Abstract :
[en] Although The Rescuers (1977) and The Princess and the Frog (2009) were created 30 years apart and can therefore be said to epitomize two seemingly remote periods of Disney's history (its darker years versus its later renaissance), the two films have more in common than appearances may suggest. First, European literary sources directly inspired their main characters: novels by British author Margery Sharp for the former and one of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales for the latter. Yet, both films reappropriate their source to turn it into a product that is unmistakably Disney's - which, as critiques would have it, "usurps" the sources through the "Disney treatment" (Cartmell, 2007, p.169) - but also, and perhaps more meaningfully, a product that feels precisely American. All commentaries put aside; it can be argued that the films seek to erase references to the European setting and culture of the original material by transporting them into the recognizable surroundings of the Louisiana Bayou, complete with its pirate stories, intensely dark or surprisingly vivid natural backdrops, voodoo rites, Cajun traditions and wildlife. In this respect, The Rescuers and The Princess and the Frog can be said to engage in what Foster and Tolbert (2016) have described as the folkloresque: pop culture texts "infused with folklore-like familiarity" that "consciously cobble… together … a range of folkloric elements". In this paper, I will endeavor to interrogate the pieces of Louisiana folklore that appear in the films, mostly focusing on the Bayou, its lavish backgrounds and the critters (pesky or cuddly) that inhabit them. While the background art of both films may seem significantly contrastive, The Rescuers' evoking the dark setting of pirate legends and The Princess and the Frog's that of colorful wildlife and hoodoo, both seek to present Louisiana as an authentic locale of American folklore.
