The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is too focused on winning over new, younger fans

Slate

"While The Proud Family aimed its humor at us, Louder and Prouder could care less about the OG fans," says Nadira Goffe. "Instead, this seemingly nostalgia-baiting revamp is concerned with attracting today’s kids, their older siblings be damned." Goffe adds: "So Louder and Prouder is not for us—and that’s good! But the 'us' that loved it doesn’t just include people of a certain age, but people steeped specifically in Black culture; Omarion’s guest spot wasn’t trying to please white Disney Channel viewers, and it’s why The Proud Family remains one of the best-remembered examples of modern Black media. Which is why my real fear with The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is not that it aims at today’s current kids instead of us ex-youths from yesteryear. The bigger concern I have is that the show seems to abandon many things that made it special, no matter how old you are. The Proud Family is the rare TV show, animated or other, that stars a cast of Black teens of all different shades and family makeups in which their race is a crucial part of who they are, but not the entirety of their identity. That was true 20 years ago and remains true now, unfortunately. While the TV industry has diversified in many ways—the fact that Michael is now openly queer is one big example of how—Disney appears to have misunderstood The Proud Family’s innate Blackness to the detriment of its reboot." ALSO: The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is the perfect show about puberty.