Ralph Breaks the Internet showed a Disney princess reunion scene in the teaser that’s making round since a few months. Fans of Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog noticed the change in her appearance.
Disney has agreed to re-work the black princess after lightening her skin and changing her facial features. Though all the Disney princesses’ appearances were changed to fit the different animation style, drastic changes were made to Tiana which invited criticisms of whitewashing and colourism.
The advocacy group, known for fighting against inequality and racism in portrayals of black characters in media, met with the animators and reviewed the changes to help ensure the problems were addressed properly.
Color of Change senior campaign director Brandi Collins-Dexter, reportedly went to Disney’s headquarters, describing the changes to Tiana as giving her character, “darker hair and a wider nose and mouth.”
Color of Change president Rashad Robinson celebrated this win in a tweet, commenting:
“Princess Tiana has been restored to her original depiction. Now when Black girls watch #WreckItRalph2, they’ll see Tiana and other princess of color that actually looks like them on screen #BlackGirlMagic that Disney had restored “Princess Tiana’s image to that of an unapologetically black princess with full lips, dark skin and dark hair.”
This is a big step in this direction and the studios henceforth should take care of such details ensuring there is no inequality and racism.
