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Disney is under fire after a trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet went online and broke the hearts of many with a very different version of Princess Tiana. She looks a lot less like the beloved Black girl and the first Black princess who became a cultural phenomenon.
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In the trailer, Sarah Silverman’s character Vanellope von Schweetz meets a group of Disney’s classic princesses like Cinderella and Moana. Princess Tiana is there too at first looking like her iconic self from the movie with her hair in an up-do and dressed in her green princess gown.
But it’s a sleepover scene that folks are taking issue with, Deadline reports. For some reason, Princess Tiana’s facial features are changed and she looks more ambiguous – her skin is a few shades lighter and her natural hair is all over her head. That in itself is unrealistic – many pointed out – given how a Black woman’s hair that has been straightened or pressed or permed, wouldn’t just revert back to its natural state.
Author and cartoonist C. Spike Trotman also tore into Disney about having a more realistic depiction of the Princess before bedtime, which would likely include her having a hair bonnet on her head to keep her curls in place. She pointed out the importance of representation for black girls who felt a sense of inclusivity when Princess Tiana was created in their image. Now they believe Disney is whitewashing the character away.
“Black hair is complicated, political, and not something one thread on Twitter can explain.”
First of all, Tiana’s hair looked like this in a previous scene. This is clearly a press and curl which just means her hair was straightened. Without some form of liquid her hair won’t revert to its natural state just by letting it down. pic.twitter.com/4La2Q5zqrd
— Taylor Goethe (@InspectorNerd) August 10, 2018
Trotman then provided a “cheat sheet” for Disney, animators, cartoonists, and others about black women’s hair via a number of tweets to help guide them on future projects.
“For the benefit of folks who might wanna do better: if Image One is a kinky-haired black girl’s formal look? Image Two, or something like it, has a 99.9% chance of being her ‘lounge look’,” Trotman added.
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Trotman included an image that aligned more with a bed time look for a Black girl.
All in all this is what I feel a more culturally accurate Tiana should look like in the photo. pic.twitter.com/KkSpSzxrPG
— Taylor Goethe (@InspectorNerd) August 10, 2018
“All in all this is what I feel a more culturally accurate Tiana should look like,” she said.
Trotman also slammed a video of the animators celebrating at a wrap party for Ralph Breaks the Internet. The scene appears to be all white men and no women.
Disney Animators Celebrate Finishing Animation On ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ https://t.co/UYFjcwxlM4 pic.twitter.com/ur0kuS9W3Q
— Cartoon Brew (@cartoonbrew) August 13, 2018
Read the thread of Trotman’s full explanation of where Disney went wrong.
Black Hair for Non-Black Artists: a Cheat Sheet Thread.
Hi, folks! Just spur-of-the-moment decided to put together some reference for folks who want to draw/model black characters in their work, but aren’t confident they won’t make simple, obvious mistakes w/r/t black hair.
— Iron Spike (@Iron_Spike) August 19, 2018