There’s a fascinating new article by the Associated Press that examines the significance of Princess Tiana, Disney’s first black Princess in The Princess and the Frog, and how parents and children tend to view said character differently.

To parents, Princess Tiana represents an important cultural and historical milestone: an African American Disney princess from New Orleans, surrounded by black culture and celebrated as someone who will forever join the revered ranks of Snow White and Cinderella in Disney princess lore. Children too are excited about the new princess, but they may not see the same level of cultural significance.

“[My daughter] understands that this is a princess who is African American,” said Holly Price Halford, an African American mother living in Virginia, to the Associated Press. “But do I think it’s a big deal to her? No.”

Another African American mother, Erica Branch-Ridley of New Jersey, told the AP that her 7- and 11-year-old daughters are excited about a new Disney princess, but that the younger one doesn’t really understand the importance. “She sees Obama, the first girls, she’s like, ‘that’s nice.’”

So what does this mean? One could make the argument that African American children are failing to learn the true significance of their history, and thus taking milestones for granted, but an argument could also be made that children are seeing less importance because America is finally starting  to become a more accepting and colorblind society. Perhaps some combination of the two.

What do you think?

For years, Disney has dominated the market on popular kid’s sitcoms: from Lizzie McGuire to Even Stevens, That’s So Raven to Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place to Jonas…you get the idea. In terms of sitcoms, it seems like everything that Disney touches turns to gold (save for a few exceptions like Phil of the Future and Cory in the House, which didn’t fare so well).

Cartoons, though, have been a different story. In recent years, we have seen Disney turn out dud after dud in the cartoon world. The Replacements, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, the Emperor’s New School, on and on…I mean, does anybody even remember Dave the Barbarian (I actually liked that one, but few others did)? For so long, Disney has struggled to find their own alternative to the massively popular Nickelodeon cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants, The Fairly Odd Parents and Hey, Arnold.

And then one day, completely out of nowhere, we were introduced to a little show called Phineas and Ferb, which follows the adventures of two precocious stepbrothers on summer vacation, who truly show us what it means to make the most out of every day. It didn’t look like much based on early advertisements, but the show has proven to be a massive hit, and the writing is fantastic.

So has the Disney Channel finally found an animated winner? I mean, not since The Proud Family has the network really had a cartoon it could boast about. The show remains a ratings winner with kids in the 6-11 and 9-14 demographics, and has broken several ratings records. When it premiered in Febuary of 2008, it became the #1 most watched cable animated premier by pre-teens.

The appeal is understandable. It never ceases to amaze me how one ten-minute minisode can pack in multiple cohesive story lines which may include the brother’s inventing some remarkable device, sister Candace struggling with boy drama, and Perry the Platypus thwarting the latest evil plot by the sinister Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

But what makes the show great? Perhaps Disney has finally gotten the formula right. The show has sibling rivalries (always a winner), an awesome family pet, humor, adventure, espionage, catchy show-stopping numbers and most importantly, it celebrates the limitless possibilities of a child’s imagination.