Also, Tiana IS a princess.
(in regards to this discussion)
She marries a Prince.
She has a big-ass fairy-tale wedding.
She lives extremely happily-ever-after.
Therefore: princess!
And I’d REALLY disagree that the getting of the restaurant instead of the getting the massive castle a la Beauty in the Beast was in some way shafting Tiana out of TRUE princess-dom.
Its not the castle that makes the princess, its the happily-ever-after.
And the restaurant was Tiana’s happily-ever-after. It was a place of love, it was warm, it was where she could gather with her friends and family, and just be HAPPY with them. Yes, she’s working, but its not the kind of driven, ambitious, stressful work that Tiana was doing in the beginning of the film. She’s in charge now, she’s powerful. She rules over her own unofficial kingdom. She becomes a fantastically successful businesswoman, and an unequivocally loved and respected person in her city. Oh, and she’s royalty now! Literally!
They did things differently in The Princess and the Frog, that’s for damn sure. All of it was intentional. The movie was a return to form for Disney — the first traditionally-animated princess film they made since Mulan — but they KNEW they had to do some things differently A lot of buzz surrounded the fact that Tiana was the first black princess; Tiana’s also the first American princess (excluding Pocahontas!), and she’s the first 20th century princess. She’s not going to want a castle. A castle is boring. Giving her a more traditional princess ending would have turned a brilliantly inventive and exciting story into a tale that has already been told a thousand times.
Yeah…no. I like you, but you just missed the point by a country mile. She’s still got to go to work every day & she gets the added bonus of having to teach her husband how to be a decent human being. Nothing about that is romantic or exciting or even really escapism. Her happily ever after is to keep working? Really?
I’m a little bewildered. Tiana wanted the restaurant, and it made her happy to run it and dance and sing in it.
And Naveen was a decent human being to begin with. He was just very spoiled and only had to learn that not everything was all about wine, women, song, and a good time. Which he actually eagerly embraced once he realized how rewarding it was. His own parents were proud he finally got the clue.
Part of the problem is the idea is the idea that the only way she could be happy was to have to work hard every day. Disney prettied it up, but restaurants aren’t exactly good times. Every other Disney princess gets to follow their dreams & live a life of financial ease. Not so with Tiana.
