Disney's Other Milestone: A Multiracial Prince?

With the exception of The Little Mermaid (which left my kindergarten self with a pretty firm desire to join a crustacean underwater band), I didn't have much interest in the Disney princesses.

But, as Mary notes, for a lot of kids (and some adults, too), Disney princesses were, and are, a very big deal. And if the Disney Princess brand in particular doesn't exactly resonate with me, the importance of having stories and characters with have some resemblance to your own life does.

Which is one reason I'm interested in another milestone "The Princess and the Frog" may be hitting: Disney's first multiracial animated character, Prince Naveen.

Well, maybe. Despite speculation, Disney hasn't exactly said whether Prince Naveen was imagined as a multiracial character or not. In fact, it has side-stepped the issue of race pretty much altogether, just saying that Naveen's from the (fictional) country of Maldonia.

Still, with U.S. Census data released this summer showing that multiracial Americans are the fastest growing demographic group in the nation, having a few characters in the Disney universe that reflect this seems like an important step.