Disney might be considered a family-friendly company, but that doesn’t mean it’s free from all controversy. When it comes to its own properties, Disney is far from perfect, and there have been some big examples in the past year.
The first has to do with “Princess Sofia,” and it’s not over whether or not she’s teaching princess obsession to toddlers. I didn’t comment on the story for a while because the details kept changing, but things have seemed to settle down. In the fall, promotional images of the film were released. They revealed that Sofia’s mother had darker skin, eyes, and hair. Although “Princess Sofia the First” is set in a fantasy realm, some wondered: could this mean that Sofia is Disney’s first Latina princess?
Jamie Mitchell, a producer on the show, confirmed it: Sofia is Latina. The news started a firestorm: many were upset that Disney’s first Latina princess didn’t get her own feature film. Others were upset that the first Latina princess wasn’t actually Latina; she’s from a fantasy world that doesn’t even clearly draw inspiration from a real country in Latin America. Others were upset that she doesn’t particularly look Latina – with her pale skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair – while others still said it was OK, merely displaying the broad range of people represented in the Latin American community.
Clearly the issue was important to many, and Disney wasn’t being clear with the details. That is, until, according to CNN, The National Hispanic Media Coalition met with Nancy Kanter, a senior VP at Disney Junior. Kanter said that the producer had “misspoke,” and Sofia wasn’t nor was ever supposed to be Latina.
All right, this sounds like one person made a mistake, but one thinks that an executive presumably trained in how to “D’Think” at the Disney Institute would be more aware or careful with their words relating to an issue so important to so many. I just can’t help some skepticism when it’s not like Disney always does so great on racial issues, and no, that’s not just a thing of the past.
Case in point: the upcoming “Lone Ranger” movie. It’s already problematic – at best – that Disney chooses to revive this of so many properties. It’s another story about a white guy being backed up by a not-white character. At least the original “Lone Ranger” was made decades ago, Tonto was played by an actual First Nations actor who fought against stereotyping and whitewashing (casting white actors in not-white roles), and Tonto was a more nuanced character.
This time, Tonto is being played by Johnny Depp, and the trailer makes the character look more like a comedic relief that anything. Disney is supposed to be a family-friendly company, and to me that entails creating properties (especially ones that they stamp with the “Disney” logo, so I’m giving leeway to companies that Disney owns, like Marvel) that are appropriate for families. And I just don’t think racial stereotyping (the broken English in which Johnny Depp’s character Tonto speaks in the trailer, the war paint caked on his face that was not part of the original character’s costume) and whitewashing are appropriate things to teach children. We’re supposed to be teaching our children to respect and understand other cultures, not reinforcing outdated, stereotypical, and often negative assumptions that are deeply hurtful.
As a preeminent member of Hollywood and more importantly as supposedly a “trusted keeper of family and social values,” Disney has a responsibility to do much better than this.