Richard Breaux Response

For as controversial a film as The Princess and the Frog is, as it is Disney's first film with an African American princess, it makes sense that much of the response has been negative. Among these is Richard Breaux who examines the topics of race and gender in his essay "After 75 Years of Magic: Disney Answers Its Critics, Rewrites African American History, and Cashes In on Its Racist Past." Given the title, it isn't hard to see that Breaux comes down quite hard on the Disney Company. According to him, while the film does represent Disney's attempt to be more progressive, by being less racist and having more positive role models, it is done through Disney's selfish motives that is coupled with a lack of refinement. He states that Disney fails to acknowledge its racist past in the film, thereby presenting itself as a politically correct company.

The organization structure employed by Breaux makes for a strong, logical argument. He introduces his thesis early on and quickly mentions his road map for the essay with three distinct sections to the paper: (1) Disney's attempt to address complaints about its lack of diversity in previous films; (2) representations of animated black women in film; and (3) Disney's profit-driven attempt to ignore its racist past in The Princess and the Frog. Each section includes an easily apparent subheading followed by strong mini-theses. This attention to detail likely represents the highlight of the paper.

Even with the good organization and logical argument, Breaux nevertheless had me scratching my head and some points in his paper. Mainly his rambling and getting off topic proved especially problematic. He goes into a deep historical explanation of the NAACP's reaction to A birth of a Nation, for example, has an oddly deep analysis of the bottles in Mama Odie's house, and, most strangely, shows great enthusiasm in comparing the film to Our Friend, Martin, which has no apparent relevancy at all.

The essay definitely had its good qualities, but was ultimately marred by a lack of focus.