There were still complaints over Princess Tiana's love interest: The frog prince is not Black. Truth be told, throughout much of the movie he and his fair lady are frogs. He has a Middle Eastern name, Naveen, is voiced by a Brazilian actor, Bruno Campos, and comes from a made up place, Maldonia.
Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white. “Disney obviously doesn't think a black man is worthy of the title of prince,” Angela Bronner Helm wrote March 19 on the site. “His hair and features are decidedly non-black.
His skin is brown, but he isn't African-American. "A lot of moms had issues with that," Coleman said. "It felt like it was a slap in the face to black men." Coleman asked a Disney executive if Prince Naveen was Creole and was told that his background was made up; he's whatever ethnicity they have in fictional Maldonia.
The fact that Tiana is African American was "never a big issue" for Henn when it came to animating her, but drawing her as both a human and a frog proved difficult. He said, "Tiana appears in the movie in so many different forms … she's a little girl, she's an adult human, and then she's a frog".
In Disney's nearly 100-year history, there has been only one Black Disney princess — Princess Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog,” a 2009 animated feature starring Anika Noni Rose.
Why Black America “Ignored” The Princess and the Frog
Is Ariel Black or white?
One thing to note, Hans Christian Andersen left out race, skin color, and character names. For the animated movie, Disney made the little mermaid white, made her hair red, and gave her a name, Ariel.
The new version stars Halle Bailey, most known for her role in the Grammy-nominated Chloe x Halle R&B duo, as Ariel in the actress's first starring feature film role. This casting of a Black woman as the iconic mermaid has made waves.
The character Prince Naveen from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" is a fictional character, and his ethnicity is depicted as Maldonian, which is a fictional country in the movie. Maldonia is not associated with any real-world ethnicity or race.
Any number of players may engage in this game, the more the better. Place all frogs in a row, the object being to jerk the frogs along the whole length of the cords, the first frog that passes the winning line is the victor.
Pin for Later: 21 Disney Prince Facts You Never Knew as a Kid Prince Naveen is the only prince to have a non-American accent. He is from the fictional kingdom of Maldonia, and voice actor Bruno Campos ad-libbed the accent as a combination of Portuguese and French.
Naveen or Navin (Sanskrit: नवीन, IAST: navīna; /nəˈviːn/ na-VEEN) is an Indian male given name and surname. The word means "new", "fresh", "young", "bright", "creative". Naveen is chiefly used in Indian languages, and its origin is Sanskrit.
Naveen and Tiana's dream come true. Following these events, Naveen and Tiana are married by Mama Odie in the bayous where Louis, the firefly family and many other bayous animals attend their wedding.
Naveen is an Indian name (meaning "new"), which suggests that Maldonia is a Eurasian country (the name of Maldonia is a mix between Malta and Macedonia). During the "Down in New Orleans" montage, the newspaper mentions in print that Maldonia cannot be found on the map; i.e. it is made up for the movie. Oh Tony Danza!
While some claim Jasmine is Arab because the movie opens with a song called Arabian Nights, others believe that the architecture in Agrabah is clearly based on the Taj Mahal, making Jasmine Indian. It's a debate that has fueled speculation that in Hollywood, Indians and Arabs are interchangeable.
Compared to Tiana, he was larger and had darker skin tone and the only human features he retained in his frog form were his voice, teeth, and amber eyes. He was originally designed as rather realistic, resembling a toad, but the animators felt the design was too unappealing and reworked the appearance.
Even though he spends much of his film as a frog, Prince Naveen leaves a lasting impression as one of the most handsome and interesting Disney princes.
Why did Prince Naveen turn into a frog? Listen to “Friends on the Other Side” from the movie, it explains it pretty well. Basically, he tried to make a deal with an evil voodoo man. The man promised “green” in his future (implying money) and then turned him into a frog.
While visiting New Orleans, Naveen was transformed into a frog by a wicked witch doctor. Only by kissing a princess can Naveen break the spell and become human again.
There are several instances when Eric's mother Queen Salina (Noma Dumezweni), who is Black and adopted him as a child when he washed up from the ocean, chastises him for his obvious love for beings that are considered other.
Scuttle is not only changed from male to female but is also now a diving bird instead of a seagull. "This was done specifically so that Ariel would only meet Scuttle underwater, because, at the start of our story, Ariel has never dared go above the surface," director Rob Marshall said in production notes.
The casting is beautifully “colour blind”, with the prince being white and his mother being Black (he is adopted). At the same time, the Little Mermaid's father is white, while her mermaid sisters are of various different races and ethnicities.
