The white sidekick being more popular than the black heroine
How very sad. Even in a Disney movie you cannot escape racism and white privilege. I could not agree more with this confession:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/aac49a7f1defdd5bf43e370bf05e0617/tumblr_mfz gd6FMiy1r1uuc8o1_500.png
Especially these comments about it-
I think it’s extremely telling that she’s arguably the most popular character from that film… a film whose black female protagonist spent all of about ten minutes on screen in human form. She wasn’t even a necessary character. There weren’t very many characters in the film who were, if we’re being honest. But out of all of the characters in the film, Lottie is the one people in the Disney fandom seem most fond of. I can’t say I’m surprised by that, just really saddened. Of course, I did think up a nice sequel idea that could possibly redeem the character a la Anastasia in the Cinderella sequels, but I digress... Lottie is grating as a character.
PATF has so many issues, though, and I often feel like I’m fighting a losing fight when I try to defend it but the movie does mean quite a lot to me and even if fans of Tiana are few and far between, she’s one of my top three favorite Disney Princesses.
I didn’t like Charlotte either, because I feel as though Disney felt they had to throw in a Disney Princess Type (white, heart of gold, etc.) in order to make the movie work, which was really annoying. She got so much screen time, most of it when she wasn’t with Tiana, something that no other DIsney sidekick gets. I realize that in that aspect she’s important to the plot, but she’s nothing more than a White Savior. I understand they were trying to go for a friendship thing, showing a support system of women, which is rare in like 98% of movies anyway, but it just wasn’t working at all. I didn’t see Charlotte as malicious in her own way, but the essence of her character was detrimental to Tiana. Her whole friendship was based around keeping Tiana in her proper “place,” class-wise, and “giving” Naveen to Tiana. Change a scene or two, this movie could have easily been about our special fairy princess Charlotte and her perfection.share