Movie Analysis: The Princess and the Frog
As the first Disney movie with an African American princess as the main protagonist, The Princess and the Frog showcases how intercultural communication and aspects that affect it can translate into a story. While the movie has tried its best to popularize and commercialize the idea of an African American Disney Princess, it has done so with some shortcomings. After briefly describing the intercultural communication method in the movie and acknowledging what the movie has achieved, the paper will extensively analyze some aspects and macro-contexts affecting intercultural communication that can be difficult to be squeezed flawlessly into a single movie.
For its analysis, this writing will mostly use the critical approach of intercultural communication. This critical approach refers to a meta-theoretical approach with some assumptions of the interpretive approach of intercultural communication, but it focuses more on macro-contexts, such as the political and social structures that influence communication (Martin and Nakayama 67). By itself, interpretive approach refers to an intercultural communication approach that attempts to describe and understand human behavior within cultural groups based on these assumptions: human experience is subjective, human behavior is
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Popular culture, a new name for low culture, refers to cultural products that most people share and know about (Martin and Nakayama 361). Meanwhile, identity is the concept of “who people are”, and people tend to understand the characteristics of identity differently depending on the perspective (Martin and Nakayama 170). By delivering African American identity through a popular culture, the movie may encourage the audience to view African American identity as something equal with other racial