Tiana Hate

KataraLover What are some token gender and racial characters that are done offensively because I might use them as examples but I, surprisingly, can't think of any off the top of my head? I agree with everything you said. But as for the time period thing, I think you should have mentioned that Tiana was actually based off a real person who was living in the time period and got her own restaurant. Plus the woman she was based on when told that people are saying that Tiana wasn't black enough basically said this "What is black enough? That's ridiculous! You are who you are!" so I think people are just saying that she's not African American looking enough. She does look like an African American version of Belle but she also looks like Brandy Norwood (especially when she's in Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) and her voice actress Anika Nori Rose. I understand that Tiana isn't a character for everyone but she's a very well-done character and is one of my favorite Disney heroines. She represents feminist, being independent, and not having a man be everything a lot better and more subtle than the message they tried to force down our throats in Frozen. Great review!

cruella Thanks. Yeah I probably should have mentioned some token characters that are done poorly, but like you I couldn't really think of any off the top of my head, so I just mentioned the qualities of them. Thinking about it now I'd say that Bo Peep, from the first Toy Story movie, is a poorly done token chick. Since she's a one dimensional character and is only there to be Woody's arm candy. Not to the point that she's offensive but poorly done. I'll to think some more about it. And I agree this are some really stupid reasons to dislike her. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

KataraLover By the way, you probably should have a water bottle with you when you're recording, since your throat gets dry sometimes. Mine does too and in my last video when I finally did it, it really helped. Now I know why Judges on shows and people at ComicCons have water with them.

cruella Yeah, I probably should start doing that. Lol

UnholyNoise I'm not saying I agree with this, but the issue that some people have with Tiana's design, from what I gather, is that they think she's a caricature/stereotype, like black bodies are inherently different from white bodies or some bullshit. I think the critics are reading too much into it -- Tiana's design is what it is simply because Disney has a tradition of modeling the designs of its heroines on their voice actors. Tiana's actually my favorite DP, and definitely in the top 10 of my all-time favorite CAMHs, but I still stand by what I said about her not being especially likeable as a character. and in scenes with Naveen she's often straight-up mean. She is inherently judgmental of his lifestyle, without really taking into account that both of them largely are who they are because of the circumstances into which they were born -- something that was totally out of Naveen's hands. (Judge his parents, lol) And he really hasn't done much to her besides be sort of obnoxious. "When I'm a human being, at least I'll act like one" is pretty cold, imo. Also, when Lottie breaks down and cries because she doesn't think Naveen will show up to her ball, Tiana, rather than comforting her friend, preaches to her about wishing on stars. She just seems kind of emotionally cold a lot of the time; I think she'd be rather hard to befriend in real life. But I still love her as a character obviously, I don't especially need my favorites to be likeable, though many of them are. I love her because she's real and her growth as a person is believable, moreso to me than any other DP. Actually, one of the things I love most about TPATF is how Tiana and Naveen sort of rub off on each other -- they both have some tough lessons to learn. This commentary is really dead-on overall and very incisive; I hope to see more from you in the future.

cruella Thanks. KataraLover and I have actually done several of these if you're interested in watching them. We also take requests for from people about characters we'll review. I agree Tiana did have her mean moments but they were pretty understandable IMO. I'm glad you liked my review, and thanks for filling me in about what people find racist about her design.