Tiana

**Princess Tiana of Maldonia** (sometimes **"Tia"**) is the protagonist of Disney's 2009 animated feature film, Princess and the frog. She is a gifted cook living in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, with dreams of opening a restaurant of her own. In a desperate attempt to achieve her goal, Tiana shares a kiss with a prince that had been magically transformed into a frog by an evil voodoo witch doctor. In doing so, however, Tiana also falls victim to the curse, setting off an adventure in the bayou to find a cure.

Tiana is loosely based on the unnamed princess from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale *The Frog Prince*. She is the ninth official Disney Princess and the most recent to originate from a traditionally-animated film.

## Background

### Official Description

*Tiana dreams of opening her own restaurant. She works hard to try to make that dream come true. In a twist of fate, she kisses a frog and goes on an adventure through the New Orleans bayou.*
### Development

Tiana made history as the first African-American princess in the *Disney Princess* franchise. Early in development, Tiana was originally called Maddy and worked as a chambermaid in the La Bouff household. However, public criticism eventually caused her character's name to be changed to Tiana and her job, a waitress. Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta later stated, "Princess Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney's rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity." This reworking of the story itself was greatly inspired by the life story of New Orleans chef Leah Chase, and she, in turn, would contribute to the "Tiana's Cookbook" that was published when the film came out.

Mark Henn served as the supervising animator for Tiana. Henn was hired by John Lasseter because he had animated nearly every Disney Princess since *The Little Mermaid*'s Ariel. Describing Tiana, Henn said that she is following "a new trend in our princesses," likening her to Ariel from *The Little Mermaid*. "When animating Tiana, Henn was inspired by voice actress Anika Noni Rose, borrowing from her dimples and left-handedness. Henn was also inspired by studio employee Jaimie Milner, a film intern who was working in post-production." The fact that Tiana is African American was "never a big issue" for Henn when it came to animating her, but drawing her as both a human and a frog proved difficult." Tiana appears in the movie in different forms - she's a little girl, she's an adult human, and then she's a frog."

### Voice

Ron Clements and John Musker, who once worked as animators on *The Fox and the Hound*, and known for their works like *The Great Mouse Detective*, *The Little Mermaid*, *Aladdin*, and *Hercules*, decided not to hire "big stars" to voice the film's main characters because "it can help with the identification of that animated character with the voice if you don't get an instant mental picture of the real actor." Several well-known African American actresses and singers had expressed an interest in voicing Tiana, among them, recording artists Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, and Alicia Keys, as well as actress and fashion model Tyra Banks. After enduring three auditions, the role ultimately went to American actress and singer Anika Noni Rose, with whom Hudson and Knowles co-starred in the musical film *Dreamgirls*.

A longtime fan of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Rose had always wanted to voice a Disney animated character. When the film was brought to her attention, she was drawn to it more by its "story of the young woman" than by the fact that she would be voicing Disney's first African American princess. Rose told *The Root* that the film "wasn't really pitched to me that way... I don't think the cultural significance hit me until later". Rose was also fairly confident in the role. "To be perfectly honest, I thought it was for me from the moment I got the audition."

Rose described the recording process as "very solitary work" that required her to do much research. To prepare herself for the role, Rose "called people in New Orleans...listened to their voices to hear what they sounded like...did a lot of reading up on the city, and listened to a lot of music in the jazz era." Rose only met with her co-star Bruno Campos twice to record a few scenes together. At her first session, Rose recorded all her dialogue "from top to bottom" in a session that lasted eight hours.

### Personality

“*She's a strong woman who doesn't need anyone to do things for her. She wants to do things for herself.*”
―Anika Noni Rose
Tiana is an intelligent, resourceful, and highly talented young woman. However, at the start of the film, and mostly throughout, she can be overly uptight and far too absorbed in work ethics to focus on relaxing, family, and friends. Though she notices this and appears to have some regret over her busy schedule, her obsession with bringing her dream of opening her own restaurant into fruition overshadows it all. She also, for the most part, has appeared to accept that over the years, as seen when she and Eudora visited the old sugar mill in the preparation of its purchase.

With a strong sense of honor and integrity, Tiana firmly believes nothing deserves to be obtained in the world unless it's done through hard work, a view she's brought up when dealing with her excessively dreamy and immature best friend, Charlotte La Bouff, as well as the party-loving Naveen. This fact also makes her somewhat inflexible as she could have asked Big Daddy La Bouff for seed money for her restaurant instead of working extremely hard to slowly gain the capital necessary.

Aside from her workaholic nature, Tiana has another side to her; one that's passionate, imaginative, and ambitious. She enjoys humor, music, quality time with loved ones, and dancing (though not at first). She becomes excitable whenever mentioning her restaurant, lighting up when she does, as Naveen puts it, and although she initially had very little knowledge over romance, she values it highly once she starts to fall for Naveen, to the point where her restaurant was no longer the most important part of her life.

Tiana is also heroic and is shown to be quite capable of dangerous situations and moments of physical conflict. Throughout the course of the film, she continuously rescued Naveen from life-threatening situations, fending off predators within the bayou, and even Dr. Facilier and his hoard of sinister shadow demons. Her heroism is ultimately put into the forefront during the film's climax, where the city of New Orleans is hurdled into a high state of peril, with the only hopes of its survival being Tiana's own will-power and the aforementioned sense of honor.

She's also incredibly strong-willed and doesn't take lightly to being undermined or insulted by anyone. Despite her poor background, she sees something far greater in herself and jumps at every opportunity available to prove so, whether it be to the sleazy Fenner Brothers or the originally arrogant Prince Naveen, who initially looked down upon the woman because of her occupation as a waitress and uptight attitude, only to be proven there's far more to her than meets the eye.

Despite refusing his offer, Tiana is absolutely horrified watching Facilier get dragged to the voodoo world even putting her hand over her heart in sympathy when spotting his gravestone.

### Physical appearance

Tiana is a 19-year-old African American woman. She is tall and slender with a sculpted figure. She has brown skin, medium-length, wavy, black hair usually tied in a low ponytail, light brown eyes with pink eye shadow, a bright smile, and dimples. For most of the movie, Tiana is transformed into a frog. Compared to Naveen she's a lighter green, skinnier, and the only physical human features she retains are her voice and brown eyes.

Throughout the movie, Tiana undergoes various outfit changes. The first of which is her work outfits. When working her shifts at Cal’s Diner, Tiana wears a blue outfit, and brown shoes as well as a headband style maid's hat. When working her shifts at Duke's Cafe, Tiana wears a yellow dress over a white shirt, a white apron, and brown shoes. She also owns a dark green coat with a matching hat which she wears on her way to the Cafe. With this outfit, Tiana wears her hair in a low ponytail wrapped up in a green band.

Originally, at Charlotte's masquerade ball, Tiana wore a Renaissance costume with honey yellow and a light green/brown as its primary colors. Later that same night, she dons her iconic blue princess gown loaned to her by Charlotte. The dress also came with a matching tiara as well as a necklace complete with a blue diamond and light blue opera gloves. During her confrontation with Dr. Facilier, Tiana was put in a white sleeveless gown with golden straps, diamond earrings, a golden necklace, and a white feather resembling the classic 1920s swinger outfits. Along with this came a beige fur shawl.

Tiana's iconic lily pad outfit is a green sparkling strapless sleeveless ball gown. The gown's petticoat is a light yellow color. Along with the gown, Tiana wears light green opera gloves, green shoes to match the gown, a light blue diamond necklace with matching earrings, and a lily pad tiara to top it all off. With this outfit, Tiana's hair is pinned up in an updo bun.

Tiana's wedding outfit was a beige dress that reveals her back, with a matching Juliet cap, and transparent gloves as well as a green tiara. Her dress also consists of green linings with a flower on the shoulder. During the finale opening of Tiana's Palace, she wore another green sweater outfit with a golden tiara complete with an emerald on the top.

### Abilities

* **Culinary Expert**: From early in the film, it is revealed that Tiana is a natural expert in the culinary arts. She is able to dice and chop a variety of vegetables at incredible speeds and cook a delicious meal out of very little. She can recognize the ingredients needed for the dish, and Tiana was even able to transform Mama Odie's nauseous soup to perfection. The fact that Tiana baked five hundred beignets for Charlotte's masquerade ball that was the next day means Tiana is a competent enough cook. Tiana's gift has been pointed out on several occasions, by her father, and by Naveen.
* **Physical Coordination**: From working as a waitress, Tiana has excellent balance and hand/eye coordination. She could balance four trays of food on her head, hands, and a right foot that were tossed one after the other before balancing three trays on her head and hands.
* **Ingenuity**: Tiana has intelligence, too, because she built a raft when it doesn't appear she was taught how to build one. She was smart enough to flick her tongue out to grab Dr. Facilier's talisman to break it. Tiana is the only princess with a real job, and considering she didn't go to college, she has knowledge of the economy to run her business, even though people underestimated her.
* **Adaptability**: Tiana showcased her relatively quick adaptability as a frog; she could hop fast enough to get away from Stella considering she became a frog not long before that. She avoided getting eaten by a crane, one of the natural predators of frogs. When a group of alligators tried to eat her and Naveen, Tiana swam away without being caught and, unlike Naveen, found a hiding spot. Furthermore, Tiana had enough physical strength as a frog to escape from a hunter's grasp by bending back his fingers with her feet.
* **Communication with animals**: In the chapter book continuation of the film, *The Stolen Jewel*, it is revealed that both Tiana and Naveen hold the ability to communicate with animals, having kept that ability from their time as frogs.

## Appearances

### *The Princess and the Frog*

The film begins during Tiana's childhood where she is seen with her best friend Charlotte La Bouff listening to the classic tale "*The Frog Prince*" read by Tiana's mother Eudora while she finishes Charlotte's newest princess gown. Whilst Charlotte adores the tale and openly wishes to find a prince and one day become a princess, Tiana shows that she's somewhat unamused with the story, considerably the kissing finale between the princess and the frog she was disgusted by. After the story's completion, Tiana, and her mother depart, heading for home where they greet Tiana's father, the hardworking James. Later on, with the help of James, Tiana makes their favorite dinner, gumbo. Tiana gives her father a taste of some of her gumbo, which she hopes to be the prime attraction when she and her father open their very own restaurant, "Tiana's Place". That night, as Tiana was being put to bed, the young girl makes a wish upon the evening star in hopes of getting her restaurant dream to come true. James, however, tells Tiana that wishing can only get her halfway to her dream, and hard work is also needed, which she understands. As her parents say good night to her, she looks at the evening star and sees a frog on her windowsill. Thinking it wants to kiss her, she screams after it croaks, scaring the frog and runs out of her room.

Years later, it is revealed that a now-adult Tiana is still struggling to reach her dream even after her father passed away. Since childhood, she has become a mature young woman, though she has discarded her original childhood imagination of wishing and such, and has become an overly practical workaholic instead. She works as a waitress at two local diners during the day and night. The desire to open the restaurant prevents Tiana from going out with her friends as she must work extra for more pay. Meanwhile, the handsome Prince Naveen who had been cut off from his family fortune arrives in New Orleans to find a way to become rich again. To celebrate, Charlotte plans on throwing a masquerade ball and hires Tiana to make dozens of beignets, paying her with enough money to buy her restaurant. Excited, Tiana and her mother place a bid on an old run down sugar mill that Tiana's father had talked about many times before and had planned to use as the location. Though the building is extremely worn out and practically falling apart, Tiana couldn't have been more excited with her dream coming closer and closer to coming true.

Later that night at the ball, Tiana discovers that she's been outbid and unless she earns enough money in two days by Wednesday, she loses the restaurant (though it is possible the restaurant was being withheld from her due to her race, which is historically accurate given that the movie takes place in the Southern United States, but this is never elaborated on). In a mishap, Tiana ruins her outfit and goes to Charlotte's room to change. Charlotte gives her a princess gown and tiara then heads back down to the ball. Saddened, Tiana heads to the balcony and, in desperation, makes a wish upon the evening star in hopes of making things work out in the end. After her wish, Tiana meets a talking frog who reveals himself to be Prince Naveen (much to her confusion). Due to being cursed by a voodoo witch doctor, Naveen needs help from Tiana who he believes is a princess. Following the tale of "*The Frog Prince*", Naveen asks Tiana for a kiss in an attempt to break the spell, but Tiana is incredibly hesitant to kiss a frog. Naveen offers her a reward, telling her that he comes from a fabulously wealthy family. Knowing she needs more money to open her restaurant, Tiana reluctantly kisses Naveen. The only thing it does, however, is change Tiana into a frog as well, since she wasn't actually a princess.

Horrified and enraged by her unexpected transformation, Tiana attacks Naveen, resulting in both of them getting launched out of the room and onto the ball's dance floor. Charlotte's father, Big Daddy, orders their dog, Stella, to get the frogs after they land in Charlotte's dress. Tiana and Naveen luckily escape on a cluster of balloons, which eventually float over to the cold, miserable bayou of New Orleans. While floating down, Naveen reveals to Tiana he was transformed into the frog by the Shadow Man. She then tells him that the only way to get what you want is through hard work and Naveen asks why a princess would need to work hard. Tiana then tells Naveen that she's a waitress, not a princess which explains to Naveen why the kiss didn't work before he reveals that he's completely broke. Suddenly, the balloons pop and the two land in a swamp filled with alligators. In the midst of the chaos, Naveen promises to pay for Tiana's restaurant if she can help him out the swamp. Tiana agrees and they spend the night in an old hollow tree trunk for shelter. During their journey the next morning they meet Louis, a friendly alligator with a gift of playing the trumpet. Naveen and Tiana explain that they are humans turned into frogs via the magic of a voodoo witch doctor. Hearing voodoo, Louis informs them of Mama Odie, a voodoo priest who can help them turn human. Naveen convinces the gator to lead them to Mama Odie so that he can be human, too.

Along the way, they meet Ray. Upon being told of Tiana and Naveen's dilemma, Ray happily decides to light the way and act as their guide to Mama Odie, with the help of his massive family of fireflies. During their journey, Tiana and Naveen gradually become closer, a progression that is kick-started after saving each other from a trio of bumbling frog hunters. During a rest, Naveen helps Tiana cook for the friends by mincing some mushrooms. With that being the first piece of work Naveen has ever done, he reveals that, despite living the charmed life of a prince, he feels deep down that he knows how to do absolutely nothing besides partying, which he is ashamed of. Tiana, feeling sympathy, compliments Naveen's mincing skills, growing the two even closer. Moments later, Ray introduces his friends to Evangeline, singing a love ballad in her honor. During this, Naveen attempts to waltz with Tiana, but Tiana declines, admitting that she's never learned to dance. Naveen however, quickly decides that, to return the favor to Tiana for teaching him how to mince, he will teach her how to dance. After the romantic waltz, Naveen and Tiana officially begin to fall in love with one another. They nearly kiss after their dance but Tiana pulls away because he's supposed to marry Charlotte.

Unfortunately, the romantic moment is soon ruined when Naveen is captured by a pack of shadow demons sent by the witch doctor Doctor Facilier, who needs Naveen to fulfill his evil scheme to take over New Orleans. He is soon saved by Mama Odie, who takes them to her home: a boat in a tree. Tiana tries to explain to Mama that all they want is to be human, but Mama Odie knows what Tiana and Naveen really want after the adventure they had, was each other. However, Tiana fails to realize this, and believes Mama Odie's motto of "dig a little deeper" means work extra hard to get her restaurant. Although Naveen completely understands that, instead of riches, what his heart truly desires was Tiana. But with Tiana misunderstanding, Mama Odie decides to put the romance aside and give the two frogs the solution to their problem. Mama Odie tells them that if Naveen were to kiss a princess, they'll both turn human. She then uses her magic brew to locate a nearby princess, which reveals to be Charlotte, who is the princess of the Mardi Gras Parade. Unfortunately, Naveen only has until midnight, when Mardi Gras is over, to kiss Charlotte and break the spell.

They head off on a riverboat to New Orleans, where Naveen decides he wants to reveal his true romantic feelings to Tiana, figuring he'll merely get a job to help raise money for her restaurant. Naveen sets up a date later that night, under the stars on the riverboat. The prince was far too sheepish to successfully reveal the truth, but Tiana still finds his fumbling to be cute. Just then, the riverboat begins passing the old building Tiana plans on using for her restaurant. Tiana takes the time to tell Naveen about her dreams to open the restaurant. Knowing he can't afford to pay for the restaurant without marrying Charlotte and inheriting her fortune, Naveen decides not to tell her how he truly feels, for the sake of her dream. The riverboat then prepares to dock, and Naveen heads off to find Louis and Ray. Once he's gone, Tiana sadly speaks to Evangeline about her dilemma, revealing that she, too, is actually in love with Naveen, despite the fact that he must marry Charlotte for the money he promised for her restaurant. Meanwhile, right before docking, Naveen is kidnapped by the shadow demons.

Tiana, Louis, and Ray are oblivious to Naveen's capture, and after getting off the riverboat, Tiana asks Ray if he's seen Naveen. Instead, Ray accidentally tells Tiana that Naveen actually loves her and plans on getting a job to pay for her restaurant. Overjoyed, Tiana and Ray head off to the Mardi Gras parade to find him and return the feelings. Unfortunately, Tiana, instead, finds "Naveen" (who is really Lawrence in disguise) as a human, atop a parade float about to marry Charlotte. Heartbroken, Tiana runs off. Ray follows and tries to convince Tiana that they should go back to look more into what they say, but Tiana discards the idea, losing her faith in wishing and dreams once more, as well as snapping at Ray out of heartbreak when he mentions Evangeline, hurting him by saying that she is nothing more than a star and that he needs to open his eyes before he gets hurt too, but he refuses to believe her. Determined to show Tiana the truth, Ray flies back to the parade, where he learns that the Naveen they saw about to marry Charlotte is actually Naveen's former valet, Lawrence in disguise. It turns out Lawrence was under the disguise as part of a plot by Facilier, who plans on having Lawrence marry Charlotte and steal the La Bouff fortune by doing so, thus making the Shadow Man the richest man in New Orleans. The real Naveen, still a frog, was in captivity until Ray rescues him.

Later, Ray gives it to Tiana and instructs her to keep it away from the Shadow Man at all costs, prompting her to run in fear as the shadow demons were in hot pursuit. Tiana tries to escape, but the Shadow Man meets up with her and conjures up a vision of the fancy restaurant she's dreamt of all her life, including having her appear human again. The Shadow Man tries to coerce Tiana into striking a deal with him: hand over the talisman in exchange for her restaurant, but she refuses. The Shadow Man then tries to seal the deal by reminding her of everything she had sacrificed, those who have doubted her ability, and her father James and his struggles to open the restaurant, but this only comes as a help to Tiana in realizing that, while her father never got what he wanted, he had what he needed; he had love, and he never lost sight of what was really important in life. Tiana declares that she won't forget, either, and throws the talisman at the floor, nearly destroying it, but the Shadow Man's shadow catches it and hands it back to him. He then shatters the restaurant manifestation and turns her back into a frog.

While the Shadow Man holds Tiana down, he taunts her for not accepting his deal and now she'll spend the rest of her life "being a slimy little frog." However, she replies with "I got news for you, Shadow Man — it's not slime... it's mucus!" (which was what Naveen told her when she first became a frog) before using her prehensile tongue to regain the talisman and break it, thus ending the villainous plot for good. After its destruction, Tiana watches in shock as the Shadow Man is dragged to his demise by his "friends" (though before, he mentioned still having Naveen locked away, revealing that Ray had been right the whole time). Once the coast is clear, Tiana heads back to the concluded Mardi Gras parade, where she witnesses Lawrence being arrested — learning that he was the "Naveen" Charlotte had been hanging out with the whole time. Not too far away, Tiana finds Naveen, who was in the process of making a deal with Charlotte. If she turns him human through a kiss, he'd marry her, so long as she pays for Tiana's restaurant. Tiana intervenes and confesses her feelings for Naveen. Touched by the romantic sight, Charlotte agrees to kiss Naveen, but only for Tiana's dream to come true. But the clock strikes twelve, and Charlotte is no longer a princess, as Mardi Gras was officially over. Nevertheless, of the curse supposedly becoming permanent, Tiana and Naveen were content being frogs so long as they could stay together.

Suddenly, Louis arrives and explains that Ray was fatally wounded by the Shadow Man during the battle against the voodoo witch doctor's demons. Ray manages to have a conversation with all three of his friends one last time before passing away. Tiana attends his funeral, but joins in the jubilation after Ray becomes a star right beside Evangeline. Shortly afterward, Tiana and Naveen marry in the bayou, with Mama Odie taking charge of the ceremony and many animals and fireflies attending. As they kiss, they turn back into humans, as Tiana is now a princess by marrying Prince Naveen. After having a royal second wedding as humans back in New Orleans, Tiana and Naveen use the money that she saved to open the restaurant (with a little intimidation help from Louis, who frightens the snooty bidders into accepting what Tiana had). The restaurant, as hoped, is a big success with people from all around attending, just as Tiana dreamed. She renames it "Tiana's Palace", and enjoys a dance with Naveen to Louis and his band's music as Ray and Evangeline watch over them on what was a truly magical evening.

### *Sofia the First*

Tiana appears in the episode "Winter's Gift", where Sofia is assisting a young faun named Winter in breaking an icy curse that constantly harms her loved ones. In order to do so, the faun must present a gift to the choleric Glacia the Ice Witch, in hopes that she will break the curse in exchange for the gift provided.

After being informed of the dilemma by Mama Odie, Tiana arrived and told Sofia that she was cooking a special meal as her perfect gift for her family and then sings the song "From the Heart", telling Sofia the perfect gift is one conjured from the heart, giving the young princess the idea on how to break the curse: That the gift should come from Winter's own heart.

Like Princess Aurora before her, she is also only seen wearing a winter cape in the Season 2 Christmas special TV episode.

In "Forever Royal" when Sofia is battling Vor inside her amulet, Tiana appears to Sofia in spirit form along with all the other princesses who have been summoned to help Sofia in her times of need, and they encourage her to be brave and strong for they all believe in her.

### *Ralph Breaks the Internet*

In *Ralph Breaks the Internet*, Tiana is a netizen in Oh My Disney where she and the other Disney Princesses meet their fans. She is first seen on the website's floor greeting visiting net users. Later, Vanellope becomes targeted by First Order Stormtroopers and glitches into the princesses' backstage room to evade them; when she does, Tiana can be seen admiring her dress at her vanity. Upon noticing Vanellope, Tiana and the other princesses leap into action under the belief that Vanellope is a threat; Tiana arms herself with a rolling pin. Vanellope tries to calm them down and explains that she's also a princess, which prompts Pocahontas to ask her what kind of princess she is. Tiana and Aurora (while the former is pulling the latter away from the spinning wheel) ask Vanellope if she has been cursed, which she denies.

Eventually, Vanellope is declared a true princess. Cinderella and Ariel come to admire Vanellope's "gown", and they change into comfortable modern clothes to match. Tiana's hair is loose and wears a chartreuse top with a graphic that reads "NOLA" in green letters which has a crown in the center of the letter "**O**", yellow pants and brown shoes with yellow shoelaces, and is seen lounging next to Anna while drinking an iced coffee. After Ariel sings about her dream to wear a shirt which confuses Vanellope, Tiana explains what happens when a princess sings about her dreams. When C-3PO enters the room to inform the princesses that another quiz is about to start, Tiana tells them that they should go back to their gowns, or regular outfits for those girls who don't wear a gown as their trademark attire.

In the climax of the film, Tiana and the princesses witness Ralph about to fall to his death and work together to save him. After Ralph is saved and laid to rest on a mattress while unconscious, Tiana brings Naveen (in his frog form) to awaken Ralph with a classic, fairy tale kiss. Once Ralph is awakened, and mistakes Naveen for Frogger, Tiana and the princesses introduce themselves as friends of Vanellope and befriend Ralph as well.

### Other appearances

In the animated short *Electric Holiday*, Tiana makes an appearance in Minnie Mouse's fantasy. She was a popular model in Paris and was first seen in the makeup room and was later seen on the runway.

In the series finale of *At Home With Olaf*, a short clip of *The Princess and the Frog* featuring a younger version of Tiana appears during a montage of heartwarming moments from Disney films playing in Olaf's song "I Am with You".