Magical Rewind: The Proud Family Movie

Pod Meets World

Magical Rewind revisits the 2005 Disney Channel Original Movie 'The Proud Family,' exploring its cultural significance, animation style, and

Key takeaways

• The Proud Family Movie was a rare milestone for Black representation in Disney animation, centered around a Black family in a mainstream animated series.
• It marked the first original Disney Channel series created specifically for the channel rather than traditional broadcast schedules.

Main topics

• Representation in animated media
• Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs)

Notable quotes

"It's not every once in a while for me in this house." – Sabrina Bryan on her continued engagement with animated content.

Conclusion

The Proud Family Movie remains a culturally significant piece of Disney history, celebrated for its

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If Speaker 8 (0:36) your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 6 (1:06) Did you hear the new episode of the Hey Jonas podcast? We Speaker 2 (1:09) are at D23, so we'll see who stops by. The Speaker 6 (1:12) cast of Frozen stopped by. Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Idina Menzel. I Speaker 2 (1:16) auditioned for Frozen. Speaker 3 (1:17) What? For Kristoff. They said, okay, what are you going to be singing today? I said, I don't know. That must Speaker 6 (1:21) have been why you didn't get it. Well, you probably won. Plus, John Stamos, Hayden Christensen from Star Wars, and more. And I guess I can share that, uh... Listen to the latest episode of Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 3 (1:40) Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Each week, we talk to someone in show business and try to help Speaker 6 (1:47) them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show. Speaker 3 (1:53) We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (2:21) Hi, Sabrina. Hey, Will. How Speaker 2 (2:23) do you feel about going back and watching? I'm going to use a word I don't normally use, cartoons. I normally say animated series or animated movies because this is my business. But how do you feel about a good old-fashioned cartoon every once in a while? Speaker 1 (2:38) I like them. I mean, it's not every once in a while for me in this house. Oh, that's Speaker 2 (2:43) true. You have kids. That's right. I still watch it myself. No, Speaker 1 (2:48) I did too. Honestly, if I was sick in bed before I had kids, I would throw on a good... I call them animated. I don't call them cartoons. What's the difference? Can you explain why you would say one way or the other? Speaker 7 (3:01) Again, cartoons, Speaker 2 (3:03) it's not pejorative, but it kind of denigrates the art form that is the animated series, in my opinion. It's like, oh, I'm watching a cartoon. Whereas I always say animated series because I really started Batman, the animated series in the late 80s. That kind of changed the whole ballgame because, you know, you and I do think there is a difference. Like when I watch the old Looney Tunes stuff, to me, those are still watching cartoons. Speaker 1 (3:26) Right. I mean, I would I've I always thought it was the way they make them, like the way they used to make them versus how they like the evolution of what they do now. Like there's so much. computer stuff into them now. Yeah, but even Speaker 2 (3:39) like the original Batmans and even Batman Beyond and stuff like that, those were still hand-drawn. Speaker 1 (3:43) Wow. Speaker 2 (3:44) So, I mean, they had some computer stuff, but that's why you can still buy animation cells from Batman, Batman the Animated Series, even, I think, Justice League. I think by Justice League, it started to get more into the computer animation. Got it. But, yeah, and then you have, there's different styles, obviously, and what we're going to be talking about today is a very specific style of Disney. animated show, which, well, we're talking about Disney animated movie. Well, let's get into it. Let's get into it. Yes, Speaker 7 (4:11) let's do it. So welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to Speaker 2 (4:14) grab your friends, your PJs, and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses were smart, the wave tsunamis. And we were debating whether it was an animated movie or cartoon or whatever. I'm Wilberdell. Speaker 1 (4:24) And I'm Sabrina Bryan. So Speaker 2 (4:26) as we were just saying, it's time for another animated decom here on Magical Speaker 7 (4:30) Rewind. And take it from Ron Stoppable himself. We're thrilled to be recapping 2005's cinematic finale, kind of, and we'll get into that, to a Disney Channel series, The Proud Family Movie. First, let's get into the history of the Proud family. It was created by Bruce W. Smith, an animator Speaker 2 (4:47) from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And I freaked out the world when I said, still never seen it. And I haven't. Speaker 1 (4:54) I can't. Speaker 2 (4:55) I know. Speaker 1 (4:55) I Speaker 2 (4:55) can't. I know. We'll have to watch it sometime because I haven't seen it yet. Speaker 1 (4:59) I would love to watch it again because I watched it so much as a kid. And now that I think about some scenes, I'm like. I can't believe I was allowed to watch it as the kid. Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:07) again, I have to see this movie. So I don't know if we can fake a Disney connection and do a movie frame, but we'll figure it out. And of course, the co-director of Space Jam, which I have seen, it ran for two seasons, a total of 52 episodes starting Speaker 7 (5:19) in 2001 and wrapping up with this DCOM, again, kind of, which debuted on August 19th, 2005. It was significant for many, many reasons. First, it is a rare occurrence for a Black family to be the center of a TV show, let alone one on Disney. Add into that... that it's animated and it's a real unicorn for black representation. Also, this was the first original series from Disney to be made specifically for the channel instead of airing it during the traditional ABC Saturday morning lineup. Very cool. The show followed Penny Proud and her family, dad, Oscar, mom, Trudy, little sister, Bebe and C, uncle Bobby and her grandmother, Sugar Mama, all while Penny navigated her way through middle and high school. And then more than 15 years later, that's why I keep saying kinda, in 2022, the show was rebooted as The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder, to stream on Disney+. It had most of the original cast returning, but also added new actors like Zachary Quinto, Billy Porter, and Kiki Palmer. Its third season will debut on August 6th, which we're past that, so the third season already debuted on August 6th, and an upcoming season four will be its last, capped off by a holiday special called A Proud Family Whismas. Now, hilariously, one note about the revival series. It completely retcons everything you've seen in this movie by calling it a dream. So they are men in black memory thingy erasing your mind. So does it make the film completely useless? It was, you know, fun to watch, but it's up to you to decide if it mattered. Musically, the movie featured songs from a young Jenny Akio, Omarion, and Africa Bambata. And some original songs for the movie, which are, of course, sung by the voice actors. It's still Disney and we still want our synergy. Speaker 2 (7:06) And Speaker 7 (7:06) then back in 2020, Tommy Davidson, who is one of the stars of Proud Family, wrote an autobiography and released that the cast quit the show after Disney wanted to pay them only their TV show rates for the DCOM instead of their feature film rates. But he convinced everyone to still do it as a favor to the fans. In the end, it got mixed reviews from critics, but was nominated for three NAACP awards, NAACP Image Awards Speaker 2 (7:27) for acting. Okay. We always ask stuff like this. Obviously, we'd heard of the Proud Family, but did you watch the Proud Family before you watched this decom? Speaker 1 (7:35) Yeah. Yeah. I had seen a couple episodes. I think there's so many of these little characters are so standout that it's fun to watch. I've watched the show. I've never seen this movie. Speaker 2 (7:48) Okay. I never knew anything in this world. Speaker 1 (7:51) At all. This was Speaker 2 (7:52) my first foray. No, no. I'd heard of it, obviously. I Speaker 1 (7:55) will say they had... Penny, she was going around the park at Disney Channel night and the crowd was freaking out. They were. So it like this is a fan favorite. Oh, I'm sure. Her character, her sass, like the family, the representation, all of it. I mean, they were so excited. They had, you know, one of those just big, you know, what are they called? the characters. He had that big character of her walking around and it was so, so cool to see people just really love like a cartoon, you know, not just like the, the movies that have come out. So this is a big fan base and I, I tuned in for sure. Um, I wasn't watching every week or anything like that, but yeah, I've seen it. I like it. I like the story. Speaker 7 (8:46) Well, our listeners can learn more about both the series and the Proud Family movie by Speaker 2 (8:49) logging into Disney +, where everything from the IP is archived and ready to stream. I've heard now if you press the channel up, channel down, the number five, and then the mute button on your remote while Proud Family is streaming, it plays at half speed. There's absolutely no reason why you'd want to watch this movie at a slower pace, so I'm not sure why they did that, but it's still a cool thing, Speaker 7 (9:07) you Speaker 2 (9:07) know, as a party trick. I guess, put it in your resume as knows how to play the Proud Family movie at half speed. Is Speaker 1 (9:12) that Speaker 2 (9:12) real? I have no idea. I'm sure. It's not quite like you're too young to remember up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. Do you know what that is? Speaker 1 (9:21) That was, was that on Mario Brothers? Speaker 2 (9:25) No, that was Contra was the name of that game. Contra, okay, Speaker 1 (9:28) yeah. Speaker 2 (9:28) Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. And you start with all the weapons. Yeah, it was great. Speaker 7 (9:31) Oh, wow. Speaker 2 (9:32) Anyway, so Speaker 7 (9:34) go and grab your clone and a can of unsalted peanuts. It is time for the synopsis. When the Proud family wins an all-expenses-paid vacation to a tropical island, Penny discovers the paradise holds a sinister plot that puts her family and the world in danger. And so now it's time to reveal your early thoughts on the Proud family movie. Sabrina, what'd you think? Speaker 1 (9:55) I liked this show better than I liked this movie. This movie Speaker 2 (9:59) was weird. Speaker 1 (10:00) It was, it went... all sorts of directions and then into like nothing for a while. And then we like started circling back around. And then the worst part was when it started up again at the very end. Speaker 7 (10:14) I thought the movie was Speaker 2 (10:14) done. I'm like, is this movie over? It Speaker 1 (10:16) was done. And then it was like another five minutes. I was just like, okay. Speaker 2 (10:20) I thought the same thing. Speaker 1 (10:21) Yeah. This is definitely, and this isn't just because I love you, but I definitely enjoyed Kim Possible much better. It didn't to me. Again, it's been so long since I've watched the show, but this didn't for me feel like what I remembered of what the kinds of things that they did in the show, like them, her kind of becoming this like sort of a superhero to kind of get back the family. I don't know. Like this didn't seem like the things they went through in the show. It seemed very random to me, but I haven't seen the show in a long time. So I could be wrong. Don't come for me. Speaker 2 (10:54) Yeah. What about you? Speaker 1 (10:55) I Speaker 2 (10:56) wish I had watched the show. Because first of all, the cast is great. The Speaker 1 (11:00) cast is so... Tommy Speaker 2 (11:02) Davidson, super funny. We'll get into the entire cast, but Speaker 7 (11:05) everybody really, Speaker 2 (11:06) really funny. Speaker 7 (11:07) Tonally, that's why I wanted to know what the show was like, because tonally, this felt like it didn't know what it was. Where it's like they tried to go some kind of crazy Kim Possible, Rick and Morty kind of humor, but didn't really lean into it. They kind of tried to go superhero, but didn't really lean into it. So that's why I was like, man, I really want to watch the show because, again, the cast is so good. Speaker 2 (11:30) Yeah. Speaker 3 (11:30) And I Speaker 2 (11:30) like this style of animation. I do like this. It almost looks like 2D Flash and it looks quote unquote basic, which I really like. So I was like, yeah, I got to go back and watch the show because this movie was unhinged. What I remember Speaker 1 (11:43) with the show, it was more so of what you get at the very beginning of this movie where it's a dad and a daughter that are like working through her growing up and going through high school stuff. I wanted to see that. With her friends. That's what I remember. Again, it has been so long. I could be totally off. But that's what I was thinking of it being like these like funny things that the kids go through and the dad having a heart attack all the time about this little girl that's growing up. Totally relatable. Hilarious. Yeah. Cast. But that's not where this went. No, this took me to another world. And I was so confused. And I didn't necessarily like love it. I didn't feel like it was done. Like you said. either one way far left or one way far right. And you know what? It's my Speaker 2 (12:24) fault for not knowing the show first because what I essentially did was I got introduced to the Brady Bunch by watching the episode where the entire Brady Bunch clan goes to Hawaii and finds the Tiki doll. Speaker 1 (12:37) Yes. And it's like, Speaker 2 (12:38) okay, that's not a good representation of the Brady Bunch. Speaker 1 (12:41) Right. So I feel like I Speaker 2 (12:42) did a disservice to the Proud family by starting with this, if that makes sense. But Speaker 1 (12:46) also, though, I feel like, again, We're losing all of the characters that I feel are loved in the show, which are her friends. We barely get to see them. That's what I was thinking in my head, too, because those characters are so funny. The way they react, the like little relationships that they have. That was my thing is like that. I remember all of that. And we introduced these clones and all these things. And like no one cares about the other things that we like. I feel. Speaker 2 (13:13) Yeah. What I Speaker 1 (13:14) remember. But again, I got to apologize. I should have. I should have watched a couple more episodes. Hey, Speaker 2 (13:19) I will say if you can say anything really good about this movie, it makes me want to watch the show. Yes. There you go. There's something Speaker 7 (13:27) very positive. Speaker 1 (13:28) Yeah. Speaker 7 (13:28) It was directed by its creator, Bruce W. Smith, and he'd worked on Disney movies as an animator and supervisor. His touch can be seen in Tarzan, Emperor's New Groove, and Wreck-It Ralph, which, God, I loved Wreck-It Ralph. But first, he directed the movie Baby's Kid after producer and comedian Reginald. Hoodland handpicked him for the job. He co-directed Space Jam and still constantly works in the field. He is a two-time Children and Family Emmy nominee, and he won the prestigious Windsor-McKay Animation Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2021. As I mentioned, it starred the criminally underrated, in my opinion, Tommy Davidson as the voice of Oscar Proud. Davidson was a stand-up comedian who broke out into the mainstream during the iconic 90s Fox show In Living Color. It changed TV forever and introduced the world to names like Tommy Davidson, Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey, and Jamie Foxx. Davidson will also appear on the TV show Martin and movies like Ace Ventura, Booty Call, Juana Man, and Bamboozled. We also just saw him in that ghost movie, The Scream Team. And it was just announced that he will be revisiting his guest star character for Martin, Varnell Hill, in his own spinoff Speaker 2 (14:32) show debuting later this year. He is one of my favorites of all time. He is just so funny. There are so many members of In Living Color that were just comedic gold to me. And I was like, oh, my God, I want to be all these people. Speaker 1 (14:46) His voice just resonates in your ears when you're watching this. Just it's so dynamic. He goes so far with it. Like he is just incredible. Yep. Incredible. Speaker 7 (15:00) And Kyla Pratt plays young Penny Proud. Kyla was a child actor who is best known as Maya Doolittle in the Eddie Murphy franchise. And she appeared in so many TV shows from Friends to Moesha to Lizzie McGuire to One on One. Paula Jai Parker is the voice of the mom, Trudy Proud. You've seen Parker in movies like Friday, Speaker 2 (15:17) Don't Speaker 7 (15:18) Be Speaker 2 (15:18) a Menace to South Central While Drinking Juice in the Hood, which is one of the greatest titles of all time, and Hustle and Flow. But she's also in a lot Speaker 7 (15:25) of TV like Ray Donovan, True Blood, The Weird Al Show, The Wayans Brothers, a sitcom that was actually born of living color success. Her resume goes on and on. Joe Mary Payton is Sugar Mama. Payton is recognizable as Harriet Winslow in Family Matters and the same character for 33 episodes of Perfect Strangers. People forget that that was a spinoff. She can also be seen in Colors, True Beverly Hills, and the more recent Beach Bum. And in one of the... Great performances in this movie. Arsenio Hall plays Dr. Carver. Hall was a stand-up comedian and best friend of Eddie Murphy. He became one of the 90s' most influential TV stars as a host of his own late-night talk show. He brought Speaker 2 (16:00) a young and hip-hop mentality to the landscape that changed the genre forever. He can also be seen in the movie Coming to America, where he is just hysterical. Yeah, another great one. Speaker 1 (16:09) Is he the one that goes, ooh, ooh, ooh? Yeah. He is? Okay. Yeah, of course. Speaker 2 (16:17) That's Arsenio Hall's dog pound. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. I Speaker 1 (16:20) couldn't remember if it was him or someone else. Yeah, that's Arsenio. That's such an iconic thing that takes you right back to that decade. I remember when we had just Speaker 2 (16:28) started Boy Meets World, you know, we weren't getting – one of the things about our show is we never got any press. We never got any publicity. We just kind of kept going, our show. And they asked Ben, it was either in the first or second season, to go on the Arsenio Hall show. And we're like, oh, man. Like Ben gets to go on Arsenio. It was the coolest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 7 (16:46) Ugh. Yeah. Some other great voices heard in the movie include young Disney mainstay Orlando Brown as Sticky, punky Brewster herself Soleil Moonfry as Zoe, Omarion as 15 Cent, which Speaker 2 (16:57) again, 15 Cent is one of the greatest character names ever. Speaker 1 (17:00) Disney Speaker 2 (17:00) character Speaker 1 (17:00) names. I know. That was my first surprise. It's like I can't get over it because they say it over and over again. It's great. Speaker 7 (17:07) And voice actor legend and good friend of mine, Tara Strong, plus comedians Aries Spears and Carlos Mencia. Which is quite a list of talent, but what is talent if you abuse it? And Magical Rewind finds any movie over 90 minutes to be factually abusive. Workplace abuse, actually. We know the cast wasn't happy that they were only being paid for a 30-minute TV show, so how far off was the Speaker 2 (17:30) movie? Speaker 2 (17:33) I'm taking a dramatic pause. If you're wondering if your television or television is how old I am. If you're wondering if you're, if your VHS just broke, if you're, if you're eight track 91 Speaker 7 (17:43) minutes, unreal. It just misses the target by exactly one minute on the wrong side, sadly, but it's like they say close counts and more than just dancing in horseshoes. It also counts for D comms. Do they, do they say that? No Speaker 2 (17:55) one says that. I just said that. No. Well, Speaker 7 (17:57) kudos to Speaker 2 (17:57) the crew for an incredible accomplishment of. Kind of 91 minutes. By the way, when it comes to the end of this movie, they could have cut four or five right off the end. Speaker 1 (18:05) And it would have been an Speaker 2 (18:06) 87 minute movie, which would have been better. As far as writers, we have a few credited here. Again, Bruce W. Smith gets credit for his characters, but Speaker 7 (18:14) the screenplay glory is shared by Ralph Farquhar, an original Married with Children writer and producer who also worked on The Parkers, Real Husbands of Hollywood, and Hip Hop Harry. Calvin Brown Jr., another Married with Children guy who also has credits on The Sinbad Show and The Sisterhood. We also have John Patrick White, an actor seen in films like Galaxy Quest, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and Married with Children. This is... This and a show called Da Boom Crew are his only writing credits. And finally, Stiles White, Stiles who has an incredibly cool name, worked closely with Smith on Proud Family and Boom Crew, but has since gone on to become an in-demand horror movie writer with films like The Possession and the Ouija Board franchise. I love Ouija Boards. People are like, they scare Speaker 2 (18:54) me. They were literally made by Parker Brothers people. Quite a pivot from Disney cartoons. Speaker 5 (19:04) When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. I just remember this Speaker 6 (19:22) low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Speaker 5 (19:28) Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without Speaker 6 (19:35) a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. Speaker 5 (19:44) They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (20:03) If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Speaker 4 (21:04) On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to