In the late 2000s, the Walt Disney Company expanded, rebranded, and recast itself around "woke," empowered entertainment. This new era revitalized its princess franchise, seeking to elevate its female characters into heroes who save the day. Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements analyzes the way that the Walt Disney Company has co-opted contemporary social discourse, incorporating how audiences interpret their world through new media and activism into the company's branding initiatives, programming, and films. The contributors in this collection study the company's most iconic franchise, the Disney princesses, to evaluate how the company has addressed the patriarchy its own legacy cemented. Recasting the Disney Princess outlines how the current Disney era reflects changes in a global society where audiences are empowered by new media and social justice movements.
Part I: Rebranding the Disney Princess Chapter One: Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements Shearon Roberts Chapter Two: Diversity Sells: The Dollars and Cents of Woke Rebranding Shaniece B. Bickham and Shearon Roberts Chapter Three: Sofia the First: A Princess Life Fit for a Preschool Audience Sarah Maben Chapter Four: From Princess to Heroine: Expanding Representations of Girls and Women Jana Thomas and Holly Speck Chapter Five: Pop, Hip-Hop, and the Hamiltonization of the Disney Soundtrack Daron Roberts and Turon Nicholas Part II: Diversifying the Disney Princess Chapter Six: Elena of Avalor and Mama Coco: Latina Sheroes and Knowledge Keepers Alberto Rodriguez and Veronica N. Durant Chapter Seven: #NolaBorn: Tiana and the Road Home for New Orleans Residents Sheryl Kennedy Haydel Chapter Eight: Moana: The Daughter of the Chief and Polynesian (in)Visibility Jenny Banh Chapter Nine: #MakeMulanRight: Retracing the Genealogy of Mulan from Ancient Chinese Tale to Disney Classic. Jenny Banh Chapter Ten: Pocahontas: Digital Coloniality, Coercive Fiction, and "Renewing" Western Hegemonic Power. Leece Lee-Oliver Chapter Eleven: A Whole New World: Gender Norms, Islamophobia and Orientalism Krystal Ghisyawan Part III: Deconstructing Princess Narratives Chapter Twelve: Belle: Beyond the Classic Story for the Modern Audience Rebecca Weidman-Winter Chapter Thirteen: "Let it Go" as Radical Mantra: Subverting the Princess Narrative in Frozen Susanne R. Hackett Chapter Fourteen: Shuri of Wakanda, The People's Princess Charity Clay Chapter Fifteen: Maleficent: Rape, Wrath, and the Feminine Divine Sarah A. Clunis Part IV: Embedding Social Discourse around the Disney Heroine Chapter Sixteen: Disney's Social Consciousness: Explaining #BlackLivesMatter through Zootopia Ahli Chatters and Shearon Roberts Chapter Seventeen: "It's Good to Be Bad": Marginalization and Othering in the Descendants Films Shearon Roberts Chapter Eighteen: No Capes Needed: The Plight of Super Moms Alexis Woods Barr Chapter Nineteen: The Women of Wakanda: Black Beauty and Casting Abeo Jackson Chapter Twenty: Culture Wars and the Politics of Finding Dory Prairie Parnell Epilogue: Notes from Behind the Camera from a Father of Two Daughters Varion Laurent
