I’m really happy Lin-Manuel Miranda and Disney found each other. Disney is the luckier of the two, because Miranda is so smart, talented, passionate and approachable. Fortunately, Disney sees this too. Miranda’s written music or lent his voice on quite a few Disney projects, including, of course, Moana, for which he co-wrote the music and
It is now conceivable that the porcelain princesses Cinderella, Snow White and the “Frozen” leading ladies could be dethroned — “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is in talks with Disney about co-writing an animated musical featuring a young Latina heroine.
Amid much debate about the lack of diverse lead roles in Hollywood, particularly in the animated genre, Miranda is talking to Disney about a follow-up to its 2016 smash hit “Moana.”
Miranda’s father, Luis, exclusively told Page Six, “He is talking to Disney about a sequel to ‘Moana,’ but the movie would be about a Latina princess.”
Like the rest of you, I add my voice to the “why has this taken so long?” chorus but I am glad it’s happening, at least. And, as you may have gathered, I think Miranda is a great choice to make it happen. I am slightly confused by how a Latina princess would be in a sequel to Moana but who knows, maybe Moana will journey to Puerto Rico and we’ll get a double princess movie out of it. However it happens, it’s nice to see Disney still inching in the right direction. I’d be happier if they would pick up the pace on true representation but as long as they aren’t going backwards, I’ll hold my complaints.
Miranda is in Puerto Rico performing a 17-day run of Hamilton that’s expected to raise $15 million to help rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. It’s been a very emotional time for the cast and the people of Puerto Rico. And because it is such a big deal, people seem to forget themselves in the theater, as happened last week when Miranda caught a lady filming during the show. In the middle of singing My Shot, Miranda improvised the lyrics to call her out:
Hamilthought, Show #7, 1/16/19
2nd "rewrite":
"I'm a get a scholarship to King's College
I probly shouldn't brag, but dag, I amaze & astonish,
LADY FILMING IN THE 4th ROW, PLEASE STOP IT,
I gotta holler just to be heard…"Please don't make me do that shit again.
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 16, 2019
But this is Lin-Manuel Miranda we’re talking about – so of course there’s a Disney ending. Fourth Row wrote him a sincere apology that he publicly accepted and they’ll probably spend secondary holidays with each other whenever they’re in each other’s cities from now on:
In a million years, I never…
Gracias. Thanks for your apology and thanks for coming to the show. Y saludos a mami. pic.twitter.com/sBY4lYjORv— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 17, 2019
I’m not saying I need a Disney prince, but if I were to get one, Miranda’s a great option.
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Getty Images and Twitter
And hopefully an Indian princess soon as well.
YES! Fellow Indian here–I would love that! Unfortunately, I don’t think it may happen soon.
Love Lin-Manuel, and get that he’s wonderfully talented and a feminist. But why is a man, any man, being tasked with this? Why can’t a,woman create a princess? Or at least be co-creator? Smh…porque un hombre para una princess, Disney?
ETA: If it’s gotta be a man, Lin-Manuel is a perfect choice, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t see why women can’t be in charge of telling stories about women.
I did have this same thought.
And also- Lin-Manuel’s dad has a big mouth.
It’s a fair point, but I’m reserving judgment as it’s very early. There’s lots of room for a female director, co-writer, producer. He seems to be doing a lot of music for Disney as a composer, not necessarily as a director, etc. (and as a composer he’s pretty unmatched right now, male or female). I hope this turns out to be collaborative.
Sigh…I love him.
Elena of Avalor is the first Latina Disney princess. She’s connected to Sophia the First—this is a big deal with the under 6 set.
My 3 yr old LOST.HER.MIND. when she met Elena & Sophia at Disney World. She didn’t give a flying fig about Cinderella, Belle, or any of the other old school princesses.
Yes! Elena is my daughter’s favorite. Don’t pass her over just because she’s on TV. 🙂
I was coming to say the same thing. & even though she’s not a movie, just a cartoon on Disney Jr, she is at the Magic Kingdom for meet & greets with the other princesses at Fairytale Hall (I think that’s what it’s called?) My daughter was completely mesmerized & her dress looks just like in the show, it’s beautiful!
I feel I could just respond to every sentence about LMM with “BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS.”
“Lin-Manuel Miranda is bringing to Hamilton to Puerto Rico to raise money for hurricane relief.”
BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS.
“Lin-Manual Miranda is buying a beloved theater bookstore to keep it from going out of business.”
BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS.
“Lin-Manuel is going to create a Latina princess for Disney.”
BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS.
I mean….he’s just amazing. Not that he’s perfect, but he’s talented and NICE, and its nice to see someone like that 1) be rewarded with fame and financial success, and 2) turn around and use those things to help others.
If they go with a pre-Columbian setting, which I would love, then maybe the Moana connection could be that the new princess is someone Moana meets on her voyage and then the story picks up from there.
It would be awesome for the new movie to include a Mayan or Aztec princess, to really focus on indigenous culture and myth instead of just the Spanish influence
Same here Faye G. Let’s see how this goes.
Yeah, I also don’t see how a Latina princess would be a sequel to Moana. I hope not. I’d rather she get a whole movie to herself. Maybe they mean ‘sequel’ in the sense of “Whoa, a movie about a brown person actually did WELL. Maybe we should do another.”
That was my cynical thought, too. And as someone pointed out, Disney already has a Latina princess in Elena of Avalor. I had a preschooler two years ago who dressed in her costume nearly every day.
While she’s only on Disney Jr, Elena of Avalor was technically the first Latina Disney Princess. She hasn’t been in a feature film but she’s at Disney World for a meet & greet at Princess Hall along with Cinderella, Rapunzel and Tiana.
It is important to me that my kids know the world is made up of a variety of people, and that Disney has gotten the message and the princesses are beginning to reflect that. (Definitely not perfect but moving in the right direction). Moana is by far the best Disney movie IMO and I love that she’s drawn with an athletic build rather than as a waif with a selfie proportioned head like Frozen.
I feel so conflicted about the Disneyfication of culture? I mean when did Disney become the be-all end-all for little girls to turn to for finding identification figures from their ‘culture’. The version Disney presents can only ever be a watered- down version anyway so is it simply about the merch and that the little girls can see themselves represented on the big screen? Granted, that can be important but I don’t know if a big corporation should have that much power?
Another thing I mind very much about this is that so few of these Princess stories are based on actual myths or stories of the culture they come from? I mean if you want to get technical the ‘white’ princesses are French, German and Danish.
Tiana’s story had elements of the Frog Prince, also a German fairy tale. True African American representation would have been either an African myth or a story inspired by slave folklore.
I don’t begrudge all the little girls in the world their perfect princess to identify with and representation is crazy important. I just think there’s a difference between commercialized representation in the media and true cultural representation.
I know Milan is the Asian representation but can we get another Asian princess? There’s more than Chinese. I’d love to see a princess for Japan or Korea or the Philippines or Cambodia. Asia is big with many diverse cultures after all.
There are Jasmine, who is Middle Eastern Asian, and Moana, who is Pacific Islander, but I am very surprised there haven’t been any Indian princesses yet considering how huge the market is there.
Not that the world couldn’t use more, but there is currently a Latina princess on the Disney Channel – Lady Elena! 😀 It’s a really cute show. It would be a big step to see it move into theatres, though. Disney film has its own level of prestige that the television series don’t have.
Disney and Nick Jr. have had several TV shows based on Latinx characters for some time. I don’t think that the television arms have of these organizations are magically more inclusive — but they obviously did their homework on the demographics of the under-12 population in the US. So I’m surprised that business sense has not carried over to their movie divisions….
How about Disney talks with an actual latin woman in order to create a latin heroine? I like Lin-Manuel, but COME ON. Have him on the project, let him produce and advice, but he’s a man even if he is latin.
I hope they don’t whitewash us and pile us into the same LATINA group. We’re different, even if we have some similarities.
I had the extreme fortune to have met and spend a little time with Lin-Manuel Miranda at a charity event last year. He is kind, warm, friendly, generous, and a truly lovely man. And his wife, Vanessa, is the same.
There’s already a Latina princess — Elena of Avalor — who’s got her own show on Disney Channel and is available for photo-ops at Disney World. My daughter loves her. I’m all up for another one (or many!), too, but Disney already has one.
Must it be a princess?
They have one, Disney Channel has a great latinx princess Eleana of Avalor, and I love her probably more than my daughter does, she is a bad ass, constantly saving her kingdom, she wears pretty dresses, she plays sports, she fights evil wizards and there is such a strong and beautiful Latin culture explored in the show. bring her to the bring screen for more people to enjoy, she is awesome
I think it’s stupid that everything needs to be a princess for it to matter when it comes to Disney. The reason why it has taken so long is because Disney didn’t try to originally make princesses of the most marketable regions, the would not have picked Aladdin for the first non European fairytale if that was the case since Arabs aren’t a big money region or what makes good headlines, now or in 1992.
And there is already Latin princess Elena (form the tv series Elena of Avalor) for kids who want a character and merchandising which matches. Of course Lin Manuel Miranda should be making more Disney magicals and one set in Latin America is great. But not decide it needs to have a Latin princess for marketing reason. You can have musicals with different plots like Hunchback or Notre Dame or Hercules weren’t princess films. Usually Disney has always made films story first (even if what story options are greenlit depend on marketability).
Anyway if Disney makes princess films soon (and I think there should be a great) I think it should be Aida, they considered it mid-2000’s but decided to make Broadway musical instead. Egypt would be a great setting and it’s famous story. Or set in India and have Bollywood style music and some inspiration for those films style wise.
Yay this news makes me so happy! We are long overdue for a Latina princess and Lin-Manuel is the perfect person for the job. I know technically there is a Disney Jr princess but we need a true big-screen princess with the full red carpet hype etc.
Slightly related, I saw In The Heights (his 1st musical about Latinos) a few weeks ago, and it was amazing! I highly recommend seeing it on tour if anyone has the chance.
I hope he does the music, too! Moana’s music was amazing! Elena of Avalor is a Latino Disney Princess. My 6 year old daughter freaked out when she met her in the princess hall at Disney. She loves her, and Elena is a great female character. She’s smart, brave, kind and independent.