[UPDATED] Disney Reportedly Reanimated Princess Tiana in 'Wreck It Ralph 2' After "Whitewashing" Criticism

From Cosmopolitan

Walt Disney Animation Studios has re-worked some scenes in the forthcoming Wreck It Ralph sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet in the name of representation.

When the trailer for the animated film first came out in June, many were especially excited by footage teasing a reunion of 14 Disney princesses, in CGI form. The royal roster includes Snow White, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Ariel, Mulan, Jasmine, Aurora, Belle, Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, Moana, Merida, and Tiana-why they don't include Atlantis's Princess Kida, IDEK.

The princess' hyper-aware cameo-with Rapunzel and the rest of the princesses calling out the fairytale trope of a "strong man" coming in to "solve all your problems"-stole the show. Disney princesses usually do, tbqh.

But when everyone was talking about their appearance again more recently during a new round of promo (specifically, when Entertainment Weekly released sneak-preview slumber party photos from the scene) the chatter wasn't positive. People couldn't help but notice how different Princess and the Frog's Princess Tiana looked compared to the way she was first portrayed in the trailer as well as her 2009 rendition.

In EW's images, Tiana's appearance appeared to have been edited-compared to her 'original' appearance (well, aside from when she was a frog), she had lighter skin, lighter hazel eyes, and curls closer to Brave's princess Merida's messy 'do than what her natural hair would actually look like.

And so The Wall Street Journal reports that, following "feedback" from Tiana's voice actress Anika Noni Rose and members of anti-racism advocacy group Color of Change, Disney decided to go back to the drawing board, and render her the way she was always meant to be drawn. In a statement to the WSJ, Change of Color noted:

"Now when Black girls watch #WreckItRalph2, they’ll see Tiana and other princess of color that actually looks like them on screen," COC president Rashad Robinson added in a tweet.

Though the studio has yet to comment on, or confirm, the reworked artwork for Tiana, it's fair to say that the world of Disney definitely wouldn't be as magical without true #BlackGirlMagic.

Update 9/26, 12:07 p.m.: Tiana's voice actress, Anika Rose, who has remained silent about the issue this whole time has spoken up with a long message posted to Instagram. "They explained how CGI animation did different things to the characters’ color tones in different light compared to hand drawn original characters," wrote the actress.

She continued, "And I was able to express how important it is to the little girls (and let’s face it, grown women) who felt represented by her that her skin tone stay as rich as it had been, and that her nose continue to be the little round nose that [The Princess and the Frog animator] Mark so beautifully rendered in the movie; the same nose on my very own face and on many other little brown faces around the world, that we so rarely get to see represented in fantasy."

Read the whole message below.

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