During their last major investors meeting back in December Walt Disney had announced their new animated series line up for the upcoming years. Fans were especially ecstatic to hear that Disney’s The Princess and the Frog will be getting an animated series — and as well as the introduction of Encanto, an animated film that focuses on a Colombian family and culture.
Encanto is expected to arrive sometime in 2021, in which the plot will center around Colombian culture and contain many lively songs that are inspired by traditional Colombian music. Familial ties are an important thing in many cultures and in Colombian communities familial bonds are essential to a happy and healthy life. Encanto is said to be highlighting the magic and also the destruction that comes with a Colombian family. All over different social media platforms people of Colombian descent were taking this announcement with open arms and celebrating this latest announcement.
“I think it’s amazing. The trailer looks beautiful and has that sense of magic and tradition just from what we’ve seen so far. I am absolutely living for this representation of my culture. It’s going to be so amazing to see a lot of the things that I’ve experienced in my culture be put into a Disney movie. It’s like I’ll being watching the main character and be seeing myself on the screen,” states Isabella Herreno, a Colombian student at MLEC.
Alongside Encanto, there were other new installments that had fans buzzing such as a Baymax! ( the series) and Zootopia+, which will debut in 2022 and as well Moana (the series), which will air in 2023. Yet, one series in particular had gotten fans hyped, and this was the announcement of a series for the 2009 Disney movie that depicts the life of Tiana, a black woman in New Orleans after she had finally dug a little deeper and achieved her goals while also finding her very own prince—making her the first, and so far only, black princess.
“Her being a frog for more than half the movie really took away a lot of that representation because she was probably only a human for 10 minutes of the movie. But it was still the first time I was someone who looked like me working hard like that and becoming a princess while finding true love. Being so young and watching that for the first time left a really big impact on me and Tiana will always be an icon in her own right so I’m really excited to see where the series takes her,” states MLEC Junior, Anite Augustin
Being one of the first, and in many cases only representation, that young minority children have and identify with movies like Princess and the Frog and the upcoming Encanto, Disney has done well at being one of the first to provide that emotional connection and attachment that many have due to them finally feeling like they are being “seen” through popular media.
