ariel to some parks. That is confusing and just doesn’t seem right to have both. It should be one or the other.
