⛤KittieK⍺t⛤

Kings and Queens in Disney are either righteous and responsible rulers who are also loving parents who have to care for their energetic children in an uptight manner. Or they are evil, vain dictators that want to control everything and everyone through the power of...evil. Whichever depiction it is, both roles serve as the "adulthood" counterpart to the princess and prince formula

So to Disney, Black boys just can't be princes. They are too serious, brutal, and not charming in the slightest to be a prince and appease to audiences. They are masculine, sure, but they are toxic masculine. Disney princes need to have a romantic and sweet and sensitive nature they show to their partners, which I guess Black boys aren't capable of. This is scarcasm btw 🙄

Even outside of the lineup, the closest you get are TChalla or Simba(Broadway Musical). But then their stories revolve around becoming a proper king after their fathers died. Their youthful nature is seen as a childish hindrance they need to get over to become proper adults even if they are still kids

I just hate how Disney had plenty of opportunities to create a Black prince as part of the lineup, but never go through with it.

Prince Naveen

Prince Naveen could have been Black in a story about a Black woman and Black culture. But again, they can't see a Black boy as charasimatic as Naveen, as he lives his youthful lifestyle. Even Naveen's bratty privileged nature has a witty charm to it they can't apply to Black boys.

That said, it would have been too on the nose this is what they were avoiding had they made Naveen white as they originally planned. Yeah, your boy was originally gonna be a white British royal named Henry. They changed it, but like gestures

So Naveen ends up as this ambiguous Brown man. Like he could be hypothetically part African, but also he doesn't have afro-textured hair, or a broad nose(its big but more so in a "boys have bigger noses naturally" way🙄) or big lips. Interestingly enough, Naveen is played by a Black actor in the Once Upon a Time series, yknow, a mature darker take on fairy tales(and Disney). This is the voice actor for the animated movie btw

Yeah they were doing a lot just to avoid making Naveen Black. Which sucks cuz some of his concept art does make it seem he would be Black. It's just especially irritating that Tiana just does not seem to get support from other Black people aside from the mom figures. In fact, Tiana is lowkey written like she's a "queen" character in a sense she is super serious and mature and before Elsa, was the eldest of the princess line-up. Very peculiar choice to write your first Black princess as a no-nonsense grown woman. And then killing 2D animation with her just to start off the 3D trend with a quirky white girl with long blonde hair?

So to have Tiana be the first Black Princess and really one of the only ones in the lineup to be with a partner outside of her race is a choice. Technically, Pocahontas and Kida did it too and would you look at that? They are both sexualized women of color for a white colonizer to romance 🤔

Not that it matters how Tiana and Naveen are presented, because both are frogs for the majority of the movie, which there's that 😔

Prince Eric

Specifically from the live action movie. Eric's kingdom was transformed into this Carribean Islands setting ruled by a Black queen, and yet Eric still has to be white?

I remember as news of this movie was coming out, a lot of us suspected Eric to be played by a pale East Asian man, which I understand part of it was to make a callback to Brandy's Cinderella. I was one of those people, too. But I did stop and think, "Why couldn't Eric be Black too?" The setting was Black, Ariel was Black. It's like they took that concept of having Naveen originally be a white man who would seem out of place in a Black-centered movie, but just went through with that decision for this movie

Is there a reason Prince Eric couldn't be Black? Was it that hard to imagine a Black boy who was adventurous and wanted to run away from princely duties but always knew to follow his heart? Was that not something Black boys would do? Also notice how Paolo is an Asian man who is visibly brown? I think those of us that wanted a pale Asian man to play as Eric, or specifically a "kpop idol" should probably look into some internalized colorism at play here

Star Boy

If you haven't seen the movie youre probably thinking: the marketable plushie?

And no, I'm more so referring to the concept art where he was originally this whole star person with the personality of Peter Pan. He was also originally going to be Asha's love interest

Now honestly, even though they ended up writing him out, Asha and this movie needed serious revamping before throwing in a love interest

But aside from that, even had they done so, he would have just been another white prince for a character that could have been Black. Or yknow, Black Amazigh-like Asha. They barely get into her Amazigh heritage, as you could imagine, despite how much they advertised themselves of looking deep into that group and their beliefs

What makes this worst is that in some drafts, Star boy was meant to be Asha's grandfather(who is white) just younger. Which....that's just weird

The movie obviously didn't do well, leaving fans making rewrites and fan works based off of the concept material. And oh boy, do they love that white boy. From what comes across my dash, or what I've seen on Pinterest for a good few months, I've only seen 1 or 2 Black Star Boys. Everyone else was just a pale white boy paired with the occasional whitewashing of Asha

Whew, that's a lot of info thrown at ya for a single question. But it is frustrating the more you think about this stuff and how not only Disney, but most stories adultify Black boys and girls

I only imagine Disney makes the occasional Black princess only because the princess line-up is margeted towards girls. And even then you one or two decades apart. The Black boys though? What do they need to see Black princes for?