Zippity Doo-Dah!

I’ve been a Disney movie fan all my life. Though I haven’t seen all their animated movies, I think they’re as good – if not better – than most of the live action flicks being produced. (At least I know when I go, I won’t be mad when the movie is done.) I distinctly remember going to see “Aladdin” with some college girlfriends one Friday night. And when “The Little Mermaid” came out, I went with a roommate and came out singing and dancing to “Under the Sea,” even if I couldn’t remember all the lyrics.

Yet, something troubled me. In all their movies, I rarely saw African-Americans as a main character.

Some would argue that “Lion King” would counter that. Although I love the movie, I have two problems with it: first, with James Earl Jones and the late Madge Sinclair voicing Simba’s parents, why couldn’t they find a suitable black actor to voice Simba? (This isn’t a slam against Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Matthew Broderick who respectively voiced young and adult Simba.) Second, why would the first “black” animated film have to be featuring animals?

I was waiting for the first black HUMAN film.

To be fair, Disney made some terrific strides in their television department. Tia and Tamera Mowery, Raven-Symone, Corbin Bleu and Kyle Massey have had films and shows centering around them. (My son is a huge fan of Corbin Bleu and Jump In.) But still, no black animated theatrical films. Zut alors!

But hold on a minute…

Every so quietly, Disney announced a new addition to their ever popular Princess line.

Wait, wait…

Wait for it…

She’s African-American! And she’s Disney FIRST AMERICAN princess!  (There are those that argue that Pocahantas was the first American princess, but though she’s in the Princess line, she wasn’t a princess, she was a heroine like Mulan.)

Yes, ladies and gents, Disney got off it’s butt and created a brand-spankin’ new princess – Princess Tiana – in a new movie, The Princess and the Frog.It’s due out during this year’s holiday season and along with the requisite movie marketing, there will be a doll (created to look more “realistic”) and all the tchotckes that Disney can crank out. The film stars Tony award-winner Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls), Terrence Howard and Oprah Winfrey. (And no, I don’t think she produced it.)

Yes, I will be going to see the film, even if I have to go by myself, though I have enough cousins and nieces that I can drag along with me. And yes, I will be buying a doll for myself.

As thrilled as I am about this news, I’m curious about the lack of publicity surrounding this. If I hadn’t seen the announcement about the doll on Entertainment Tonight, I wouldn’t have known it was happening at all. Maybe when the movie comes out, there will be a bigger hype.

But the real thrill will be seeing girls of all colors lining up at the Disney store demanding all the Princess Tiana merchandise they can sell and the film being a box office smash.

Then I’ll be able sing, “My, oh my, what a wonderful day.”

God Save the People!

Saturday, I had a blast from my very distant past. I watched Godspell. I remember watching it as a first-grader. Aside from the music, I found the movie rather disturbing. I think it was the imagery; seeing the Gospel played out by clown-like hippies – especially the scene where Jesus is crucified – freaked me out as a 5-year-old.

The film is 35 years old and I decided to watch it again to see how I would react to it. And again, I was disturbed, but not for the reasons listed above. But before I get to those, I have to say I had some interesting surprises. The first were two of the actors: the late Lynne Thigpen (who had a beautiful singing voice) and as Jesus, Victor Garber (Mr. Andrews in Titanic, Alias, Eli Stone). I knew he could sing (I saw him in the remake of Annie), but as “Jesus,” he was barely recognizable. He was so young and thin and his voice didn’t have that slight British accent that I love. (I don’t know if his accent is really British, but that’s the way it comes across.)

The second surprise was the Biblical accuracy within the music and dialogue. Though it doesn’t completely follow the chronological account of the Gospels, it does stay fairly close to Scripture. Also, the beautiful theme of “Day by Day” should be everyone’s prayer:

Day by day, day by day,

Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray:

To see thee more clearly

To love thee more dearly

To follow thee more nearly

Day by day.

But here’s the one part that disturbed me. The movie’s climax is, of course, the crucifixion (“Oh God, I’m dying”). As the disciples carry Christ from the “cross” into the deserted streets, they disappear around a corner, only to have the hustle and bustle of the streets to resume without any resolution. The reason this disturbed me is because Christ’s story is incomplete. Without the resurrection, there is no hope of salvation. So when the movie ends in a chorus of “God Save the People” and “Day by Day,” I felt the real message had been lost – and that was the real tragedy.

Still, I’d take Godspell over most of the other movies made about the Gospel of Christ (The Passion of the Christ being the exception). At least in this version, Christ’s disciples were made up of all colors and genders – and none of them had a British accent.

The time of my life

I just sat through “Dirty Dancing.”

Not the Broadway musical, but the original movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. I haven’t seen it from the begining to end in a long time, though I know it by heart now. I’ve seen parts of it so many times, I can quote lines. I know the backstory of the filming and the fighting between the two leads. The movie is over 20 years old.

And yet, sitting through it, I still want to get up and dance. I want Johnny to come up to my table and say, “Nobody puts Donna in a corner.” Then we go up and do the incredible dance at the end, including the lift. You know the lift – the one she’s too afraid to do. The line that makes it for me is, “You will hurt me if you don’t trust me.” Johnny says that while they’re practicing the lifts in the lake. But in the end, that’s the real point of the movie’s theme: until she trusted him completely, everything she did would hurt him. But when she did – confessing to her father about their relationship – it was wonderful.

But that’s not what makes this movie so special to me.

When the movie first premiered in 1987, I went with my college roommates, Patti and Kimberly, for Kimby’s birthday. We argued about who used whom (I was Switzerland; I thought they used each other). But after that, practically every Friday night, we piled into cars and headed to the Bremen movie theater and watched it fo $1.00. We tried to do “dirty dancing” in our dorm suite, which was pretty pitiful since we were all girls. We convinced a friend of ours (another Patti) to do a lift in the stairwell. We also debated the themes of abortion, premarital sex, lying, etc. (we were at a Christian college). But we loved the movie and the music.

So I watched the movie again tonight. And for a few moments, I was transported back to those wonderful Friday nights at the Bremen theater with my roommates and best friends. I remembered the fun, the laughter, the dancing.

We’ve all grown up and moved on. Most of us are married; some of us have kids. “Dirty Dancing” was pretty tame considering what’s out there now. And I wonder how our kids will react to the movie (especially the boys). We’re scattered across the globe and rarely keep in touch these days. And somewhere, wherever they are, “Dirty Dancing” is proably being shown on television.

And I hope that Patti, Kimby, Sherry, Wendy and Heather will sit down and watch it again. And I hope they’ll remember that wonderful time in our lives.