My point is clearly about Disney films which are all American films regardless of the origin of the source material hence the American accented English, American pop songs, and expousing of American values.
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What I'm baffled about is how you see a difference between Tiana and Moana and using the original Frog Prince as "proof" instead of Disney's African American Princess Tiana, which the post specifically said turning Ariel Black would be like turning Tiana or Moana White. It's like your failing to see how the setting of New Orleans, it's history and culture, African Americans and Jazz are as instrumental to The Princess and the Frog as Pacific Islander and Polynesian history and culture is to Moana.
I think our miscommunication lies in the fact that I'm following on from (and trying to expand on) what you are saying to make a broader point about stories and cultural identity.
I'm trying to talk about the absolutely essential parts of each story - the parts that make them uniquely
that story - and what can be changed without losing that.
Disney is a perfect framework to explore this given their history of taking old stories from other cultures and modernising/altering them for mass audiences.
So, can the story of The Princess and The Frog be transposed into other cultures while losing none of the essential themes and key narrative milestones that make it unique?
Me, I would say yes, Fairy/Folk Tales are by and large very easily slotted into other settings and cultures. That's why I brought up the original tale, it shows that the story
has been transposed, and very successfully, I might add. I think The Little Mermaid fits here.
On the other hand, could Moana, given its narrative and themes lean so heavily on Polynesian culture? I would say no.
Moana is, for all intents and purposes, a culture hero and her story bears the hallmarks of a creation myth: she brings back wayfaring to the people and restores balance with nature. It would be markedly more difficult to transpose this story convincingly to another culture, so changing Moana's race would have an effect on the essential elements of the story, unlike changing the cultures and identities of The Little Mermaid and The Princess and the Frog.
Do you see where I'm coming from here...?
What do the Brothers Grimm have to do with the original Little Mermaid story?
It was written by Hans Christian Andersen.
I suspect you don't know what you are talking about.
I suspect you missed the fact we were talking about The Princess and The Frog at that point.