Disney introduces its first black princess

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:21pm

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called "The Frog Princess," which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio's first black princess.

The company unveiled the plans at its annual shareholders' meeting in New Orleans.

John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and the Disney-owned unit Pixar Animation Studios, said the movie would return to the classic hand-drawn animation process, instead of using computer animation that has become the industry standard. He called the film "an American fairy tale."

"The film's New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture," Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said.

The movie will be scored by Randy Newman, who also wrote the music for Disney's "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Cars."

Newman performed a song from the score for the shareholders.

John Musker and Ron Clements, who co-directed "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," and "Hercules" will co-direct the movie. The pair also wrote the story for the film.

Disney said its new animated princess -- Maddy -- will be added to its collection of animated princesses used at the company's theme parks and on consumer products.

The film is set for release in 2009

Kiss me you fool!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:26pm

And her name will be Shanaynay.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:26pm

I love that drawing of Maddy in the dress!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:27pm

Maddy?? The creativity at Disney continues to fly!

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:29pm

Stop all the hating on Disney, Rath! Disney is just trying to make a living like the rest of us.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:31pm

Come on. MADDY???

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:32pm

Ugh...Randy Newman?

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:39pm

What's wrong with Maddy? Of course, it doesn't have quite the resonance of other Disney princess names, i.e. Jasmine, Belle, Aurora. But I guess calling her Snow White would be a little racist.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:41pm

I believe it's Princess Madeline - Maddy for short. I am more interested in her voice - Fantasia, or Jhud?

[Craig]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:56pm

Dakota Fanning?

Abigail Breslin?

kidding

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:57pm

Angela Bassett! I'm in loooovvvvve with her.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:58pm

Kyla Pratt would be my guess.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:58pm

Every time I see Randy Newman, I think of Family Guy.

"Red headed lady, reaching for an apple
Gonna take a bite... nope, nope...
She's gonna breathe on it first
Wipes it on her blouse..."

[galindagirl2]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:59pm

I'm excited! Maybe Disney will finally start making some truly creative comebacks again!

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 5:00pm

Yay for the return of 2-D animation!

[Craig]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 5:02pm

They have a lot of people from their tv programming to chose from. Raven could be a possibility. Kyla Pratt. (name forgotten) from High School Musical. etc

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 5:36pm

Since it is a musical, I'm guessing there won't be many big names doing voices. Most of Disney's 2-D animated musicals (Mermaid, BATB, Aladdin, Hercules, Hunchback, etc) don't have very big names as the lead characters, obvious exceptions being Robin Williams, James Woods, Angela Lansbury, and most of the Lion King.

I'm so excited about this. I just hope Randy Newman provides a musical theatre score worthy of the other Disney musicals. Menken was to do the score, but Lasater gave him the boot, thinking it would be too repetitive to have another Menken musical following Enchanted...I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 5:49pm

Huh? so...Roger Bart, Danny DeVito, Susan Egan, Bob Goldthwait, Rip Torn, Barbara Barrie, Amanda Plummer, and Carole Shelly are not big names? They were all talent in Hercules, and Hunchback used Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Kevin Kline, Mary Wickes, Jason Alexander and David Ogden Stiers.

[Craig]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 5:50pm

I wonder if this will be an actual musical ala Beauty and the Beast and Mermaid - or more like Lion King/Tarzan where there's songs in the background..

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 8:20pm

Every time I see Randy Newman, I think of Family Guy.

"Red headed lady, reaching for an apple
Gonna take a bite... nope, nope...
She's gonna breathe on it first
Wipes it on her blouse..."


YES; so do I! That is my favorite "Family Guy" episode. That had me rolling on the floor laughing.
Updated On: 3/15/07 at 08:20 PM

[etoile]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 9:40pm

What's wrong with Randy Newman?

Now I can't get "You Got a Friend in Me" out of my head.

[Josephine2]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:16pm

I'm a little late to this discussion, but I think that they will either use Kyla Pratt, Raven Simone,or Keke Palmer as the voice of Maddy.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:19pm

I agree with Rath and her friend that "Maddy" isn't a black enough name and that it should be something more like Shanaynay. Why is that racist? I think YOU'RE racist for suggesting that a perfectly black name like Shanaynay is racist.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:21pm

You can't agree with something I didn't say, genius.

Why don't you just give your own opinions for once, instead of just attacking others? Really, that's so tired.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:23pm

Word, Rathnizzle, you're da shasnizzle, yo.