“Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” Season 2 Premiere Review

Just in time for Black History Month, there’s a new season of the Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. It may not be the sort of thing many historical figures honored by Black History Month would approve though.

Oh. Goodie.

I had the unfortunate task of reviewing part of the first season on the Jonas J. Campbell YouTube channel. As far as entertainment value is concerned, the show is just above mediocre. Outside of its diversity, I don’t Disney would put the money into a show portraying a traditional nuclear family. Shows like that are in short supply. The unfortunate part about it is that the show’s creators and writers seem to be using their platform to slip in some very grown-up messages.

As you’re reading this, please keep in mind that this version of the Proud Family, while apparently aimed at teenagers, is actually marketed to five-to-seven-year-olds. That’s pre-school to 2nd grade here in the United States.

Episode one is the last half of a two-part story called “Olde Town Road” that shares its name with the Lil Nas X hit that was an “unexpected” success with children. You know, Lil Nas X, right? He’s the gay rapper that released his own line of adapted Nikes that incorporated satanic imagery and drops of his own blood. As a kindness to Nike I’ll point out that they did not authorize the adaptation. He’s the same Lil Nas X that performed an extended lapdance for a male depiction of Satan in one of his music music videos.

Just in case you think the reference is a coincidence, Lil Nas X appears in episode 1 as a relative of the Proud Family. I’m not sure at what point Disney stopped policing their brand, but in the interest of diversity it appears that anything goes.

We re-join the Proud Family, who have traveled to Oklahoma for a family reunion that is not going well. Sugar Mama, the white-haired grandmother that walks with a cane has run off and Penny has followed her. Sugar Mama describes the way her father refuses to allow her to be a bull-rider and the “wise” middle-school tells her what she thinks.

“Wow. That sounds really sexist.”

SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, "as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child," she supports having "many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories" and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022

As Sugar Mama wanders through the desert of Oklahoma she encounters a Native America chief and his grandson. You see, not only did Sugar Mama run away from her father TODAY because he’s sexist, but many years ago she was going to marry this particular Native American chief and it was illegal in Oklahoma at the time. I looked it up. In the state of Oklahoma it was illegal for a Black person to marry any person that was not Black up until 1969.

Let me clearly state that is a hideous blot and an ugly and racist law. It was used to nullify marriages (in the eyes of the state) for over a hundred years. Disgusting.

That being said, like so many things about Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, I’m not sure the five-to-seven-year-old audience will understand the nuance of getting past the racist history of United States legislation. We must never go back to a time when these kinds of laws existed, but it is not the Walt Disney Company’s job to act in loco parentis and tell my pre-schooler about the great evils of the world. I would put this episode clearly in the category of Parental Guidance suggested.

They appear to have wandered out into the desert specifically so they could talk about race, because as soon as they are done, they go back to the “A-plot” and everything resumes.

The act II climax shows the geriatric Sugar Mama riding a raging bull that threatens to trample her perennially emasculated son, Oscar Proud who is in his prime. As she rides the bull, Sugar Mama’s father looks on, overlaying a flashback of his daughter riding a bull when she appeared to be the same age. After the bull gives up, it is revealed that Sugar Mama has out-shone several generations of the men of her family and set a bull-riding world record.

“The first female champion is Charlette!!!!” the announcer exclaims as even her sexist father who rejected her interracial marriage realizes the error of his sexist ways.

Of course, there’s another blink-and-you’ll miss it hand-off of another grown-up book that you never quite get to see unless you pause. This one is Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples by Jack Forbes. We might dig into that later, but I was surprised to find that the author of that book also wrote a book called Columbus and Other Cannibals.

“You can’t know yourself unless you know where you come from” they say as the music swells and magical butterflies show an image of racial harmony overlaying the town. I hope that quote wasn’t talking about Christopher Columbus. I’m not Italian (as far as I know) but I get the feeling that any non BIPOC gets lumped in together in the eyes of the show’s writers.

Louder and Prouder tries to do its best to teach lessons about feminism, racial equality, and other themes, but in the end they always drop hints that there is an underlying disdain for anything traditionally masculine or feminine, equal opportunity, or that those not blessed with melanin in their skin while being straight.

Be sure to miss it, but I would also say be sure your kids do too. Disney definitely has this one in the “for kids” section of Disney+. It’s one of the banner titles on all the sites and apps today.

Gotta market critical race to those pre-schoolers, am I right?

For additional clarity on just how much the writers of this show disdain religion, white people, black fathers, and western civilization in general be sure to check out Everything Woke About The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder on the Jonas J. Campbell YouTube page.

As always, keep reading That Park Place for all the news and reviews that should be fun. Drop a comment down below!