Secondary Research

For the first part of my secondary research, I am going to watch Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, and The Little Mermaid with my partner. We chose these movies because, a. we wanted variety in the princesses, b. we haven't seen The Little Mermaid in a long time and, c. The Princess and the Frog just came out. For the second part of my secondary research, we found an article on GALILEO. Though this article is old-ish, it has information about all the Disney princess movies up to date. The most recent, of course, is The Princess and the Frog, which is the movie with the first black Disney princess. All of the princesses from 1938 to 1991 were white then, in 1992, Aladdin was released making princess Jasmine the first Disney princess who was not white. Then, in 1995, the Native American princess, Pocahontas came out and then Mulan, the Chinese princess in 1998. After a long 71 years since the first Disney princess, Snow White, there is finally a black princess who was released just last year! 2009! Disney knew that there was no black princess but what really got the making of the princess moving was one mom from North Carolina. She had visited Disney World and was disturbed by the lack of a black princess and started an online petition. And thus began the life of Tiana (but she was known for a while as Maddy before they changed her name).

This article was written by Susan E. McGregor and published by New York Amsterdam News