Back in January I wrote this post titled "FINALLY-a Black Princess" about the fact that Disney is finally creating a full-length feature animated movie starring a black princess.

Today, USA Today released this article titled "Disney's First Black Princess to Debut in New Orleans."

The article does not have a lot of new information (in fact the links in the first post I wrote had a lot more info about the characters, story line, etc.) however, it confirms that Disney is still working on "The Frog Princess", has plans to release the movie in New Orleans (where the movie is set) and it features a photo, the first I've seen, of what Maddie, the lead and first black princess, will look like. Check it out! The picture was released at the Disney annual shareholders' meeting in New Orleans, along with the official production announcement of the "Frog Princess."

The movie is being called "an American fairy tail", and will tell the story of Maddy, a 19 year old chambermaid in New Orleans during the 1920's Jazz Age.

From USA Today...

"The film's New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture," Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said.

The Frog Princess will be hand-drawn instead of computer animated, according to the article, and the music will be courtesy of Randy Newman (think Toy Story, Cars, Monsters Inc. etc.) and a song from the score was performed by Newman at the meeting.

I thought that one of the best things that the article pointed out is that Princess Maddy will be added to Disney's collection of animated princesses, both at the theme parks and in the merchandise.

As I look around all the Disney Princess stuff we have all over this house, I can't wait until there is a beautiful black face in there with the rest of them.

I was a little worried that this would be one of those projects that never happened or was "scrapped" for one reason or another, so I was REALLY glad to see this article today and know that plans were moving ahead full steam for the release in 2009. Yay!!!!