Is Maldonia from 'The Princess and the Frog’ a Real Place?
A scene from the 2009 Disney animated film 'The Princess and the Frog.' Is Prince Naveen Arab? Is Prince Naveen Indian? Perhaps those were the first questions you asked yourself while watching the "The Princess and the Frog," Disney's gorgeous hand-drawn swan song of an animated movie in 2009. (The actual last 2D hurrah, so far, ended up being 2011's "Winnie the Pooh.") The overarching question is this: Is Maldonia, Prince Naveen's kingdom, real? While there's no mistaking the herstory-making ethnicity of Tiana, especially in the promo leading up to the premiere, many viewers still try to find Maldonia on the map. The country is certainly fictional, giving the animators carte blanche to depict Naveen as a dashing, racially ambiguous man. South Asians might have good reason to claim Naveen as one of their own though. His is a pretty common name in India, Sanskrit for "new." Also, his mother is spotted wearing what looks like a saree...
