More Than Black and White: An Analysis of the Practice of Black-Coding in Animated Television and Film
In 2009, to the delight of millions of little Black girls across the world, Walt Disney Studios released The Princess and the Frog, giving birth to a generation of loyal Princess Tiana supporters. The first Black Disney princess was a hard-working woman, chasing dreams of owning a restaurant in the Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, to honor the memory, legacy, and love for her father and their community. A fully developed character with a compelling story with a phenomenal cast from a powerhouse in the animation industry voiced by Hollywood darling Anika Noni Rose. It was a novel experience to see such lovely brown skin animated for a theatrical experience, and to have a Princess so specifically birthed from Black culture and history — or it would’ve been, until that beautiful Black woman was turned into a frog. In fact, for a film featuring the first Black princess, she spends roughly 58% of her time on screen as a frog, roughing her unfortunate circumstances in the Louisiana swamps. She is the only Disney Princess on the roster to be turned directly into an animal, but she’s not the first iteration of Blackness deprived of humanity on screen, especially in a medium like animation. The practice of representing cultural/ethnic groups through indirect depictions is achieved through the practice of “race coding” or applying widely identifiable traits and stereotypes onto characters to allude to a particular racial identity. Just like in live action media, Black people across the world have been pushing for genuine and authentic representation since the medium became a form of mainstream entertainment.