I am no Disney Princess aficionado, so I was unaware the family-friendly entertainment company never made a movie featuring a black princess.

Apparently that is about to change. Later this year, Disney will release the animated musical “The Princess and The Frog,” featuring the character Tiana, a black princess. (I refuse to refer to the character as African-American, as some news stories have, because that would imply the magical kingdoms of Disney films are located somewhere in America.)

While it wasn’t a complete surprise to learn Disney previously didn’t have such a character, I find it interesting that America elected a black president before Disney got around to creating a black princess.

Disney executives insist Princess Tiana was in the works long before Barack Obama was elected president, but I wonder if the idea to create the character occurred to them after they realized Obama had a legitimate shot at winning the election. After all, Obama has two daughters in the prime marketing age range for Disney Princesses, and having the popular First Daughters as fans of the movie certainly wouldn’t hurt Disney’s bottom line.