Disney's first black princess has Bay Area parents excited

By Chuck Barney
Contra Costa Times

LIKE A LOT of little girls, 7-year-old Erika Johnson gets all starry-eyed whenever she gazes upon the iconic cartoon princesses. She loves Cinderella, Belle, Ariel and all the others.

But now, the Richmond second-grader is finally about to meet an animated Disney heroine who looks like her. She's Tiana, the beautiful star of "The Princess and the Frog," and it's the first time that Disney artists, who in 1937 proclaimed Snow White as "the fairest of them all," have put a black female front-and-center.

"Our daughters have always known that they are princesses to us," says Erika's mother, Timiza Johnson. "But it's important to have that validity in the pop-cultural images we see. It's important that people all around us believe it."

Opening in the Bay Area on Friday, "The Princess and the Frog" has been blessed with generally favorable reviews. It is also generating plenty of buzz in the black community, which long has knocked Disney for a paucity of multicultural depictions.

Dee Dee Jackson, national president of Mocha Moms Inc., a support group for women of color, gives the film a hearty endorsement.

"I like how they've made Tiana like Cinderella and Snow White in that she wasn't born into royalty. She has to find her self-worth. She has to find her way," she says "They're teaching while entertaining. It's not all magic and wonder dust."

Mocha Moms Inc. was among the groups that provided feedback to Disney during the making of "The Princess and the Frog," and it is promoting the film via a series of "pink carpet" premiere parties across the country, including the Bay Area.