#e.d. baker

Eleanor:

She’s a pretty typical Cinderella, but her magic falls apart early because she bumped into the protagonist who has anti-magic >:3

Elegant "Ella":

Ella fights for labor reform! I just reread the book intentionally so I could make propaganda for her but now my head is empty only LOVE FOR ELLA. She has two (gay) fairy godfathers, she worked in a sweatshop where her mother died, she has a well-developed with her prince, Dash Charming. The glass slippers are a very important motif even though she doesn’t actually get a pair herself because she was a secret fairy godparent case because the fairy godparent organization had become corrupt and wasn’t helping needy children, only the rich. It’s a sequel to Grounded which is a Rapunzel story, but Disenchanted stands alone in the same world and it’s my most favorite of the two!! She’s so kind and helps institute kingdom wide labor reform and ahhhhhhhh

Former child laborer who wants to use her family's newfound privilege to fight for workers' rights. Brave, smart, and compassionate, although she can also be reckless, because she's just a kid and she deserves BETTER. Actually has a good relationship to her step-family, who are badass and Black like her, and there's this really touching moment at the end that recontextualizes things a lot and it's very sweet and cool worldbuilding. Her fairy godmother is two gay contractors who overthrow their boss for being complicit in a corporate espionage/coup scheme. She has a nice and believable relationship with her prince, who is a fucking dork that learns to be less of a privileged idiot and would absolutely put his ass on the line for her in return. She's just so GOOD and Disenchanted is UNDERRATED, everyone go read it.

First of all, why is that Disney Parks cannot consider the idea of maintaining the present theme of Splash Mountain and create a new one based on “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG”?  What is the point of erasing the “SONG OF THE SOUTH” theme from its Splash Mountain attraction?  “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG” theme … with a mountain setting?  That does not make any sense to me, considering the 2009 movie was set in New Orleans and the swamps of Southern Louisiana.  “SONG OF THE SOUTH” was set in the regions of Stone Mountain, somewhere between Northern and Central Georgia.

If Disney thinks its being politically correct in the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement, they are mistaken.  The Brer Rabbit stories are basically AFRICAN-AMERICAN folklore,which served as a metaphor for the struggles of African-American slaves before and immediately after the Civil War.   Three African-Americans on a Georgia plantation had told these stories to Joel Chandler Harris, a white teenager they had befriended, during and after the Civil War. Harris had worked for their owner and later, employer. When he later became a journalist and later, writer; Harris took those stories and had them published under the “Uncle Remus” tales between 1880 and 1907.  The character of Uncle Remus served as a metaphor for those three slaves-turned-freedmen that Harris had befriended.  What Disney is doing here is misguided lip service to the Black Lives Matter movement.  If Disney Parks really want to pay tribute to the movement, it would maintain Splash Mountain’s original theme and create a new attraction based on “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG”.

Now that I think about it, what is really racist about “SONG OF THE SOUTH”? The Uncle Remus character?  The fact that he is a former slave?  Or that he was friendly with two white kids?  Or that he still lived on a plantation after the Civil War?  Uncle Remus was based on the three slaves that Joel Harris had befriended on a plantation.  How else does anyone thinks Harris had found out about the Brer Rabbit stories?  By eavesdropping on the plantation workers?  Are people upset that Uncle Remus had served as a narrator, telling these stories to white kids?  I also noticed two other aspects of this situation.  The 1946 movie was set during the post-Civil War era.  None of the live-action characters in “SONG OF THE SOUTH” or the actual plantation setting is featured inside Splash Mountain.  So again . . . why does Disney feel it needs to change the attraction’s theme?

The Brer Rabbit stories are metaphors about how generations black Americans had SURVIVED after they and their ancestors had been dragged to this country and forced to work for nothing against their will.  Do many people have a problem that comedy was an element in the stories?  That is how the original stories were framed.  At least “SONG OF THE SOUTH” is actually based on African-American culture or folklore.  “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG” is not.  It is a movie based on “The Frog Princess”, a 2002 novel written by E.D.  Baker, a white American woman.  She had based her novel on  who based her story on “The Frog Prince”, the 1812 novel written by the Brothers Grimm . . . two white European men.

By replacing the “SONG OF THE SOUTH” theme inside Splash Mountain with one from “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG”, Disney Parks is erasing one theme based on African-American culture and replacing it with one based on European culture.  Replacing “THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG” lead character from a white European woman to an African-American woman does not change that fact.