When Disney announced Tangled was getting a TV series, I rolled my eyes so far back, I could see back to my infancy. I enjoyed Tangled, but, was eventually turned off by the fandom in its early years. I forgot about it because those rumors were around 2015. The trailer came out and I was back to rolling my eyes again.
When Frozen 2 was announced, my response was a much more expressive. Like with Tangled, I enjoyed the movie but eventually, my mind grew critical of the faults and the fandom rubbed me the wrong way. When the sequel was announced, I ranted and raved to anyone who would bother to listen and when they were done listening there was always a common question, “Well if that upsets you, what movie would you give a sequel to?”
Which leads me to this essay today: My darling readers, I am here to present my case for the 2009 Disney movie, “The Princess and the Frog” for your consideration to be given a sequel.
Before jumping into the reasonings why the movie deserves a sequel, let us rewind and discuss why it deserves to be seen. “The Princess and the Frog” was the 49th animated film for Disney Studios and one of the last movies of the 2D genre for the company.
Considered by many critics to be the starting point of the “Disney Revival” era, the movie has a decent following and has earned acclaims such as being nominated for a Golden Globe for the best-animated feature and a Grammy for best song. The movie itself features the first black princess(and a black main character in general) for Disney with the frog prince story as a backdrop. Despite its beautiful animation, song, and reception it was a movie that ended up being pushed to the side.
Which brings us to why it deserves and even needs a sequel. Unlike Tangled and Frozen who were mainly given spin offs and sequels due to the successful advertisements and returned a profit from the movie releases, The Princess and the Frog has actual story potential for a sequel. In the movie, Tiana, the main character, rises from lower class waitress to the wife of a disowned prince of a distant country.
At the end, she ends up as a successful restaurant owner, but her story doesn't have to end there. When Tiana’s husband was disowned, the story made it clear it was simply from the funds not from inheriting the throne itself which leads to the possibility that Tiana could eventually be queen and a leader of another country if that is the case. If that was to happen, the sequel can be about her coming to terms with her drastic change of social class, adapting to cultural norms, and figuring out what would happen to the restaurant she had worked her entire life to achieve.
On the other hand, there is a more racially charged issue as to why a sequel could be beneficial. If you have not seen the movie, a large critic held by many fans and black people had was the issue of Disney’s first black lead was an animal for 90% of her film.
There has been an odd occurrence of characters of color in movies being either hyper sexualized (Jasmine from Aladdin and Pocahontas) or being changed into an animal for a majority of their film for hijinx reasons (see Kuzco from Emperor’s New Groove and Keani from Brother Bear).
Even though the animal narratives serve to move the plot forward or create a new spin on an old story, we spend half the movie only knowing that Tiana is a workaholic and trying to not do frog things. With a sequel, we can explore different aspects to her, not be thrown into the wilds and to simply see her be her.
But as much as I would want a sequel for Tiana’s sake, I also think it would work best for world building through Naveen, Prince of Maldonia and husband to Tiana. The only things we know about the made up country of Maldonia is that we know the people (or at least the royal family) are of color, the fashion choices can be considered middle eastern or Indian inspired.
The music is sultry, and it is at least across the sea. Otherwise, we know nothing. Nothing about how much power the royal family has, the architecture of the land, the imports or exports, and what type of people live there. We know the history of the United States, it would be an excellent opportunity to expand the world and create something new.
I originally thought of a Princess and the Frog sequel because I am a bitter fan who will rant and rave over why certain movies don’t deserve one. But eventually, the more I thought about it, why couldn’t there be a sequel? It has story potential, the fan base for the movie is there, and it was a successful film. So consider this my plea to Disney, please give my girl Tiana a new story. And also please add her restaurant to the Disney parks, you are missing out on something big.
