Terrance and Princess, Tiana, actress Elizabeth Dampier at the world premiere of the film in November 2009.
It all started with a call fromTom MacDougall, now VP of Music Disney Animation inviting us onto the project! It only got more amazing from there: working with the fine people at Disney, recording with the legendary Randy Newman, spending time with John Lasseter in Louisiana and the other L.A, attending the premiere at Disney studio in Burbank – well, it was just next level exciting for all of us AND the music of Louisiana! Never before had New Orleans food, music and the French Quarter been featured in a Disney film! True story, y’all.
Of course it helped further our own mission to teach our student audiences about black roots music in ways we can never really measure – it’s been massive and opened doors to schools who would never have known what zydeco was, let alone hear the word or see an image of an accordion and a bug playing it’s rigged underbelly like a rubboard! All of this in an Oscar nominated Disney film! Wow, right?!
ICYMI – this film also made history for introducing their first black princess, played by Anika Noni Rose. Find her on the socials, she is truly amazing! For the first time in Disney history, young black girls all over the country finally had their own princess. It was huge! Terence Howard and Oprah Winfrey both had roles in the film as well.
This has proved to be an invaluable tool to help further educate our youth and student audiences at schools and performing art centers all over the country!
Please join us in celebrating the 10 year anniversary of history making film – big, big congrats to Disney!
