The Princess and the Frog

I'm kind of excited to go see the new Disney movie coming out in December. It's called The Princess and the Frog and it's just like the fairytale...except different. In this movie, the Princess and the Frog Prince are not the cookie-cutter prince and princess. Disney is actually encouraging interracial relationships for the first time ever. Tiana, a beautiful, young girl from New Orleans is going to be the first black Disney Princess.

In the movie, Princess Tiana agrees to kiss the Frog after he convices her that it will turn him back into a prince. Instead, the Princess also turns into a frog and they embark on an adventure to become human again in the city of New Orleans.

I think it's different, it's fresh and I can't wait to check it out. It also resembles a traditional cartoon. It looks just like The Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid. It might be refreshing to take a trip down memory lane with a few modern twists.



Check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8N-kIiELUA

When Does it Stop being Funny?

Comedies like Harold and Kumar that are targeted at college-age students really push the envelope when it comes to racial comedy. Comedy genre in general tends to get away with mocking racial stereotypes, but how far is too far?

I'd never watched a Harold and Kumar movie before but my boyfriend convinced me to watch Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhzFRoiM3Q&NR=1

Here's a clip from a particular scene that I found hard to watch. This is from a scene on an airplane where a little old lady looks over at Kumar and imagines him as a terrorist because of his ethnicity. In her image, Kumar taunts her and gestures the plane crashing and exploding, clearly mocking what happened during 9/11.

I understand that this is comedy but I think there's some things that just aren't funny. There's some things that should just be left alone. It's one thing for the old lady to picture him as a terrorist and it's another thing to picture him crashing the plane.

This is just the beginning for Harold and Kumar. If anyone of you has seen the movie then you know how much it is filled with mocking racial stereotypes. I did end up watching the whole movie even though I'm not a big fan of racial comedy. For me, it was kind of like watching a car crash. It was horrible but yet I couldn't look away.

Racism and Comics

I was reading the Boston Herald yesterday and I came across a startling comic. The comic is made by a series called "The Knight Life." The first scene of the comic has a drawing of a young black man listening to a radio. The radio announcer says, "Listen to this one folks. A grade school student is accused of shouting down his teacher in class!!" The next scene shows the announcer saying, "Not that it matters but you could probably imagine what ethnicity this kid is..." The young man looks over at the radio in disgust. In the next scene, the radio announcer says, "If we allow this savagery to continue, it will spell the end of America! Next up: A list of gun shops closest to where the president is speaking tonight." The young man now looks over at the radio and sighs.

At first, I was really confused when I saw this in the newspaper. What does ethnicity have to do with yelling at a teacher? In all my years of school, I've seen plenty of students yell at the teachers, children of all ethnicities. I think the point that this comic was trying to make is that there are larger issues in the world than talking back to teachers. I didn't think that the comic was funny and I think most people might find it offensive.

I think it's interesting how much ethnicity is tied into music. This is America and people are supposed to have freedoms but I think sometimes people are limited to what music they can and cannot listen to.

Historically, it has been only acceptable for black people to listen to rap music while white people are supposed to listen to rock, pop and country. It was awkward for white people to drive around and listen to rappers like DMX in the 90s.

Since then many things have changed. When Eminem first became famous, everyone was thinking "Who the hell is this white boy trying to rap?" Then people realized that he was really good and he paved the way for other white rappers to come along and for more white people to start listening to rap.

It's just interesting that although everyone has the freedom to listen to whatever they want to listen to, they still go along with the cultural norms and what they are expected to take interest in.

C.S.I and the evolution of race

I have been a huge fan of C.S.I for many years. I'm so in love with the Vegas version that I've been reluctant to watch the others. Last season, the producers killed off one of my favorite characters, "Warrick Brown" played by Gary Dourdan. Warrick was a C.S.I who often got caught up in trouble. He was a very likeable character, someone that audiences would look forward to watching.

Warrick was portrayed as a person who came into a bunch of trouble with the law. He was involved with gambling, strippers, hookers, alcoholism and more. He was portrayed in this negative way but also had some positive characteristics. He was loyal, hard working, and willing to help out any of his C.S.I teammates. Audiences identified with him because he was a great guy who wasn't perfect but was working towards a better life. People would watch the show to see him fight his problems and some weeks he would go back to old habits.

In the end of last season, Warrick got involved with strippers. He was framed for the murder of a stripper in Las Vegas. Later he was murdered in his car by someone he thought he could trust. The death of Warrick was sad for all fans of the show. Many people said they would never watch the show again.

Since then, C.S.I has replaced Warrick's character with Laurence Fishburne, better known as Morpheus from The Matrix. Fishburne is portrayed as a successful black professor, who is a doctor/professor/lawyer/C.S.I. His character is much more positive than Warrick's was. I like that there is a positive representation being shown through Fishburne's character. I think the show is much better without the negative portrayal of Warrick. Now that he's on the show, I find it hard NOT to watch it every Thursday night.

The N word

While watching Spike Lee's movie "Bamboozled," I noticed that the N word must have appeared hundreds of times. At one point, Pierre Delacroix daydreams about beating up his white boss beacause he keeps repeating the N word. Somehow he maintains his composure, being the better man.

This led me to thinking more about the N word. It's extremely offensive and brings back awful memories from the past. I just think the world would be better off without the word. It's too late now I guess, the word can never go away.

Racism Dies in Final Destination

Today I finally went out and watched the movie "Final Destination." I thought the movie itself was really great, but there was one particular scene that I'll never forget.

In the beginning of the movie, there is a huge crash at a Nascar race and 52 spectators get killed. One of the redneck Nascar fans survives the disaster and blames the black security guard for the death of his wife. Later on that night, he gets drunk and drives his tow truck over to the security guard's house. He begins digging a hole, trying to set a wooden cross up in the yard.

Somehow, in the middle of his drunk hatred, he gets caught up on a chain linked to the back of his truck and catches on fire. His truck starts rolling down the street, with him dragging behind it. His stereo starts blaring the song "Why Can't we be Friends" as he's pulled down the street on fire.

The death of the racist in this fictional horror-film was really powerful. The music playing made it kind of funny yet serious at the same time. The movie sent out the message that racism is cruel and that karma is a bitch.

If you're into this sort of movie, feel free to check out the scene...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lerlJpAuQoA