Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)

Tiana Rogers is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film The Princess and the Frog (2009). Created by writers and directors Ron Clements and John Musker and animated by Mark Henn, Tiana is voiced by Anika Noni Rose, with Elizabeth M. Dampier voicing the character as a child.

Conception and ethnicity

According to co-director John Musker, adapting the fairy tale "The Frog Prince" by the Brothers Grimm into an animated feature film had been a subject at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 18 years. The project was repeatedly shelved because the studio was unsuccessful in creating a version with which they were satisfied. Disney bought the rights to The Frog Princess), a novel by E. D. Baker that is based on the fairy tale, in 2006. Co-directors Ron Clements and Musker were then hired to lead the studio in yet another attempt at adapting the fairy tale, choosing 1920s New Orleans as its setting. Although originally conceived as a computer-animated film, Clements and Musker fought for The Princess and the Frog to be traditionally animated.

Conception and ethnicity

Tiana is loosely based on both Princess Emma, the heroine of Baker's novel, and the princess who appears in the Grimm fairy tale. Clements described Baker's The Frog Princess as "a kind of fairy tale with a twist" because in it "the princess kissed the frog and instead of him turning into a prince she turned into a frog." Clements and Musker pitched the idea for the film to Walt Disney Animation Studios CEO John Lasseter "as a hand-drawn film with an African American heroine", conceiving Tiana "as someone who would never have been a big fan of Disney fairy tales." The character was inspired by famed restaurateur Leah Chase, who Clements and Musker met on their research trip to New Orleans. Clements elaborated, "There's a woman in New Orleans named Lee (sic) Chase who was a waitress and ultimately opened a restaurant with her husband … we met with her and we talked with her and she went to kind of into her story, her philosophy about food, which is a big element of the movie."

Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)