“The only way that you can get what you want in this world is through hard work.”
Tiana is the protagonist of Disney's 2009 animated feature film, The Princess and the Frog. She is a gifted cook living in New Orleansduring the Jazz Age, with the dream of opening and owning a restaurant of her own.
Tiana is the ninth official Disney Princess and the last to originate from a traditionally-animated feature.
Why She Rocks
- She made history as the first black Disney princess in the Disney Princess franchise.
- Like Fa Mulan, she worked hard to reach her goals instead of waiting for her prince, firmly earning the title of Disney Princess and being a good role model to girls. She even expresses her belief in working to reach your aspirations in the amazing song, "Almost There".
- Aside from Fa Mulan, she's the only Disney Princess who killed or was responsible for killing the villain of her film. (Mulan: Shan Yu; Tiana: Dr. Facilier)
- She is intelligent, resourceful and highly talented.
- Aside from her workaholic nature, she is also imaginative, creative and ambitious. She loves humor and spending quality time with friends.
- She is also shown to be heroic and has proven to be quite capable in dangerous situations and moments of physical conflict, continuously saving Prince Naveen from danger throughout the movie and even fending off Dr. Facilier and his hoard of shadow demons.
- She is extremely strong-willed and doesn't take insults that are aimed towards her lightly. She sees something in herself that is far greater than her poor background and jumps at any opportunity to prove so.
- Her original design is pretty accurate to how African-American female workers looked like during racist times.
- She has an amazing singing voice, as shown in the previously mentioned song "Almost There" and at the end of "Dig A Little Deeper".
- In the Disney short "Electric Holiday", she is portrayed as a beautiful New York fashion model.
- She will have a cameo along with the other Disney princesses in Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet.
Bad Quality
- Prior to a trailer release of the aforementioned sequel, there was some controversy regarding Tiana's lightened skin tone and sharper features. Fortunately, Tiana's scenes were reanimated so that she could resemble her original depiction more.
Trivia
- Tiana is (to date) the only Disney Princess to have her father dead and her mother alive; it is typically the other way around.
- Tiana as the protagonist is present and relevant for the entire film, but her screen time as a human was limited to 19 minutes.
- Tiana is the Disney Princess seen wearing the most outfits. In total, she wore 11 on different occasions (10 if you don't count the dress she wore as a child).
- Several other African American celebrities wanted the role of Tiana before Anika Noni Rose was cast, including model and television personality Tyra Banks, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys and recording artist Jennifer Hudson (Hudson would later pose as Tiana in the Disney Dream Portrait Series).
- According to Disneystrology, her birthday would be on December 25th.
- On the Disney Princess line-up, Tiana is franchised with her green wedding gown, but without the veil.
- In merchandising, Tiana is the only Disney Princess to have her love-interest as her animal companion.
- Tiana is the first African American character to make appearances at Disney theme parks.
- Tiana is currently the last Princess shown in traditional, hand-drawn animation.
- In The Muppets episode "Going, Going, Gonzo", Dr. Teeth suggests to Scooter, who is reevaluating his lifestyle, to go to Louisiana and talk to a voodoo woman named Tiana (though technically, this description is more applicable to Mama Odie than it is to Tiana).