As we continue the month of February, I thought the next Disney couple we could acknowledge could be Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog (2009), in honor of the fact that February is also Black History Month. “Princess and the Frog,” was released on December 11th, 2009, to critical acclaim and received three Academy Award Nominations, including Best Animated Feature, and two nominations for Best Original Song “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.” Though in addition to having well-written music, and being an exceptionally well-produced movie, there are several other things that make the movie special.
First, a brief synopsis: Tiana is girl who lives in New Orleans with her mother, Eudora, and she wants to follow in her late father James footsteps, and manage her own restaurant. Later, one night at a party, she meets a frog named who claims he used to be a man but was turned into a frog by a which doctor, Dr. Facilier, and Naveen claims that if Tiana will kiss him, he will be a man again. She does so, but wounds up getting turned into a frog herself, and together she and Naveen wound up going on an adventure together in the New Orleans bayou, to figure out how to change themselves back into humans, and they make also some funny new friends along the way.
Tiana is a special leading lady, because in addition to being Disney’s very first African-American leading lady, she is also the very first Disney leading lady to have a career path for herself. Because her life’s ambition being to build and run her own restaurant, she understands, appreciates, and highly values hard work and knows that it takes a great deal of hard work to pursue you want in life and you have to be willing to do it, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes. Sadly, though because of her preoccupation with her career, she doesn’t have much time socialize with her friends, let alone have a love life. Naveen, on the other hand, could be considered a playboy knowing how at the beginning we see he likes to have fun with girls and spend more money than he should spend just because he’s the royal Prince of Maldonia. As a result of that, he was cut off from his royal finances by his parents and is looking to get married, but just for wealth, not for love, which is roughly similar to Tiana’s situation.
When Tiana and Naveen meet and both get turned into frogs, they go on this fun adventure where they both learn to help one another grow up. Tiana helps Naveen mature and to appreciate hard work when she teaches him how to mince mushrooms. Naveen also helps Tiana step outside of her “career zone” and learn to actually enjoy life when he teaches her to dance. He has a great line in the film when he speaks “If I can mince, you can dance.” By the end of the film, Naveen and Tiana have both made extraordinary differences in each other’s lives and Naveen gladly gives up his dream of marrying for financial gain so that Tiana can have her dream of having her own restaurant and they can get married because they’re in love with each other.
Tiana and Naveen are a great couple because their story involves the two of them finding true love when neither was looking for it. They both help each other mature, see other sides of life, and become very close friends. And while they both have their own things they value, as they fall for one another, they are also reminded how to value true love.
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